Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hypoxia activates matrix metalloproteinase expression and the VEGF system in monkey choroid-retinal endothelial cells: Involvement of cytosolic phospholipase A2 activity.

PURPOSE To determine whether the gene expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) as well as that of the pro-angiogenic cytokine vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors change in response to hypoxic exposure in a primate choroid-retinal endothelial cell line, and furthermore, whether cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) plays a role in this process. METHODS Rhesus macaque choroid-retinal endothelial (RF/6A) cells were incubated under hypoxic conditions for 1, 2, 4, or 8 h prior to RNA extraction. In some experiments cells were pretreated with the cPLA2 inhibitor AACOCF3 (10 microM) for 30 min prior to hypoxia. Changes in gene expression were determined by RT-PCR and quantified by real-time PCR for urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA), collagenase-1 (MMP-1), membrane type-1 metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP), gelatinases A and B (MMP-2, MMP-9), tissue inhibitor-2 (TIMP-2), VEGF and its receptors, Flt-1 (VEGFR-1), KDR (VEGFR-2), and neuropilin-1 (NP-1). MMP-2 secreted by the cells was evaluated by zymography. VEGF release was measured by ELISA. In tube-formation studies, endothelial cells (EC) were seeded into collagen gel, exposed to hypoxia for 4 h, then incubated under normoxic conditions for 72 h. RESULTS Hypoxia triggered a three fold increase in the gene expression of MT1-MMP, MMP-2, and TIMP-2, and a ten fold increase in MMP-2 levels. Moreover it also induced tube formation in EC. Expression of uPA, MMP-1, and MMP-9 mRNA was not detected. Pretreatment with AACOCF3 abolished hypoxia-induced tube formation and MT1-MMP, MMP-2, and TIMP-2 transcription. Furthermore, hypoxia produced a significant, sustained increase in the gene expression and release of VEGF-165, the only VEGF-A isoform detected in these cells. AACOCF3 reduced the hypoxia-induced VEGF release at 8 h of hypoxia. VEGF receptors KDR and NP-1 were constitutively expressed in EC and up-regulated under hypoxic conditions. CONCLUSIONS In monkey choroid-retinal EC, hypoxia selectively induces MMP-2 activity. This induction is preceded by MT1-MMP, MMP-2, and TIMP-2 mRNA expression, as well as that of the VEGF-165 isoform and its receptors KDR and NP1. These increases possibly result from hypoxia-induced activation of cPLA2 and subsequent release of arachidonic acid and its conversion to prostaglandins. These molecular changes in EC could, in part, contribute to the angiogenic response that occurs in the development of ischemic retinopathies and choroidal neovascularization.
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF ELECTRONIC LEARNING

Rapid development of computer networks and information technologies, especially the Internet and World Wide Web causes expansion of electronic learning (elearning) and distance education. Education programs delivery via virtual learning environments is a convenient form of education for learners who want to learn from home whenever. In today business and economic environment, e-learning must be a part of strategy in many institutions trying to make success in basic education, higher education, continuing education, and training. The paper is dedicated to opportunities that the new form of education makes. Moreover, challenges and shortcomings of e-learning should be considered by education institutions, business organizations and learners.
Contextual influences on the relations between physical and relational aggression and peer victimization

Previous studies have demonstrated that several contextual factors influence the relationship between aggression and peer victimization in early adolescence, including gender of the same-sex peer group and gender composition of the school. The current study replicated and expanded on this research by examining the moderating influences of gender of the same-sex peer group, same-sex peer group norms, and classroom gender composition in a sample of early adolescents from Barranquilla, Colombia. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that both relational and physical aggression were positive predictors of peer victimization. Relationally aggressive girls were at a lower risk for victimization while physically aggressive girls were at a higher risk. Relational aggression was a weaker predictor in classes with a larger proportion of girls. Additionally, relational aggression was a weaker predictor in same-sex peer groups with a greater prevalence of relational aggression. These findings provide further evidence of multiple forms of contextual influence on social behavior. Practical implications for these findings are also provided.
Acquisition of Verb Entailment from Text

The study addresses the problem of automatic acquisition of entailment relations between verbs. While this task has much in common with paraphrases acquisition which aims to discover semantic equivalence between verbs, the main challenge of entailment acquisition is to capture asymmetric, or directional, relations. Motivated by the intuition that it often under-lies the local structure of coherent text, we develop a method that discovers verb entailment using evidence about discourse relations between clauses available in a parsed corpus. In comparison with earlier work, the proposed method covers a much wider range of verb entailment types and learns the mapping between verbs with highly varied argument structures.
Live virtual machine migration techniques: Survey and research challenges

Cloud is an emerging technology in the world of information technology and is built on the key concept of virtualization. Virtualization separates hardware from software and has benefits of server consolidation and live migration. Live migration is a useful tool for migrating OS instances across distant physical of data centers and clusters. It facilitates load balancing, fault management, low-level system maintenance and reduction in energy consumption. In this paper, we survey the major issues of virtual machine live migration. We discuss how the key performance metrics e.g downtime, total migration time and transferred data are affected when a live virtual machine is migrated over WAN, with heavy workload or when VMs are migrated together. We classify the techniques and compare the various techniques in a particular class.
From the Heisenberg Picture to Bohm: a New Perspective on Active Information and its relation to Shannon Information.

In this paper we discuss some of the background to the notion of active information introduced by Bohm and Hiley to account for quantum processes. To appreciate the full significance of this new notion, we show why it is essential to distinguish our approach from the approach that goes under the name 'Bohmian mechanics'. We then show for the first time how the quantum potential emerges from the Heisenberg picture thus providing a new perspective to the whole approach. This enables us to clarify the role of the energy associated with the quantum potential and the status of active information. We conclude with some remarks on the relation between active information and Shannon information.
Depressed and nondepressed college students' interpretations of and memory for feedback about self and others /

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CLINICAL OUTCOME OF NARROW DIAMETER IMPLANTS INSERTED INTO ALLOGRAFTS

Objective: Narrow diameter implants (NDI) (i.e. diameter <3.75 mm) are a potential solution for specific clinical situations, such as reduced interradicular bone, thin alveolar crest and replacement of teeth with small cervical diameter. NDI have been available in clinical practice since the 1990s, but only few studies have analyzed their clinical outcome and no study have investigated NDI inserted in fresh-frozen bone (FFB) grafts. Thus, a retrospective study on a series of NDI placed in homologue FFB was designed to evaluate their clinical outcome. Material and Methods: In the period between December 2003 and December 2006, 36 patients (22 females and 14 males, mean age 53 years) with FFB grafts were selected and 94 different NDI were inserted. The mean follow-up was 25 months. To evaluate the effect of several host-, surgery-, and implant-related factors, marginal bone loss (MBL) was considered an indicator of success rate (SCR). The Kaplan Meier algorithm and Cox regression were used. Results: Only 5 out of 94 implants were lost (i.e. survival rate - SVR 95.7%) and no differences were detected among the studied variables. On the contrary, the Cox regression showed that the graft site (i.e. maxilla) reduced MBL. Conclusions: NDI inserted in FFB have a high SVR and SCR similar to those reported in previous studies on regular and NDI inserted in non-grafted jaws. Homologue FFB is a valuable material in the insertion of NDI.
Parameters driving effectiveness of automated essay scoring with LSA

Automated essay scoring with latent semantic analysis (LSA) has recently been subject to increasing interest. Although previous authors have achieved grade ranges similar to those awarded by humans, it is still not clear which and how parameters improve or decrease the effectiveness of LSA. This pa-per presents an analysis of the effects of these parameters, such as text pre-processing, weighting, singular value dimensionality and type of similarity measure, and benchmarks this effectiveness by comparing machine-assigned with human-assigned scores in a real-world case. We show that each of the identified factors significantly influences the quality of automated essay scor-ing and that the factors are not independent of each other.
Rear Seat Occupant Protection in Frontal Crashes and Its Feasibility

As part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA's) Rear Seat Occupant Protection Research Program, the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and State Data System (SDS) for Florida, Pennsylvania and Maryland were utilized to estimate relative fatality rates and injury risk ratios between the front and rear seat passengers. In addition, a parametric study of rear-seat restraint parameters was performed to assess chest deflection and head excursion trends for different belt load limits, pretensioner location(s) and stroke, and impact speeds with the Hybrid III (HIII) 50th percentile male and 5th percentile female dummies. Simulation data were validated using 48 km/h frontal impact sled tests with a standard belt system in outboard rear seats of a mid-size passenger car buck. The real world data suggests that the fatality and serious injury risk in frontal crashes is higher for older occupants in rear seats than for those in front seats. In addition, the relative effectiveness (to mitigate serious injury and death) of rear seats with respect to front seats for restrained adult occupants in newer vehicle models is less than it is in older models, presumably due to the advances in restraint technology that have been incorporated into the front seat position. The simulations demonstrated that adult dummy injury measures in the rear seat can be reduced by incorporating restraint technology (load limiting and pretensioning) used in the front seat, even in the absence of an air bag and knee bolster for load sharing. A force-limiting belt with a pretensioner in the rear seat can maintain or reduce head excursion relative to a standard belt, while significantly reducing chest deformation and thoracic injury risk. In fact, 42 sets of restraint parameters were identified that reduced both head excursion and chest deflection of the 50th percentile male relative to the baseline belt.
Interactive visual object search through mutual information maximization

Searching for small objects (e.g., logos) in images is a critical yet challenging problem. It becomes more difficult when target objects differ significantly from the query object due to changes in scale, viewpoint or style, not to mention partial occlusion or cluttered backgrounds. With the goal to retrieve and accurately locate the small object in the images, we formulate the object search as the problem of finding subimages with the largest mutual information toward the query object. Each image is characterized by a collection of local features. Instead of only using the query object for matching, we propose a discriminative matching using both positive and negative queries to obtain the mutual information score. The user can verify the retrieved subimages and improve the search results incrementally. Our experiments on a challenging logo database of 10,000 images highlight the effectiveness of this approach.
Loss of Fhit Expression in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Its Potential Clinical Implication

Purpose: Abnormalities of FHIT, a candidate tumor suppressor gene, have frequently been found in multiple malignancies, including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). To define its role in HNSCC treated with surgery and postoperative radiotherapy (PORT), the Fhit protein expression status was investigated in 80 patients enrolled in a prospective Phase III clinical trial addressing the dose and fractionation regimen of PORT. Experimental Design: Immunohistochemical staining of HNSCC tissue sections for Fhit expression was performed. The Fhit expression status was correlated with the clinicopathological characteristics and clinical course. The median follow-up duration was 4.9 years. Results: Loss of Fhit expression was found in 52 of the 80 study patients (65%). There was not a significant association between Fhit expression and clinical characteristics. Patients whose tumor exhibited negative Fhit expression had a significantly worse 5-year overall survival duration [hazard ratio = 0.49; 95% confidence interval, 0.23–1.03; P = 0.05 (log-rank test)] than did those whose tumor exhibited positive Fhit expression. One third of the patients with a Fhit-negative tumor had distant metastasis during the follow-up period. Paradoxically, patients classified as high risk who had a Fhit-negative tumor experienced locoregional recurrence less often (18%) than did high-risk patients who had a Fhit-positive tumor (33%). Conclusions: Loss of Fhit expression is a poor prognostic indicator in patients with HNSCC. However, tumors lacking Fhit expression may be more sensitive to PORT and therefore more susceptible to locoregional control.
Multi-subregion based probabilistic approach toward pose-invariant face recognition

Current automatic facial recognition systems are not robust against changes in illumination, pose, facial expression and occlusion. In this paper, we propose an algorithm based on a probabilistic approach for face recognition to address the problem of pose change by a probabilistic approach that takes into account the pose difference between probe and gallery images. By using a large facial image database called CMU PIE database, which contains images of the same set of people taken from many different angles, we have developed a probabilistic model of how facial features change as the pose changes. This model enables us to make our face recognition system more robust to the change of poses in the probe image. The experimental results show that this approach achieves a better recognition rate than conventional face recognition methods over a much larger range of pose. For example, when the gallery contains only images of a frontal face and the probe image varies its pose orientation, the recognition rate remains within a less than 10% difference until the probe pose begins to differ more than 45 degrees, whereas the recognition rate of a PCA-based method begins to drop at a difference as small as 10 degrees, and a representative commercial system at 30 degrees.
Effects of Onion (Allium cepa L.) Extract Administration on Intestinal α-Glucosidases Activities and Spikes in Postprandial Blood Glucose Levels in SD Rats Model

Diets high in calories and sweetened foods with disaccharides frequently lead to exaggerated postprandial spikes in blood glucose. This state induces immediate oxidant stress and free radicals which trigger oxidative stress-linked diabetic complications. One of the therapeutic approaches for decreasing postprandial hyperglycemia is to retard absorption of glucose by the inhibition of carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes, α-amylase and α-glucosidases, in the digestive organs. Therefore, the inhibitory activity of Korean onion (Allium cepa L.) extract against rat intestinal α-glucosidases, such as sucrase, maltase, and porcine pancreatic α-amylase were investigated in vitro and in vivo. The content of quercetin in ethyl alcohol extract of onion skin (EOS) was 6.04 g/100 g dried weight of onion skin. The in vitro half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of EOS and quercetin, a major phenolic in onion, on rat intestinal sucrase were 0.40 and 0.11 mg/mL, respectively. The postprandial blood glucose lowering effects of EOS and quercetin were compared to a known type 2 diabetes drug (Acarbose), a strong α-glucosidase inhibitor in the Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat model. In rats fed on sucrose, EOS significantly reduced the blood glucose spike after sucrose loading. The area under the blood glucose-time curve (AUClast) in EOS-treated SD rats (0.5 g-EOS/kg) was significantly lower than in untreated SD rats (259.6 ± 5.1 vs. 283.1 ± 19.2 h·mg/dL). The AUClast in quercetin-treated SD rats (0.5 g-quercetin/kg) was similar to in EOS-treated group (256.1 ± 3.2 vs. 259.6 ± 5.1 h·mg/dL). Results from this study indicates that although quercetin does have blood glucose lowering potential via α-glucosidase inhibition, there are other bioactive compounds present in onion skin. Furthermore, the effects of two weeks administration of EOS in a high carbohydrate-dietary mixture (Pico 5053) on sucrase and maltase activities in intestine were evaluated in SD rat model. Compared to the upper and middle parts of intestine, the activities of sucrase in the lower parts of intestine remained significantly higher after two weeks of EOS treatment. These results indicate that EOS may improve exaggerated postprandial spikes in blood glucose and glucose homeostasis since it inhibits intestinal sucrase and thus delays carbohydrate absorption, although clinical trials are needed.
Transplacental Transmission of a North American Isolate of Leishmania infantum in an Experimentally Infected Beagle

Leishmania infantum, an etiologic agent of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis, is widespread among foxhounds in the United States. Although sand flies are widely distributed throughout the United States, epidemiological data do not support a major role for sand flies in the transmission of L. infantum in foxhounds in this country. Congenital transmission of human visceral leishmaniasis is reported in humans and might also occur in dogs. We have previously isolated L. infantum from Virginia foxhounds and used this isolate (LIVT-1) to experimentally infect beagles. Four female beagles, chronically infected with LIVT-1, were bred to a male beagle chronically infected with L. infantum chagasi. One beagle was able to maintain her pregnancy, and 4 puppies were delivered by cesarean section. One puppy was malformed and autolytic at delivery, and tissues were not collected or analyzed. The remaining puppies were killed at the time of cesarean section, and selected tissues were collected for parasite culture and PCR. Promastigotes were not cultured from tissues in any of the puppies. Leishmania sp. DNA was detectable by PCR in liver, bone marrow, and heart from all 3 puppies and in the spleen, lymph node, kidney, and placenta in 2 puppies. Placental tissue from the dam was PCR negative. This is the first report of maternal transmission of a North American isolate of L. infantum from an experimentally infected dog.
Decision making for uncertain data in dynamic environment using hybrid method

Predicting plays a main role in making a good decision in a dynamic environment with real time data, such as weather predictions that normally are heterogeneous, various and vast. The use of heterogeneous of data available causes increasing uncertainty. Vast amount of data from a dynamic environment will be very uncertain and the prediction of future behavior of such a situation is very hard and if it is possible, the result will not be accurate and may lead to incorrect predictions, Therefore, for the problem statement we propose a new framework that is called hybrid method based on Fuzzy c-mean clustering and Type-2 fuzzy logic system with gradient descent algorithm for training data that would be applicable in a dynamic environment, the hybrid method is able to manage uncertain data such as outliers and noise to get more accurate results and applicable in dynamic environment as well. The results proved the hybrid method is usable and more accurate than the based method (Type-2 FLS).
Religious coping and perceived stress in emerging adults

perceived parental behaviors mental ABSTRACT The purposes of this study were to: (1) examine the use of religious/spiritual coping by emerging adults coping with perceived life stressors; (2) assess the relationship between positive and negative forms of religious coping, and overall religious/spiritual coping with perceived stress; and (3) identify the specific religious/spiritual coping behaviors used by emerging adults when in times of perceived stress. The study analyzed self-report data collected from 715 emerging adults from a diverse undergraduate public university in California. Frequency analysis indicated that emerging adults commonly use prayer for self and others, count their blessings, and try not to sin when under moments of stress. Additionally, many of the respondents reported frequently seeking G-d’s love and care, asking for forgiveness for sins, and meaning making as a means of coping with stress. Zero-order correlations revealed a positive and significant relationship between negative religious coping and perceived stress. Furthermore, when comparing differences between religious views (conflicted, secure, doubting, seeking, and not interested) t-test results found decreased use of religious coping, spiritual coping and positive religious coping for those who endorsed “conflicted” religious views. Conversely, those who indicated feeling “secure” reported higher use of religious coping, spiritual coping, and positive religious coping. Emerging adults who identified themselves as “doubting” were less likely to use of religious coping, spiritual coping, and positive religious coping and reported greater use of negative religious coping. “Seeking” emerging adults, identified using less spiritual coping. Finally, those who endorsed “not interested” reported less use of religious coping, spiritual coping, and positive and negative religious coping. Clinical implications for emerging adults and clinicians are discusse. bivariate the following questions: (a) Do emerging adults utilize religious and/or spiritual coping in their lives as a means of coping with life stressors? (b) What is the relationship between positive, negative, and overall religious and spiritual coping with perceived stress? and (c) What are the specific religious and spiritual coping behaviors most commonly used by emerging adults when in times of stress?