Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elucidation of Danzhixiaoyao Wan and Its Constituent Herbs on Antioxidant Activity and Inhibition of Nitric Oxide Production

Danzhixiaoyao Wan (DW) is a common 10 herbs formulation in China for regulating several clinical conditions affecting women. This research tried to explain one of DW's functions, purging heat, using in vitro pharmacological analyses. The whole formulation and each single herb of DW were compared based on antioxidant activity with the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay, and for their inhibitory effect (IE) on nitric oxide (NO) production by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated RAW 264.7 macrophages with the Griess assay. The results showed that DW as a whole formulation had both antioxidant activity and an IE on NO production, while the individual herb component of DW varied in their ORAC values and inhibition of NO production. The ORAC value of the whole DW was 450 μmol TE g−1. The order of antioxidant (ORAC) activity of the single herbs was: Mentha haplocalyx (1352 μmol TE g−1) > Glycyrrhiza uralensis (1184 μmol TE g−1) > Gardenia jasminoides (1129 μmol TE g−1) > Paeonia suffruticosa (465 μmol TE g−1), with the contributions being additive rather than synergistic. The production of nitrite by stimulated RAW 264.7 murine macrophages (unstimulated: 0.5 ± 0.1 μM versus LPS: 38.9 ± 2.3 μM) was significantly inhibited (P < 0.05) by M. haplocalyx, G. jasminoides, Bupleurum chinense and Paeonia lactiflora. DW as a whole had an IE on NO production, but this was not significant. The single herb M. haplocalyx had the highest ORAC value and the highest IE on NO production, followed by G. jasminoides. Both of these herbs have the ‘purging heat’ property in the theory of traditional Chinese medicine and this property of the samples may be correlated with the antioxidant activity and IE on NO production.
Antioxidant assays – consistent findings from FRAP and ORAC reveal a negative impact of organic cultivation on antioxidant potential in spinach but not watercress or rocket leaves

Watercress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum), wild rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia), and spinach (Spinacia oleracea) are commercial crops reported to have high concentrations of antioxidants, possibly contributing to disease prevention following human consumption. Following analysis of supermarket-purchased salad leaves, we report the antioxidant content potential of these species using two comparable techniques assessing the consistency between the assays – by the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay and the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay. The leaves were harvested from both conventionally and organically managed crops, to investigate whether organic agriculture results in improved crop quality. Watercress had the highest FRAP and ability to scavenge free radicals, followed by spinach and rocket. For watercress and rocket, there was no significant effect of organic agriculture on FRAP and ORAC, but for spinach, the antioxidant potential was reduced and this was significant at the 5% level of probability for FRAP but not ORAC, although the trend was clear in both tests. We conclude that there is variation in salad crop antioxidant potential and that FRAP and ORAC are useful techniques for measuring antioxidants in these salad crops with similar ranking for each salad crop studied.
Brownian excursion area, Wright’s constants in graph enumeration, and other Brownian areas

This survey is a collection of various results and formulas by different authors on the areas (integrals) of five related processes, viz. Brownian motion, bridge, excursion, meander and double meander; for the Brownian motion and bridge, which take both positive and negative values, we consider both the integral of the absolute value and the integral of the positive (or negative) part. This gives us seven related positive random variables, for which we study, in particular, formulas for moments and Laplace transforms; we also give (in many cases) series representations and asymptotics for density functions and distribution functions. We further study Wright's constants arising in the asymptotic enumeration of connected graphs; these are known to be closely connected to the moments of the Brownian excursion area. The main purpose is to compare the results for these seven Brownian areas by stating the results in parallel forms; thus emphasizing both the similarities and the differences. A recurring theme is the Airy function which appears in slightly different ways in formulas for all seven random variables. We further want to give explicit relations between the many different similar notations and definitions that have been used by various authors. There are also some new results, mainly to fill in gaps left in the literature. Some short proofs are given, but most proofs are omitted and the reader is instead referred to the original sources.
Second language prosody and its development: connection between different aspects

ABSTRACT This study focuses on the development of L2 prosody and, in particular, whether different aspects can affect each other. Finnish-speaking learners of Swedish took part in a pronunciation and oral skills course and were recorded for various speaking tasks before and after the experimental intervention. Read-aloud declarative sentences (statements) from nine learners were acoustically analysed for several tonal and temporal aspects, focusing on the marking of primary stress. The results reveal that the learning of Swedish tonal word accent 2 (H*LH) facilitates other tonal developments towards native-like utterance intonation. A link between tonal and temporal developments in the marking of primary stress was, however, not found, but the duration measurements suggest that articulation rate and tonal developments may be connected. The study’s implications for teaching and future research regarding any L2 – not only Swedish – include that aspects of learning L2 prosody should not be treated as separate, and that more emphasis should be placed on the possible connections between the learning of different aspects.
A tale of three sites: resource and knowledge sharing amongst computer science educators

Computer science educators, especially those in schools, often work in small departments which allow little support or sharing. This problem can be alleviated via virtual online communities that allow educators to support each other and share knowledge and teaching materials. Virtual communities experience varying levels of success or failure, and it is often not easy to determine the causes for these differences. Factors include social and technical aspects, and it is typically not trivial to attribute community behaviour clearly to one or the other. In this paper we describe the "ColourRoom" software, a web-based platform to support virtual communities of educators. This software has been deployed to three distinct communities -- educators using BlueJ, educators using Greenfoot, and UK computer science school teachers (regardless of software) -- which affords a rare opportunity to analyse the usage of the same software in different communities, providing insights into both the communities and the design of software to support them.
Cultural differences in subjective well-being: How and why

We review cultural differences in subjective well-being (SWB). Cultures can differ in the (i) structure of SWB (i.e., the interrelationships among positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction); (ii) mean levels of SWB; and (iii) the correlates of SWB. Some studies suggest that East-West differences in SWB are mediated by cultural differences in values, self-construals, relational beliefs, and dialectical beliefs. However, more empirical tests of mediation are needed. Finally, we discuss remaining challenges in culture and SWB research. These include assessment of measurement equivalence, establishing mediated moderation of cultural constructs, expansion of research beyond the East-West axis, and operationalizing culture beyond the self-endorsement of values and beliefs.
First-Encounter Talks between Younger and Older Adults in Taiwan: A Conversation Analysis Approach

Outside of Western contexts, natural-conversation-based research on intergenerational communication is relatively rare. To help redress this imbalance, this paper explores the conversational styles of first-encounter talks between five pairs of college students and older adults in Taiwan, and infers the interactional norms that underlie them. It is found that younger Taiwanese adults tend to exhibit great formality in their conversational styles, manifested as frequent appeals to older people’s positive face, and a preference for quick question-asking especially at the opening of the talks. Older adults, in contrast, exhibited lower levels of commitment to eliciting information from their interlocutors and were more likely to interrupt them. Younger adults appeared uneasy when hearing older adults’ painful self-disclosures, as reflected in the former’s minimal responses or quick shifts to other topics. The conversational styles pinpointed by this research are discussed in terms of how the observed intergenerational communication could be problematic.
Masking Soft Errors with Static Bitwise Analysis

Due to continuous improvements in the VLSI technologies, the dependability of computing, caused by soft errors, has become increasingly a design challenge. Current protection techniques usually incur significant economic costs, performance degradation or resource consumption. This paper introduces a lightweight software approach for mitigating soft errors. By exploiting the facts that many data values have narrow width or constant bits, indicating that a large fraction of binary bits are unused or constant, we can predict these data values before program execution. First of all, invariants concerning bit-level data widths and values are identified by performing two bitwise data-flow analyses. Based on the bitwise analysis results, the masking operations are inserted to clear the possible errors in the known-value bits for reducing the window of vulnerability. Then the program reliability is improved with minimum penalty. To improve the effectiveness, the covered mask analysis can remove the non-vital masking operations without affecting the dependability. We have implemented our approach in the LLVM compiler. The fault injection experimental results for the MiBench benchmarks indicate that our approach improves the reliability of programs by 8.03% while incurring only 1.61% performance overhead.
Putting the System Into Performance Management Systems: A Review and Agenda for Performance Management Research

It has been 13 years since the last comprehensive review of the performance management (PM) literature, and a lot has changed in both research and practice in that time. The current review updates (identifying new research directions post 2004) and extends this previous work by creating a systems-based taxonomy and conceptual model of PM. We then use this model to interpret and integrate the extensive work in this area and to identify fruitful and systems-based directions for future PM work. As input to our conclusions, we reviewed the last 36-plus years of PM research (1980–2017) and conducted a comprehensive coding of all empirical PM articles. We offer several specific directions for future PM research, with the ultimate goal of improving PM in practice.
Mesh Inguinal Hernia Repair and Appendectomy in the Treatment of Amyand's Hernia with Non-Inflamed Appendices

Amyand's hernia is defined as protrusion of the vermiform appendix in an inguinal hernia sac. It is a rare entity with variable clinical presentation from normal vermiform appendix to abscess formation due to perforation of acute appendicitis. Although surgical treatment includes appendectomy and hernia repair, appendectomy in the absence of an inflamed appendix and use of a mesh in cases of appendectomy remain to be controversial. The aim of this study was to review the experience of mesh inguinal hernia repair plus appendectomy performed for Amyand's hernia with noninflamed appendices. There were five male patients with a mean age of 42.4 ± 16.1 years in this retrospective study in which Amyand's hernia was treated with mesh inguinal hernia repair plus appendectomy for noninflamed appendices. Patients with acute appendicitis and perforated vermiform appendix were excluded. There were four right sided and one bilateral inguinal hernia. Postoperative courses were uneventful. During the follow-up period (14.0 ± 7.7 months), there was no inguinal hernia recurrence. Mesh inguinal hernia repair with appendectomy can be performed for Amyand's hernia in the absence of acute appendicitis. However, presence of fibrous connections between the vermiform appendix and the surrounding hernia sac may be regarded as a parameter to perform appendectomy.
Patterns of Treatment Interruption among Patients with Multidrug-Resistant TB (MDR TB) and Association with Interim and Final Treatment Outcomes

Background The reasons that patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) miss treatment are multi-factorial and complex. Identifying patterns of treatment interruption that predict poor outcomes can be used to target program activities aiming to improve treatment adherence. Objective To characterize patterns of treatment interruption among MDR TB patients and determine the association between patterns and treatment outcomes. Methods Retrospective analysis of MDR TB patients. A treatment interruption was defined as any time that a patient missed a prescribed dose of treatment for at least 1 day but for a period of less than 2 consecutive months. Patients were characterized by the number, length and variability of interruptions, variability of time between interruptions, and percent of missed doses. Final treatment outcome was dichotomized as a successful (cured or completed) or poor outcome (defaulted, failed, or died). Risk ratios were calculated to determine the association between characteristics of treatment interruption and treatment outcomes. All analyses were conducted in 6 month treatment intervals. Results Only 7.0% of 583 patients completed treatment without interruption. Of the remaining 542 patients, the median time to the first interruption was 2 ½ months (70 days). In multivariate analysis, patients who had longer interruptions with sporadic variability during the 6–12 month or the 12–18 month treatment period had a significantly increased risk for poor outcomes compared to patients who had short, regular interruptions (RRadj 4.37, 95% CI 1.2–15.8; = 0.03 and RRadj 3.38, 95% CI 1.6–7.1; p = 0.001, respectively). In addition, missing 10% or more of the prescribed doses during any 6 month period in the initial 18 months of therapy significantly increased the risk for poor outcomes (RRadj range 1.55–2.35; p-value range 0.01–0.005). Conclusion Patients that miss more consecutive days of treatment with sporadic interruption patterns or a greater proportion of treatment are at an increased risk for poor treatment outcomes.
LAP2α and BAF transiently localize to telomeres and specific regions on chromatin during nuclear assembly

Lamina-associated polypeptide (LAP) 2α is a LEM (lamina-associated polypeptide emerin MAN1) family protein associated with nucleoplasmic A-type lamins and chromatin. Using live cell imaging and fluorescence microscopy we demonstrate that LAP2α was mostly cytoplasmic in metaphase and associated with telomeres in anaphase. Telomeric LAP2α clusters grew in size, formed `core' structures on chromatin adjacent to the spindle in telophase, and translocated to the nucleoplasm in G1 phase. A subfraction of lamin C and emerin followed LAP2α to the core region early on, whereas LAP2β, lamin B receptor and lamin B initially bound to more peripheral regions of chromatin, before they spread to core structures with different kinetics. Furthermore, the DNA-crosslinking protein barrier-to-autointegration factor (BAF) bound to LAP2α in vitro and in mitotic extracts, and subfractions of BAF relocalized to core structures with LAP2α. We propose that LAP2α and a subfraction of BAF form defined complexes in chromatin core regions and may be involved in chromatin reorganization during early stages of nuclear assembly.
Grouping of Spindle Activity during Slow Oscillations in Human Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep

Based on findings primarily in cats, the grouping of spindle activity and fast brain oscillations by slow oscillations during slow-wave sleep (SWS) has been proposed to represent an essential feature in the processing of memories during sleep. We examined whether a comparable grouping of spindle and fast activity coinciding with slow oscillations can be found in human SWS. For negative and positive half-waves of slow oscillations (dominant frequency, 0.7–0.8 Hz) identified during SWS in humans (n = 13), wave-triggered averages of root mean square (rms) activity in the theta (4–8 Hz), alpha (8–12 Hz), spindle (12–15 Hz), and beta (15–25 Hz) range were formed. Slow positive half-waves were linked to a pronounced and widespread increase in rms spindle activity, averaging 0.63 ± 0.065 μV (23.4%; p < 0.001, with reference to baseline) at the midline central electrode (Cz). In contrast, spindle activity was suppressed during slow negative half-waves, on average by −0.65 ± 0.06 μV at Cz (−22%;p < 0.001). An increase in spindle activity 400–500 msec after negative half-waves was more than twofold the increase during slow positive half-waves (p< 0.001). A similar although less pronounced dynamic was observed for beta activity, but not for alpha and theta frequencies. Discrete spindles identified during stages 2 and 3 of non-rapid eye movement (REM) sleep coincided with a discrete slow positive half-wave-like potential preceded by a pronounced negative half-wave (p < 0.01). These results provide the first evidence in humans of grouping of spindle and beta activity during slow oscillations. They support the concept that phases of cortical depolarization during slow oscillations, reflected by surface-positive (depth-negative) field potentials, drive the thalamocortical spindle activity. The drive is particularly strong during cortical depolarization, expressed as surface-positive field potentials.
Integrasi Pendidikan Islam (Nilai-Nilai Islami dalam Pembelajaran)

The integration of education and Islamic values in teaching and learning must be conducted by not making dichotomy of knowledge. The integration of Islamic values is conducted in term: first, the wholeness of integration in which Islamic value is integrated in all subject matters. Second , the variety of model, method, and approach in integrating Islamic values which is applied by the teachers in the teaching and learning process. Third , the integration of Islamic values at school and at students’ home in which there is a coordination between school and parents to implement the teaching of Islamic values.
Improved algorithms for the data placement problem

We study the data placement problem [1, 3], where the goal is to place certain data objects (with possible replication) in fixed capacity caches in a network to optimize latency of access. The locations of the caches are given and each cache has capacities both on the number of objects it can store and the number of users it can serve. Each user has a demand for a specific object.The end objective is to optimize the average user latency of accessing the objects. We present a constant approximation, while blowing up the cache capacities by a constant factor. This improves the previous results, which either ignore the bound on the number of users [1], or which need to blow up the capacities by a logarithmic factor [3]. Our solution technique involves writing an integer program for this problem and rounding its linear relaxation.We note that our result is the best possible that can be obtained by LP rounding. The problem is MAX-SNP hard as shown in [1], and the linear program has unbounded integrality gap unless we relax the capacity constraints [5]. Our basic technique is to separate the rounding into two stages:Opening Objects: In this stage, we consider each object separately, and open copies in the network. We ignore the interaction of this object with other objects due to the cache capacity constraints. We use the capacitated facility location rounding from [5]. Packing Objects: In this stage, we pack the objects into the cache so that cache capacity constraints are satisfied. We use the GAP rounding from [4].
Ubiquitous Access to Digital Cultural Heritage

The digitization initiatives in the past decades have led to a tremendous increase in digitized objects in the cultural heritage domain. Although digitally available, these objects are often not easily accessible for interested users because of the distributed allocation of the content in different repositories and the variety in data structure and standards. When users search for cultural content, they first need to identify the specific repository and then need to know how to search within this platform (e.g., usage of specific vocabulary). The goal of the EEXCESS project is to design and implement an infrastructure that enables ubiquitous access to digital cultural heritage content. Cultural content should be made available in the channels that users habitually visit and be tailored to their current context without the need to manually search multiple portals or content repositories. To realize this goal, open-source software components and services have been developed that can either be used as an integrated infrastructure or as modular components suitable to be integrated in other products and services. The EEXCESS modules and components comprise (i) Web-based context detection, (ii) information retrieval-based, federated content aggregation, (iii) metadata definition and mapping, and (iv) a component responsible for privacy preservation. Various applications have been realized based on these components that bring cultural content to the user in content consumption and content creation scenarios. For example, content consumption is realized by a browser extension generating automatic search queries from the current page context and the focus paragraph and presenting related results aggregated from different data providers. A Google Docs add-on allows retrieval of relevant content aggregated from multiple data providers while collaboratively writing a document. These relevant resources then can be included in the current document either as citation, an image, or a link (with preview) without having to leave disrupt the current writing task for an explicit search in various content providers’ portals.
Lucerne transient streak virus; a Recently Detected Virus Infecting Alfafa (Medicago sativa) in Central Saudi Arabia

A survey was conducted to determine the status of Lucerne transient streak virus (LTSV) in three high-yielding alfalfa regions in central Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Qassim, and Hail) during 2014. Three hundred and eight symptomatic alfalfa, and seven Sonchus oleraceus samples were collected. DAS-ELISA indicated that 59 of these samples were positive to LTSV. Two isolates of LTSV from each region were selected for molecular studies. RT-PCR confirmed the presence of LTSV in the selected samples using a specific primer pair. Percentage identity and homology tree comparisons revealed that all Saudi isolates were more closely related to each other but also closely related to the Canadian isolate-JQ782213 (97.1–97.6%) and the New Zealand isolate-U31286 (95.8–97.1%). Comparing Saudi isolates of LTSV with ten other sobemoviruses based on the coat protein gene sequences confirmed the distant relationship between them. Eleven out of fourteen plant species used in host range study were positive to LTSV. This is the first time to document that Trifolium alexandrinum, Nicotiana occidentalis, Chenopodium glaucum, and Lathyrus sativus are new host plant species for LTSV and that N. occidentalis being a good propagative host for it.