Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LGP2 Plays a Critical Role in Sensitizing mda-5 to Activation by Double-Stranded RNA

The DExD/H box RNA helicases retinoic acid-inducible gene-I (RIG-I) and melanoma differentiation associated gene-5 (mda-5) sense viral RNA in the cytoplasm of infected cells and activate signal transduction pathways that trigger the production of type I interferons (IFNs). Laboratory of genetics and physiology 2 (LGP2) is thought to influence IFN production by regulating the activity of RIG-I and mda-5, although its mechanism of action is not known and its function is controversial. Here we show that expression of LGP2 potentiates IFN induction by polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid [poly(I:C)], commonly used as a synthetic mimic of viral dsRNA, and that this is particularly significant at limited levels of the inducer. The observed enhancement is mediated through co-operation with mda-5, which depends upon LGP2 for maximal activation in response to poly(I:C). This co-operation is dependent upon dsRNA binding by LGP2, and the presence of helicase domain IV, both of which are required for LGP2 to interact with mda-5. In contrast, although RIG-I can also be activated by poly(I:C), LGP2 does not have the ability to enhance IFN induction by RIG-I, and instead acts as an inhibitor of RIG-I-dependent poly(I:C) signaling. Thus the level of LGP2 expression is a critical factor in determining the cellular sensitivity to induction by dsRNA, and this may be important for rapid activation of the IFN response at early times post-infection when the levels of inducer are low.
Utility of Radiographs in the Evaluation of Pediatric Upper Airway Obstruction

The evaluation of children with airway obstruction always involves a history and physical examination. The definitive diagnosis is most often made with microlaryngoscopy and bronchoscopy (MLB), and in cases of extrinsic compression, information is gained from magnetic resonance imaging. Although plain radiographs of the airway are often used as a primary diagnostic modality in children with airway obstruction, the accuracy of plain radiographs in predicting specific airway abnormalities has not previously been evaluated. This study was designed to correlate the findings of plain airway radiographs with the diagnosis made at the time of MLB. Medical records from 1991 to 1996 were reviewed to identify patients that had MLB and airway radiographs within 2 days of one another. One hundred forty-four cases were identified and divided into diagnostic categories. Statistical analysis showed a high sensitivity (>86%) for the accuracy of the radiologic diagnoses of exudative tracheitis, airway foreign body, and innominate artery compression. Laryngomalacia and tracheomalacia had a much lower sensitivity (5% and 62%, respectively). We believe that plain radiographic evaluation of the airway provides important information to the diagnostician. However, plain radiographs can be inaccurate and must be considered along with a history, physical examination, and clinical suspicion. Microlaryngoscopy and bronchoscopy remains the ultimate diagnostic test for airway disorders.
A low-power static dual edge-triggered flip-flop using an output-controlled discharge configuration

The performance of static CMOS circuits is superior in terms of power consumption and glitch reduction to dynamic circuits when the fan-in is small. We propose a new static dual edge-triggered flip-flop that incorporates no precharging and conditional discharging to reduce the switching activity at the internal node efficiently. Hence, the power dissipation is very much reduced. Based on simulation results derived from 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology, our proposed flip-flop consumes the least power regardless of the input data activity.
Divided Consciousness: Multiple Controls In Human Thought And Action

Divided Consciousness and the Concept of Dissociation Possession States, Fugues, and Multiple Personalities Hypnotic Age Regression Amnesia and Repression Dreams, Hallucinations, and Imagination Voluntary and Involuntary Control of Muscular Movement Automatic Writing and Divided Attention The Hypnotizable Person and the Hypnotic Experience Divided Consciousness in Hypnosis: The "Hidden Observer" How the Hypnotized Person Perceives and Interprets the Hidden Observer A Neodissociation Interpretation of Divided Consciousness Neodissociation in a Wider Context Appendix The Measurement of Hypnotic Responsiveness.
Caesalpinia decapetala Extracts as Inhibitors of Lipid Oxidation in Beef Patties

In this study we investigated the effects of Caesalpinia decapetala (CD) extracts on lipid oxidation in ground beef patties. Plant extracts and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) were individually added to patties at both 0.1% and 0.5% (w/w) concentrations. We assessed the antioxidant efficacy of CD by the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay and evaluated their potential as natural antioxidants for meat preservation by thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) values, hexanal content, fatty acid composition and color parameters. These were tested periodically during 11 days of refrigerated storage. TBARS levels were significantly lower (p ≤ 0.05) in the samples containing plant extracts or BHT than in the non-treated control. In addition, the beef patties formulated with the selected plant extracts showed significantly (p ≤ 0.05) better color stability than those without antioxidants. These results indicate that edible plant extracts are promising sources of natural antioxidants and can potentially be used as functional preservatives in meat products.
A survey of small-scale cattle farming systems in the North West Province of South Africa

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted among a purposive sample of 60 small-scale cattle farmers in the Mopeane Rustenburg district, all of whom owned five or more head of cattle. Results showed that small-scale cattle farming is a part-time activity for most farmers in this district, and a way of investing or saving money in a form that is easily converted to cash when needed. This activity also provides households with a source of fresh milk. Contrary to the situation in most other Southern African regions, social status and lobola (bridal dowry) did not constitute the most important reasons for farming with cattle. The poor economic return of these small-scale cattle farming activities and the potential environmental degradation associated with overstocking poses a serious risk to the long-term sustainability of such farming systems. South African Journal of Animal Science, Vol 31, Issue 3, Oct – Dec (2001): pp.200-204 Key Words Cattle, Sustainable, Farming systems
Computational Analysis Of Slotted Wing Tips At Low Reynolds Number

The aerodynamic characteristics of a simple rectangular wing of NACA0012 airfoil with slotted tips, which is mostly used in MAV's and UAV's at low Reynolds number has been analyzed using FLUENT. UAV's fly at low Re and have smaller dimensions, low AR, and fly in similar environmental conditions as compared to biological fliers of similar weight. In the present study wings with slotted tips are modeled and analyzed with and without slots at different angles of attack for Reynolds number regimes of 300000. It is observed that the drag coefficient has been decreased consistently with small increment in lift to drag ratio. The current analysis is done for 8,10,12,14 and 16 degree of angle of attack and results seems to be good at 8 degree angle of attack
How Do Prescription Opioid Users Differ From Users of Heroin or Other Drugs in Psychopathology: Results From the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions

Objectives:To study substance use and psychiatric disorders among prescription opioid users, heroin users, and nonopioid drug users in a national sample of adults. Methods:Analyses of data from the 2001 to 2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (N = 43,093). Results:Four groups were identified among 9140 illicit or nonprescribed drug users: heroin-other opioid users (1.0%; used heroin and other opioids), other opioid-only users (19.8%; used other opioids but never heroin), heroin-only users (0.5%; used heroin but never other opioids), and nonopioid drug users (78.7%; used drugs but never heroin or other opioids). After adjusting for variations in socioeconomic characteristics, history of substance abuse treatment, and familial substance abuse, heroin-other opioid users had greater odds of several substance use disorders (SUDs; cocaine, hallucinogen, sedative, amphetamine, and tranquilizer) when compared with the other groups; heroin-only users had reduced odds of sedative and tranquilizer use disorders when compared with other opioid-only users. Nonopioid drug users had reduced odds of all SUDs and other mental disorders (mood, anxiety, pathologic gambling, and personality) when compared with other opioid-only users. Past-year other opioid-only users also reported slightly lower scores on quality of life than past-year nonopioid drug users. Conclusions:All opioid users had higher rates of SUDs than nonopioid drug users, and these rates were particularly increased among heroin-other opioid users. The findings suggest the need to distinguish between these 4 groups in research and treatment as they may have different natural histories and treatment needs.
A New Generation of Very High Stability BVA Oscillators

A third generation of "Oscilloquartz" OCXO's using the technique of housing a BVA SC-cut crystal resonator and its associated oscillator components in double oven technology has been developed with the funding support of European Space Operations Centre (E.S.O.C). The main purpose is to provide a local oscillator for high performances ground clock [ref 1 ]. The main features targeted of that new "8607-C series" are to get significant improvements compared to the classical "state of the art" 8607-B design in a better short term stability @ 1 sec in Allan variance, a better-low phase noise and outstanding short term stability and a better-high isolation from "pressure and humidity" variations.
Understanding sex bias in autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have long been noted to affect many more males than females, and accordingly, sex-specific factors have been hypothesized to increase males’ risk for, or protect females from, ASDs. However, no such factor has been definitively implicated in ASD etiology that can account for its male-biased prevalence, nor is it known whether the major drivers of sex-differential liability act as male-specific risk factors or as female-specific protective factors. Bringing fresh evidence to this question, Robinson et al. (1) report in PNAS the strongest support to date for a female protective effect (FPE) against autistic behavior, as measured quantitatively in general population samples.
A LINEAR ALGORITHM FOR THE RANDOM GENERATION OF REGULAR LANGUAGES

We present a new algorithm for the random generation of regular languages. For generating a uniformly random word of length n in a given regular language, our algorithm has worst-case space bit-complexity O(n) and mean time bit-complexity O(n). The previously best algorithm, due to Denise and Zimmermann [3], has worst-case space bit-complexity O(n) and mean time bit-complexity O(n log(n)). The Denise et al. algorithm was obtained by performing a floating-point optimization on the general recursive method formalized by Nijenhuis and Wilf (and further developed by Flajolet, Zimmermann and Van Cutsem). Our algorithm combines the floating-point optimization with a new divide-and-conquer scheme.
HIV Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor Efavirenz Reduces Neural Stem Cell Proliferation In Vitro and In Vivo.

The prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) remains high despite combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). There is evidence that neural stem cells (NSCs) can migrate to sites of brain injury such as those caused by inflammation and oxidative stress, which are pathological features of HAND. Thus, reductions in NSCs may contribute to HAND pathogenesis. Since the HIV non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor efavirenz (EFV) has previously been associated with cognitive deficits and promotion of oxidative stress pathways, we examined its effect on NSCs in vitro as well as in C57BL/6J mice. Here we report that EFV induced a decrease in NSC proliferation in vitro as indicated by MTT assay, as well as BrdU and nestin immunocytochemistry. In addition, EFV decreased intracellular NSC adenosine triphosphate (ATP) stores and NSC mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). Further, we found that EFV promoted increased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and increased Bax expression in cultured NSCs. Moreover, EFV reduced the quantity of proliferating NSCs in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of C57BL/6J mice as suggested by BrdU, and increased apoptosis as measured by active caspase-3 immunohistochemistry. If these in vitro and in vivo models translate to the clinical syndrome, then a pharmacological or cell-based therapy aimed at opposing EFV-mediated reductions in NSC proliferation may be beneficial to prevent or treat HAND in patients receiving EFV.
Vitamin E reversed nicotine-induced toxic effects on bone biochemical markers in male rats

Introduction Vitamin E is beneficial in restoring bone histomorphometric parameters in nicotine-treated rats. This study determined the effectiveness of 3 forms of vitamin E in restoring bone metabolism in nicotine-treated rats. Material and methods Thirty-five male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 5 groups: (1) control (C), (2) nicotine cessation (NC), (3) α-tocopherol (ATF), (4) tocotrienol-enhanced fraction (TEF) and (5) γ-tocotrienol (GTT). Treatment was carried out for 4 months. The control group was administered normal saline and olive oil throughout the treatment period while treatment for groups 2-5 was performed in 2 phases. In the first phase, the groups received nicotine 7 mg/kg intraperitoneally for 2 months. The following 2 months, group 2 received normal saline and olive oil while groups 3-5 received ATF, TEF or GTT, 60 mg/kg orally. Pre-treatment and post-treatment serum was collected for bone biochemical marker measurement using the ELISA method. Results Nicotine increased serum bone-resorbing cytokines (interleukin-1 and interleukin-6) and the bone resorption marker pyridinoline (PYD) while reducing the bone formation marker osteocalcin after 2 months of nicotine treatment. The parameters failed to improve after nicotine was stopped for 2 months. Supplementation with the 3 forms of vitamin E improved the parameters, i.e. reduced the cytokines and pyridinoline as well as increased the osteocalcin. In addition, the TEF and GTT groups had a higher level of osteocalcin than the control group. Conclusions Nicotine impaired bone metabolism and cessation of nicotine treatment did not reverse the effects. Vitamin E, especially the tocotrienols, restored bone metabolism that was impaired due to nicotine.
Effects of alloying element and temperature on the stacking fault energies of dilute Ni-base superalloys

A systematic study of stacking fault energy (γSF) resulting from induced alias shear deformation has been performed by means of first-principles calculations for dilute Ni-base superalloys (Ni23X and Ni71X) for various alloying elements (X) as a function of temperature. Twenty-six alloying elements are considered, i.e., Al, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hf, Ir, Mn, Mo, Nb, Os, Pd, Pt, Re, Rh, Ru, Sc, Si, Ta, Tc, Ti, V, W, Y, Zn, and Zr. The temperature dependence of γSF is computed using the proposed quasistatic approach based on a predicted γSF–volume–temperature relationship. Besides γSF, equilibrium volume and the normalized stacking fault energy (ΓSF = γSF/Gb, with G the shear modulus and b the Burgers vector) are also studied as a function of temperature for the 26 alloying elements. The following conclusions are obtained: all alloying elements X studied herein decrease the γSF of fcc Ni, approximately the further the alloying element X is from Ni on the periodic table, the larger the decrease of γSF for the dilute Ni–X alloy, and roughly the γSF of Ni–X decreases with increasing equilibrium volume. In addition, the values of γSF for all Ni–X systems decrease with increasing temperature (except for Ni–Cr at higher Cr content), and the largest decrease is observed for pure Ni. Similar to the case of the shear modulus, the variation of γSF for Ni–X systems due to various alloying elements is traceable from the distribution of (magnetization) charge density: the spherical distribution of charge density around a Ni atom, especially a smaller sphere, results in a lower value of γSF due to the facility of redistribution of charges. Computed stacking fault energies and the related properties are in favorable accord with available experimental and theoretical data.
Process of burnout: structure, antecedents, and consequences

Prcess of bunout: strcture, antedents, nd conuences Salla Toppn-Tanner This thesis tries to answer some questions that still remain open or controversial in burnout research. These questions relate to the process of burnout and can also be related to its practical implications: What is the content and structure of burnout? How does burnout develop? Are there differences in the burnout process across occupations? What kind of negative consequences does burnout have on future work ability and health? Answers to these questions can help in solving several practical challenges: How to recognize burnout early enough? What are the relevant targets for preventing burnout? Should we strive to find universal theories on burnout and general guidelines for its prevention or do we need specific or tailored programs? And finally, what is the price for not investing in prevention of burnout in terms of poor health and disability?
Coded Distributed Computing for Inverse Problems

Computationally intensive distributed and parallel computing is often bottlenecked by a small set of slow workers known as stragglers. In this paper, we utilize the emerging idea of "coded computation" to design a novel error-correcting-code inspired technique for solving linear inverse problems under specific iterative methods in a parallelized implementation affected by stragglers. Example machine-learning applications include inverse problems such as personalized PageRank and sampling on graphs. We provably show that our coded-computation technique can reduce the mean-squared error under a computational deadline constraint. In fact, the ratio of mean-squared error of replication-based and coded techniques diverges to infinity as the deadline increases. Our experiments for personalized PageRank performed on real systems and real social networks show that this ratio can be as large as 104. Further, unlike coded-computation techniques proposed thus far, our strategy combines outputs of all workers, including the stragglers, to produce more accurate estimates at the computational deadline. This also ensures that the accuracy degrades "gracefully" in the event that the number of stragglers is large.
Unexpected nondenitrifier nitrous oxide reductase gene diversity and abundance in soils

Agricultural and industrial practices more than doubled the intrinsic rate of terrestrial N fixation over the past century with drastic consequences, including increased atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O) concentrations. N2O is a potent greenhouse gas and contributor to ozone layer destruction, and its release from fixed N is almost entirely controlled by microbial activities. Mitigation of N2O emissions to the atmosphere has been attributed exclusively to denitrifiers possessing NosZ, the enzyme system catalyzing N2O to N2 reduction. We demonstrate that diverse microbial taxa possess divergent nos clusters with genes that are related yet evolutionarily distinct from the typical nos genes of denitirifers. nos clusters with atypical nosZ occur in Bacteria and Archaea that denitrify (44% of genomes), do not possess other denitrification genes (56%), or perform dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA; (31%). Experiments with the DNRA soil bacterium Anaeromyxobacter dehalogenans demonstrated that the atypical NosZ is an effective N2O reductase, and PCR-based surveys suggested that atypical nosZ are abundant in terrestrial environments. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that atypical nos clusters possess distinctive regulatory and functional components (e.g., Sec vs. Tat secretion pathway in typical nos), and that previous nosZ-targeted PCR primers do not capture the atypical nosZ diversity. Collectively, our results suggest that nondenitrifying populations with a broad range of metabolisms and habitats are potentially significant contributors to N2O consumption. Apparently, a large, previously unrecognized group of environmental nosZ has not been accounted for, and characterizing their contributions to N2O consumption will advance understanding of the ecological controls on N2O emissions and lead to refined greenhouse gas flux models.
Adaptive Robust Dynamic Balance and Motion Controls of Mobile Wheeled Inverted Pendulums

Adaptive robust dynamic balance and motion control are considered for mobile wheeled inverted pendulums, in the presence of parametric and functional uncertainties. Based on Lyapunov synthesis, the proposed control mechanisms using physical properties of wheeled inverted pendulums ensure that the outputs of the system track the given bounded reference signals within a small neighborhood of zero and guarantees semi-global uniform boundedness of all of the closed-loop signals. Simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive robust control.
Splitting and gluing constructions for geodesically equivalent pseudo-Riemannian metrics

Two metrics $g $ and $\bar g$ are geodesically equivalent, if they share the same (unparameterized) geodesics. We introduce two constructions that allow one to reduce many natural problems related to geodesically equivalent metrics, such as the classification of local normal forms and the Lie problem (the description of projective vector fields), to the case when the (1,1)-tensor $G^i_j:= g^{ik} \bar g_{kj}$ has one real eigenvalue, or two complex conjugate eigenvalues, and give first applications. As a part of the proof of the main result, we generalize Topalov-Sinjukov (hierarchy) Theorem for pseudo-Riemannian metrics
Age and Environmental Concern: A Multivariate Analysis

With the rise of the environmental movement and mass environmental awareness, many social scientists have begun to conduct sample survey studies of environmental attitudes. A wide variety of variables-education, age, place of residence, political ideology, and so on-have been found related to various measures of environmental beliefs. Certainly the most frequently discussed relationship in the literature has been that between social class-particularly education-and environmental concern (Butte1 and Flinn, 1976b). However, in this paper it is suggested that age has been thevariable most closely and consistently related to attitudinal indicators of environmental concern in the available literature. Thus, in spite of all