Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preparation and in vitro evaluation of carrier erythrocytes for RES-targeted delivery of interferon-alpha 2 b

Carrier erythrocytes is one of the most promising systemic drug delivery systems investigated in recent decades. In this study, human erythrocytes ave been loaded with interferon2b (IFN) with the aim to benefit the reticuloendothelial system (RES) targeting potential of the carrier cells. ypotonic preswelling method was used for drug loading in erythrocytes and the entire loading procedure was evaluated and validated. The loaded mount, entrapment efficiency and cell recovery of the loading procedure were 2906.33 ± 588.35 IU/0.1 ml, 14.53 ± 2.94%, and 83.61 ± 0.49%, espectively, all being practically feasible. The carrier erythrocytes were characterized in vitro in terms of their drug release kinetics, hematological ndices, particle size distribution, SEM analysis, and osmotic and turbulence fragility. IFN release from carrier cells was a relatively rapid process n comparison to the cell lysis kinetics, which is unusual considering the whole body of data published on this delivery system and other protein rugs, so far. All the tested in vitro characteristics showed significant, sometimes notable changes upon drug loading procedure, both with and ithout the drug. 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Noncoding RNA Modulation for Cardiovascular Therapeutics

Cardiovascular diseasesare multifactorial diseases that involve alteration of multiple genes and subsequent phenotypic changes. Non-coding RNAs regulate gene expression, affecting many physiological and pathophysiological processes in humans. Accumulating evidence indicates that noncoding RNA, such as microRNAs, expression profile changes can lead to cardiovascular diseases. This article reviews the current findings regarding the roles of noncoding RNAs in cardiovascular diseases, and strategy to modulate them for therapeutics.
Histamine Content in Rennet Ripening Cheeses During Storage at Different Temperatures and Times

Abstract Introduction In recent years, there has been a great interest in biogenic amines such histamine, as they are associated with the quality and safety of some kinds of fermented foods. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of temperature and storage time on the content of histamine in cheeses. Material and Methods Samples of mould and hard cheeses were examined with RP-HPLC with an organic-aqueous mobile phase containing acidic buffer and chaotropic salt. The samples were stored either at 22 ± 2°C for 42 days (mould and hard cheeses) or at 4 ± 2°C for 112 days (mould cheeses) and 133 days (hard cheeses). Results The mean total histamine content in cheeses stored at 22°C was higher than the content in those stored at 4°C, with the highest concentrations found in Gorgonzola Piccante cheese (730.47 mg/kg). Histamine concentration in some types of cheeses exceeded the toxic threshold dose, indicating that after long or inadequately cool storage they may not be safe for consumers. Conclusion To protect cheeses from contamination with histamine-producing bacteria and to safeguard consumers from poisoning, factors conducive to this amine’s formation should be minimised during cheese processing. Suitable temperature and time during storage of cheeses are recommended to avoid the intoxication. Monitoring of this toxin in food is necessary to ensure safety of consumers.
Ranked Reward: Enabling Self-Play Reinforcement Learning for Combinatorial Optimization

Adversarial self-play in two-player games has delivered impressive results when used with reinforcement learning algorithms that combine deep neural networks and tree search. Algorithms like AlphaZero and Expert Iteration learn tabula-rasa, producing highly informative training data on the fly. However, the self-play training strategy is not directly applicable to single-player games. Recently, several practically important combinatorial optimisation problems, such as the travelling salesman problem and the bin packing problem, have been reformulated as reinforcement learning problems, increasing the importance of enabling the benefits of self-play beyond two-player games. We present the Ranked Reward (R2) algorithm which accomplishes this by ranking the rewards obtained by a single agent over multiple games to create a relative performance metric. Results from applying the R2 algorithm to instances of a two-dimensional and three-dimensional bin packing problems show that it outperforms generic Monte Carlo tree search, heuristic algorithms and integer programming solvers. We also present an analysis of the ranked reward mechanism, in particular, the effects of problem instances with varying difficulty and different ranking thresholds.
Rupture of Hepatocellular Carcinoma after Transarterial Chemoembolization followed by Massive Gastric Bleeding

Introduction Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the first-line therapy for patient with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Although TACE is a generally safe procedure, major complications can be occurred. We describe a patient with rupture of HCC after TACE followed by gastric bleeding. Case Presentation An 81-year-old man presented with worsening epigastric pain. He had been diagnosed with multiple HCC with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and underwent TACE 19 days previously. A contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT) scan of the abdomen showed rupture of an HCC. He was treated nonoperatively and discharged on hospital day 18. Five weeks after TACE, he was emergently admitted with massive hematochezia and shock. A contrast enhanced CT scan demonstrated extrinsic gastric compression by an HCC lesion with extravasation of contrast into the stomach. Emergent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy showed a bleeding gastric ulcer with extraluminal compression which was successfully controlled by hypertonic saline-epinephrine injection. Due to tumor progression, he was discharged for palliative care and died six weeks after TACE. Conclusion Rupture of HCC is a life-threatening complication after TACE with mortality rates up to 50%. After treatment of a ruptured HCC, extragastric compression and bleeding can occur due to direct compression by a primary lesion or intraperitoneal dissemination.
Brain fag syndrome among Nigerian university students in Abuja

Background: The Brain Fag syndrome is considered to be a culture-bound syndrome. While some authorities view it as a variant of anxiety and somatic disorders, others consider it as a specific psychiatric disorder characterized by somatic and cognitive impairments associated with study. It was first described by Prince among Nigerian students and is rarely seen in Western cultures as so described. Morakinyo has also described this syndrome in details. It is thought to result from imposition of alien Western learning techniques on non-Western students. Despite the challenges in classification, Brain fag syndrome contributes to difficulties experienced by students in their academic pursuit and may lead to discontinuation of education. Methods: We investigated this syndrome among 3 rd and 4 th year students from different faculties in the University of Abuja. This was a cross-sectional study in which 600 students were randomly selected to participate. The instruments were made up of a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Brain Fag syndrome scale, the WHO questionnaire for student drug use surveys and the University College London study difficulty questionnaire. Data was analysed using SPSS-16. Results: Prevalence of Brain Fag syndrome was 36% and commoner among male students and those who had significant financial difficulties. No association was found with age and family background. Study difficulty was found in 53.8% of the population. Though no significant association with Brain Fag syndrome in general, 25.7% of students had both study difficulty and Brain Fag syndrome. Positive lifetime use/abuse of psychoactive substances (especially stimulants) was significantly associated with the diagnosis of Brain Fag syndrome. This was also higher among the male population. Conclusion: Brain Fag syndrome is now widely accepted as an entity of its own and not just a variant of anxiety/depression. The symptoms of discomfort in the head, poor understanding and poor memory associated with study have been clearly described. These impair study among university students as we found and is made worse by use of stimulants. Consequently, impairments in mental health and academic pursuits are likely to result. These have to be further explored and adequate measures put in place to address resulting challenges.
Program Language Translation Using a Grammar-Driven Tree-to-Tree Model

The task of translating between programming languages differs from the challenge of translating natural languages in that programming languages are designed with a far more rigid set of structural and grammatical rules. Previous work has used a tree-to-tree encoder/decoder model to take advantage of the inherent tree structure of programs during translation. Neural decoders, however, by default do not exploit known grammar rules of the target language. In this paper, we describe a tree decoder that leverages knowledge of a language's grammar rules to exclusively generate syntactically correct programs. We find that this grammar-based tree-to-tree model outperforms the state of the art tree-to-tree model in translating between two programming languages on a previously used synthetic task.
INVESTIGATIONS ON ANTI-OXIDANT, ANTI-ARTHRITIC AND ANTI- PLATELET STUDIES IN COUROUPITA GUIANENSIS AUBL LEAVES BY IN- VITRO METHODS

The aim of the study was to investigate the anti-oxidant, anti-arthritic and anti-platelet activities in methanolic extract of Couroupita guianensis Aubl leaves (MECG) by invitro. Previous phytochemical analysis has indicated the presence of steroids, flavonoids and saponins. The MECGL showed astonishing anti-oxidant activity by 1,1-diphenyl-2picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method, anti-arthritic activity by protein denaturation method and notable anti-platelet activities in all various concentrations i.e. 10, 50,100,200,400,800,1000ig/ml. The IC50 value of MECG in DPPH radical was found to be 39.21 and ascorbic acid used as standard was found to be 41.43. The maximum protein denaturation was found to be 87.41% at a dose of 500mcg/ml and that of transmittance value for anti-platelet activity was found to be 84.41. The MECG showed good dose dependent activity in all in-vitro methods. The findings of the present study suggested that Couroupita guianensis could be a potential natural source of antioxidants antiarthritic and anti platelet activities.
SpeedyChain: A framework for decoupling data from blockchain for smart cities

There is increased interest in smart vehicles acting as both data consumers and producers in smart cities. Vehicles can use smart city data for decision-making, such as dynamic routing based on traffic conditions. Moreover, the multitude of embedded sensors in vehicles can collectively produce a rich data set of the urban landscape that can be used to provide a range of services. Key to the success of this vision is a scalable and private architecture for trusted data sharing. This paper proposes a framework called SpeedyChain, that leverages blockchain technology to allow smart vehicles to share their data while maintaining privacy, integrity, resilience, and non-repudiation in a decentralized and tamper-resistant manner. Differently from traditional blockchain usage (e.g., Bitcoin and Ethereum), the proposed framework uses a blockchain design that decouples the data stored in the transactions from the block header, thus allowing fast addition of data to the blocks. Furthermore, an expiration time for each block is proposed to avoid large sized blocks. This paper also presents an evaluation of the proposed framework in a network emulator to demonstrate its benefits.
Annual Review of Public Health E-Cigarettes : Use , Effects on Smoking , Risks , and Policy Implications

Since e-cigarettes appeared in the mid-2000s, some practitioners, researchers, and policy makers have embraced them as a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes and an effective way to stop smoking. While ecigarettes deliver lower levels of carcinogens than do conventional cigarettes, they still expose users to high levels of ultrafine particles and other toxins that may substantially increase cardiovascular and noncancer lung disease risks, which account for more than half of all smoking-caused deaths, at rates similar to conventional cigarettes. Moreover, rather than stimulating smokers to switch from conventional cigarettes to less dangerous e-cigarettes or quitting altogether, e-cigarettes are reducing smoking cessation rates and expanding the nicotine market by attracting youth.
Measuring the Risk and Performance in Plantation Sector Using CAPM Based Jensen’s Alpha

This paper evaluates the company performance using the CAPM Based Jensen's Alpha. The CAPM of Sharpe (1964), Lintner (1965) and Mossin is a widely used model in modern Finance to estimate cost of equity and company performance. We carried out our study for ten plantation companies listed on Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). We used cost of equity that is calculated using CAPM to determine the Economic Value Added (EVA). The EVA measures whether the companies have created shareholders' value during the estimating period. We selected the sample period of 2000 to 2005 years and we applied the monthly ending prices of common stocks of each company for the regression. The monthly ending prices of All Share Price Index (ASPI) are used as the market proxy. To estimate the beta, we applied market model. It was found that almost all the companies have created value for their shareholders during the study period. To measure the market performance, we calculated Jensen's alpha for each company and according to Jensen's alpha we found that the market performance is not satisfactory in most plantation companies. These results are important for Corporate Managers undertaking risk calculations, for fund managers making investment decision and, amongst others, for investors who wish to assess value of their investments. DOI: 10.4038/suslj.v6i1. 1690 Sabaragamuwa University Journal , vol 6, no. 1, pp 68-81
Sources of organic carbon in fine particulate matter in northern European urban air

A major fraction of fine particle matter consists of organic carbon (OC) but its origin is still inadequately known. In this study the sources of OC were investigated in the northern European urban environment in Helsinki, Finland. Measurements were carried out over one year and they included both filter (PM 1 ) and online methods. From the filter samples OC, elemental carbon (EC), water-soluble OC (WSOC), levoglucosan and major ions were analyzed. Filter data together with the concentrations of inorganic gases were analyzed by Positive matrix factorization (PMF) in order to find the sources of OC (and WSOC) on an annual as well as on a seasonal basis. In order to study the diurnal variation of sources, OC and EC were measured by a semicontinuous OC/EC analyzer and major ions were determined by a Particle-into-Liquid Sampler coupled to ion chromatographs. According to PMF, OC concentrations were impacted by four sources: biomass combustion, traffic, long-range transport and secondary production. On an annual basis the OC concentration was dominated by secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Its contribution to OC was as high as 64% in summer, which besides anthropogenic sources may also result from the large biogenic volatile organic carbon (VOC) emissions in the boreal region. In winter biomass combustion constituted the largest fraction in OC due to domestic wood combustion for heating purposes. Traffic contributed to OC from 15 to 27%. Regarding the diurnal variation, the contribution from traffic was higher from 08:00 to 18:00 on weekdays than on weekends. The contribution from long-range transport to OC was 24% on average. All four sources also influenced the WSOC concentrations, however, the contribution of SOA was significantly larger for WSOC than OC.
A Multi-Time Scale Robust Energy Management Scheme for Grid-Connected Micro-Grid

Considering the uncertainties, i.e., the load of users and the output of renewable energy, and the impact on the main grid caused by micro-grid, a multi-time scale and robust energy management scheme is proposed in order to minimizing the total operating cost. This scheme is divided into a day-ahead stage and an intraday stage. In the day-ahead stage, a robust energy management model of microgrid is put forward to determine the baseline transaction between the main grid and the micro-grid. In the intraday stage, a revised energy management model is proposed to determine the operations of distributed generators, energy storage system, and the transaction between the main grid and the micro-grid. The deviation from the baseline transaction is especially penalized in the objection function of the revised model to minimize the unexpected influence on the main grid. At last we use a numeric case study to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Interactive comment on “ Effects of aerosol organics on cloud condensation nucleus ( CCN ) concentration and first indirect aerosol effect ” by J .

As rightly pointed out by Rose et al, the water vapor supersaturation in a continuousflow CCN counter (DMT-CCNC) depends on the operating conditions, including the pressure (P), temperature (T1), flow rate (Q), and the temperature difference between the top and bottom of the growth column (DT). The supersaturation calculated using flow models can deviate substantially from the measurement, and careful calibration with reference aerosol is necessary. Prior to the Marine Stratus/Stratocumulus Exper-
Larvicidal effects of Azadirachta indica, Ocimum gratissimum and Hyptis suaveolens against mosquito larvae

The potency of petroleum ether leaf extracts of A. indica (Juss), O. gratissimum (L.) and H. suavoelens (L.) Poit as mosquito larvicides under laboratory conditions was investigated. Leaf extracts of test plants were extracted, distillated and evaporated using soxhlet apparatus. Twenty five larvae of culex mosquito species were exposed to various concentrations and observed over 24 hr for susceptibility. 100% mortality was achieved by A. indica at concentrations 40% and 35% and O. gratissimum at concentration of 50% after 24hrs while H. suaveolens at 60% which showed no significant effect as mosquito larvicide (P≤0.05). At concentration of 30% of each extract, mortality rate dropped to 96%, 99.2% and 1.34% for A. indica, O. gratissimum and H . suaveolens respectively. LD50 values of 14.3, 11.40 and 66.83 for A. indica , O. gratissimum and H. suaveoleus were obtained. Mortality rate over second and third hours were significantly lower (p< 0.05) and after 24hrs of exposure, no significant difference was observed between A. indica and O. gratissimum. H. suaveolens did not show any effective larvicidal activity at all concentrations and time. This present study provided evidence of larvicidal of O. gratissimum and A. indica petroleum ether extracts to have potential utilization as a larvicide to control culex mosquito and its borne diseases.
Opioidergic Modulation of Striatal Circuits, Implications in Parkinson's Disease and Levodopa Induced Dyskinesia

The functional organization of the dorsal striatum is complex, due to the diversity of neural inputs that converge in this structure and its subdivision into direct and indirect output pathways, striosomes and matrix compartments. Among the neurotransmitters that regulate the activity of striatal projection neurons (SPNs), opioid neuropeptides (enkephalin and dynorphin) play a neuromodulatory role in synaptic transmission and plasticity and affect striatal-based behaviors in both normal brain function and pathological states, including Parkinson's disease (PD). We review recent findings on the cell-type-specific effects of opioidergic neurotransmission in the dorsal striatum, focusing on the maladaptive synaptic neuroadaptations that occur in PD and levodopa-induced dyskinesia. Understanding the plethora of molecular and synaptic mechanisms underpinning the opioid-mediated modulation of striatal circuits is critical for the development of pharmacological treatments that can alleviate motor dysfunctions and hyperkinetic responses to dopaminergic stimulant drugs.
Australia's marine biogeography revisited: Back to the future?

The recognition of broad biogeographic provinces provides an important framework for ecological and conservation biological research. Marine biologists have long recognized distinct biogeographic provinces in southern Australia, primarily on the basis of qualitative differences in intertidal species assemblages. Here we provide an a priori test for these traditional eastern (Peronian), western (Flindersian) and south-eastern (Maugean) provinces. Specifically, we analyse distributional data for approximately 1500 algal species using the newly available Australian Virtual Herbarium, an online database of herbarium specimens. Our quantitative algal analyses across southern Australia identify three distinct biogeographic assemblages, consistent with traditional qualitative provinces. We argue that these broad provinces provide a highly effective framework for understanding and managing Australia's marine biodiversity. In particular, biogeographic provinces provide a regional framework for integrating the ongoing discovery of biological variation at finer scales. More broadly therefore we recommend that biologists undertake quantitative analyses to test provincial biogeographic boundaries around the globe.
Do the helminth parasites of wood mice interact

Summary 1. Two published data sets of helminths of the wood mouse Apodemus sylvaticus (L.) were analysed to test the hypothesis that the structure of these component communities is influenced by interactions between species. A range of tests, with differing null models, was applied to tease out the importance of controlling for subgroupings (e.g. sex, age, site, year, season) within the data when searching for significant associations based on prevalence (co-occurrence, presence/absence) or abundance (quantitative associations) data. 2. Significant differences from null models were detected for associations based on prevalence, but when subgroup constraints were taken into consideration, most lost significance. Among three and 15 pair-wise associations possible in data sets 1 and 2, respectively, only that between Trichuris muris and Heligmosomoides polygyrus was not dependent on context, and that between H. polygyrus and Catenotaenia pusilla , while always positive, varied in magnitude among sites of capture. 3. Pair-wise comparisons of abundance revealed three significant associations, only one of which ( H. polygyrus with C. pusilla ) still remained significant after controlling for quantified extrinsic and intrinsic factors . With increasing burdens of H. polygyrus , mice carried more of other helminth species and this relationship remained significant after controlling for confounding factors. 4. Overall, positive co-occurrences of pairs of helminths of A. sylvaticus were highly context dependent and quantitative associations were weak and not convincing. Therefore, interactions between parasites are unlikely to play a dominant role among the processes that structure the component community of helminths in wood mice, in selected study sites in the south of England.