Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Factor XIII on Endothelial Barrier Function

The effect of factor XIII on endothelial barrier function was studied in a model of cultured monolayers of porcine aortic endothelial cells and saline-perfused rat hearts. The thrombin-activated plasma factor XIII (1 U/ml) reduced albumin permeability of endothelial monolayers within 20 min by 30 ± 7% (basal value of 5.9 ± 0.4 × 10−6 cm/s), whereas the nonactivated plasma factor XIII had no effect. Reduction of permeability to the same extent, i.e., by 34 ± 9% could be obtained with the thrombin-activated A subunit of factor XIII (1 U/ml), whereas the iodoacetamide-inactivated A subunit as well as the B subunit had no effect on permeability. Endothelial monolayers exposed to the activated factor XIII A exhibited immunoreactive deposition of itself at interfaces of adjacent cells; however, these were not found on exposure to nonactivated factor XIII A or factor XIII B. Hyperpermeability induced by metabolic inhibition (1 mM potassium cyanide plus 1 mM 2-deoxy-d-glucose) was prevented in the presence of the activated factor XIII A. Likewise, the increase in myocardial water content in ischemic-reperfused rat hearts was prevented in its presence. This study shows that activated factor XIII reduces endothelial permeability. It can prevent the loss of endothelial barrier function under conditions of energy depletion. Its effect seems related to a modification of the paracellular passageways in endothelial monolayers.
Detecting Annotation Scheme Variation in Out-of-Domain Treebanks

To ensure portability of NLP systems across multiple domains, existing treebanks are often extended by adding trees from interesting domains that were not part of the initial annotation effort. In this paper, we will argue that it is both useful from an application viewpoint and enlightening from a linguistic viewpoint to detect and reduce divergence in annotation schemes between extant and new parts in a set of treebanks that is to be used in evaluation experiments. The results of our correction and harmonization efforts will be made available to the public as a test suite for the evaluation of constituent parsing.
Secure Communication via a Wireless Energy Harvesting Untrusted Relay

The broadcast nature of the wireless medium allows unintended users to eavesdrop on confidential information transmission. In this regard, we investigate the problem of secure communication between a source and a destination via a wireless energy harvesting untrusted node that acts as a helper to relay the information; however, the source and destination nodes wish to keep the information confidential from the relay node. To realize the positive secrecy rate, we use destination-assisted jamming. Being an energy-starved node, the untrusted relay harvests energy from the received radio-frequency (RF) signals, which include the source's information signal and the destination's jamming signal. Thus, we utilize the jamming signal efficiently by leveraging it as a useful energy source. At the relay, to enable energy harvesting and information processing, we adopt power splitting (PS) and time switching (TS) policies. To evaluate the secrecy performance of this proposed scenario, we derive analytical expressions for two important metrics, viz., the secrecy outage probability and the ergodic secrecy rate. The numerical analysis reveals design insights into the effects of different system parameters such as PS ratio, energy harvesting time, target secrecy rate, transmit signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), relay location, and energy conversion efficiency factor, on secrecy performance. Specifically, the PS policy achieves better optimal secrecy outage probability and optimal ergodic secrecy rate than that of the TS policy at higher target secrecy rate and transmit SNR, respectively.
Population Estimation of Grey Francolin (Francolinus pondicerianus) in Salt Range, Punjab, Pakistan

The genus Francolinus belongs to Order Galliformes and Family Phasianidae and is diverse genus of game birds. Grey francolin (Francolinus pondicerianus) belongs to this genus and is a medium size game bird, serving as an operator of biological control. Population of grey francolin has declined over the time mainly due to excessive hunting and habitat destruction. Research studies have not been carried out on Grey francolin in the Salt Range and data on their biological and ecological aspects is lacking. The current study was conducted in two protected areas i.e. Chumbi Surla Wildlife Sanctuary (CSWS) and Diljabba Domeli Game Resrve (DDGR) to generate information about population density and distribution pattern of Grey francolin in the Salt Range. For population estimation, 40 transects were laid in the both areas and Grey francolin population were recorded both by direct sighting and calls and data was analyzes by DISTANCE Software 6.0. Significant difference was recorded in population densities among different sites both by sighting and calls method. In CSWS, population density by sighting was the highest at Open land habitat (3.23 individual ha -1 ) while lowest at cultivated habitat (1.58 individual ha -1 ) and by calls was the highest at (2.87 individual ha -1 ) from natural forest habitat, while lowest at (1.59 individual ha -1 ) from cultivated habitat. In DDGR population density by sighting was highest from wetland (2.47 individual ha -1 ) and lowest at (2.09 individual ha -1 ) from natural forest habitat, by calls highest from open land habitat (2.45 individual ha -1 ) and lowest from wetland habitat (1.10 individual ha -1 ). This study would provide essential scientific base about population and distribution patterns of grey francolin in the study area that is required for the conservation of grey francolin, ultimately helping in sustaining the population of this important game bird in the Salt Range.
TFIIS-Dependent Non-coding Transcription Regulates Developmental Genome Rearrangements

Because of their nuclear dimorphism, ciliates provide a unique opportunity to study the role of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) in the communication between germline and somatic lineages. In these unicellular eukaryotes, a new somatic nucleus develops at each sexual cycle from a copy of the zygotic (germline) nucleus, while the old somatic nucleus degenerates. In the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia, the genome is massively rearranged during this process through the reproducible elimination of repeated sequences and the precise excision of over 45,000 short, single-copy Internal Eliminated Sequences (IESs). Different types of ncRNAs resulting from genome-wide transcription were shown to be involved in the epigenetic regulation of genome rearrangements. To understand how ncRNAs are produced from the entire genome, we have focused on a homolog of the TFIIS elongation factor, which regulates RNA polymerase II transcriptional pausing. Six TFIIS-paralogs, representing four distinct families, can be found in P. tetraurelia genome. Using RNA interference, we showed that TFIIS4, which encodes a development-specific TFIIS protein, is essential for the formation of a functional somatic genome. Molecular analyses and high-throughput DNA sequencing upon TFIIS4 RNAi demonstrated that TFIIS4 is involved in all kinds of genome rearrangements, including excision of ~48% of IESs. Localization of a GFP-TFIIS4 fusion revealed that TFIIS4 appears specifically in the new somatic nucleus at an early developmental stage, before IES excision. RT-PCR experiments showed that TFIIS4 is necessary for the synthesis of IES-containing non-coding transcripts. We propose that these IES+ transcripts originate from the developing somatic nucleus and serve as pairing substrates for germline-specific short RNAs that target elimination of their homologous sequences. Our study, therefore, connects the onset of zygotic non coding transcription to the control of genome plasticity in Paramecium, and establishes for the first time a specific role of TFIIS in non-coding transcription in eukaryotes.
A polynomial time (heuristic) SAT algorithm

A hole has been found in the algorithm as given, where an eleventh hour change admits a path inconsistency. The inconsistency arises due to an improper closure of a path to a cycle against a root not supportive of the path. The mathematical basis of the algorithm remains supportive of the intended solution, and a revision of the algorithm is underway.
Dissolution media simulating the intralumenal composition of the small intestine: physiological issues and practical aspects

The objective of this study was to test various aspects of dissolution media simulating the intralumenal composition of the small intestine, including the suitability of the osmolality‐adjusting agents and of the buffers, the substitution of crude sodium taurocholate (from ox bile) for pure sodium taurocholate and the substitution of partially hydrolysed soybean phosphatidylcholine for egg phosphatidylcholine. It was concluded that biorelevant media should contain sodium as the major cation species to better reflect the physiology. However, the use of non‐physiologically relevant buffers is inevitable, especially for simulation of the fed state in the small intestine. The buffers used may affect the solubility product of weakly basic compounds with pKa(s) higher than about 5, the solubility of extremely highly lipophilic compounds due to salting in/out properties of the anion of the buffer and the stability of the dissolving compound. It is prudent in relevant situations to run an additional dissolution test in a modified fed state simulated intestinal fluid (FeSSIF) (or fasted state simulated intestinal fluid (FaSSIF), where applicable) containing alternative buffer species. Although a mixture of bile salts is physiologically more relevant than pure sodium taurocholate, this issue seems to be of practical importance in only a few cases. Adequate simulations in these cases will probably require the use of a number of pure substances and could substantially increase the cost of the test. Finally, unless the drug is extremely lipophilic (ca. logP > 5), egg phosphatidylcholine can be substituted by partially hydrolysed soybean phosphatidylcholine.
Heterogeneous Prior Beliefs and Asset Pricing with Expected Gain from Active Trading

Asset pricing formulas generated from representative agent models help in computing the fundamental values of assets that investors plan to hold forever. In contrast, in an economy with heterogeneous agents and active trading, stock prices will persistently deviate from the expected fundamental value even without introducing any explosive bubbles. Particularly, the introduction of heterogeneous prior beliefs leads to an additional non-trivial expected gain from active trading (EGFAT) in the new asset pricing formula, since the law of iterated expectations fails to apply to a market where the beliefs of marginal investors determine the trading prices. Provided informational frictions, the new framework suggests that speculative manipulations may be profitable in stock markets imposing daily fluctuation limits in an effort to discourage speculative tradings. In addition, this paper proposes how to derive endogenously elastic stock demand in a market with heterogeneous agents, while inelastic stock demand is a common feature in asset pricing formulas based on representative agent models. (JEL Classification: D82, D83, G12)
Impact of acute psychiatric inpatient treatment on major depression in late life and prediction of response.

OBJECTIVE The authors conducted a prospective study to examine the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of elderly inpatients with major depression and their response to acute psychiatric hospitalization. The relation between the descriptive variables and clinical response was also investigated. METHOD The subjects were 205 consecutively admitted inpatients, whose mean age was 71 years, who met the DSM-III-R criteria for major depression. Each subject received detailed physical, psychiatric, and mental status examinations, along with quantitative assessments of psychiatric symptoms and cognitive performance at admission and at discharge. Management of physical problems was optimized, and patients were treated with a combination of somatic and psychotherapeutic interventions. The average duration of hospitalization was approximately 1 month. RESULTS Despite considerable medical and psychiatric comorbidity, the patients responded well to treatment, as reflected by a 50% reduction in the average score on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Nearly one-half of the patients had experienced the resolution of their depressive symptoms by the time of discharge. Race, cognitive performance at admission, number of medical problems, use of ECT, and length of hospitalization independently contributed to the prediction of clinical response. Response to treatment was not related to the other sociodemographic variables examined or to any of the indexes of severity of depressive episode. CONCLUSIONS Short-term psychiatric hospitalization offers an effective and efficient vehicle for the treatment of severe or complicated cases of major depression in the elderly, even when considerable medical and psychiatric comorbidity is present.
Noise cancelation of epileptic interictal EEG data based on generalized eigenvalue decomposition

Denoising is an important preprocessing stage in some Electroencephalography (EEG) applications such as epileptic source localization. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for denoising the interictal EEG data. The proposed algorithm is based on Generalized Eigenvalue Decomposition of two covariance matrices of the observations. Since one of these matrices is related to the spike durations, we should estimate the occurrence time of the spike peaks and the exact spike durations. To this end, we propose a spike detection algorithm which is based on the available spike detection methods. The comparison of the results of the proposed algorithm with the results of two well-known ICA algorithms (CoM2 and SOBI) shows that the proposed algorithm denoise data as accurately as these ICA algorithms. The advantage of the proposed technique appears in terms of numerical complexity. The results also show that the proposed algorithm is considerably faster than these ICA algorithms.
Grid Scheduling using 2-Phase Prediction (2PP) of CPU Power

Divisible workloads are that kind of workloads that can be partitioned by the scheduler into arbitrary 'chunks'. The problem of scheduling divisible loads has been defined for a long time, however, handful solutions have been proposed. Furthermore, almost all proposed approaches attempt to perform scheduling in a dedicated environment (i.e., for processing local tasks only) such as a LAN, whereas scheduling in non-dedicated environments (i.e., for processing local and external tasks) such as grids remains an open problem. In grids, the incessant variation of workstation's power is the chief difficulty in planning how to split and distribute workloads to these workstations. This paper presents a new strategy, called 2-phase prediction (2PP) for CPU power. By integrating this strategy and the UMR algorithm, a static scheduling algorithm that is designed for dedicated environments, we develop a new dynamic scheduling algorithm suitable for non-dedicated environment. Our experimental results show that our algorithm is superior to the UMR as the former is able to adapt to the dynamicity of grid workers
An efficient algorithm for finding dominant trapping sets of LDPC codes

This paper presents an efficient algorithm for finding the dominant trapping sets of a low-density parity-check (LDPC) code. This algorithm can be used to estimate the error floor of LDPC codes or to be part of the apparatus to design LDPC codes with low error floors. The algorithm is initiated with a set of short cycles as the input. The cycles are then expanded recursively to dominant trapping sets of increasing size. At the core of the algorithm lies the analysis of the graphical structure of dominant trapping sets and the relationship of such structures to short cycles. The algorithm is universal in the sense that it can be used for an arbitrary graph and that it can be tailored to find other graphical objects, such as absorbing sets and Zyablov-Pinsker (ZP) trapping sets, known to dominate the performance of LDPC codes in the error floor region over different channels and for different iterative decoding algorithms. Simulation results on several LDPC codes demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed algorithm. In particular, the algorithm is significantly faster than the existing search algorithms for dominant trapping sets.
A logic for state-modifying authorization policies

Administering and maintaining access control systems is a challenging task, especially in environments with complex and changing authorization requirements. A number of authorization logics have been proposed that aim at simplifying access control by factoring the authorization policy out of the hard-coded resource guard. However, many policies require the authorization state to be updated after a granted access request, for example, to reflect the fact that a user has activated or deactivated a role. Current authorization languages cannot express such state modifications; these still have to be hard-coded into the resource guard. We present a logic for specifying policies where access requests can have effects on the authorization state. The logic is semantically defined by a mapping to Transaction Logic. Using this approach, updates to the state are factored out of the resource guard, thus enhancing maintainability and facilitating more expressive policies that take the history of access requests into account. We also present a sound and complete proof system for reasoning about sequences of access requests. This gives rise to a goal-oriented algorithm for finding minimal sequences that lead to a specified target authorization state.
Adaptive Noninvasive Assessment of Intracranial Pressure and Cerebral Autoregulation

Background and Purpose— A mathematical model has previously been introduced to estimate noninvasively intracranial pressure (nICP). In the present multicenter study, we investigated the ability of model to adapt to the state of cerebral autoregulation (SCA). This modification was intended to improve the quality of nICP estimation and noninvasive assessment of pressure reactivity of the cerebrovascular system. Methods— We studied 145 patients after severe head injuries or stroke. All patients had direct ICP, arterial blood pressure (ABP), and transcranial Doppler middle cerebral artery blood flow velocity (FV) monitored. The SCA was assessed by moving correlation (Mx index) of cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP=ABP−ICP) and cerebral blood flow velocity and correlation of ABP and ICP (PRx index). nICP was calculated from ABP and FV waveforms. When nICP was used instead of ICP, the SCA was continuously estimated, and the model was dynamically adapted to the SCA. Results— High and moderate correlations between invasively (Mx, PRx) and noninvasively (nMx, nPRx) estimated autoregulation indexes were observed (Mx:R =0.90, P <0.001; PRx:R =0.62, P <0.001). Values of Mx and nMx indicated contradictory SCA in 4 of 167 evaluated recordings; values of PRx and nPRx were contradictory in 27 recordings. When the model was adapted to the SCA, the mean error of ICP estimation decreased significantly (P <0.005). Conclusions— Continuous adaptation of the model to SCA improves the accuracy of noninvasive estimation of ICP and ICP dynamics. The same model provides a noninvasive and continuous assessment of SCA.
Randomized Trial of a Literacy-Sensitive, Culturally Tailored Diabetes Self-Management Intervention for Low-Income Latinos

OBJECTIVE To test whether a theory-based, literacy, and culturally tailored self-management intervention, Latinos en Control, improves glycemic control among low-income Latinos with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 252 patients recruited from community health centers were randomized to the Latinos en Control intervention or to usual care. The primarily group-based intervention consisted of 12 weekly and 8 monthly sessions and targeted knowledge, attitudes, and self-management behaviors. The primary outcome was HbA1c. Secondary outcomes included diet, physical activity, blood glucose self-monitoring, diabetes knowledge and self-efficacy, and other physiological factors (e.g., lipids, blood pressure, and weight). Measures were collected at baseline and at 4- and 12-month follow-up. Change in outcomes over time between the groups and the association between HbA1c and possible mediators were estimated using mixed-effects models and an intention-to-treat approach. RESULTS A significant difference in HbA1c change between the groups was observed at 4 months (intervention −0.88 [−1.15 to −0.60] versus control −0.35 [−0.62 to 0.07], P < 0.01), although this difference decreased and lost statistical significance at 12 months (intervention −0.46 [−0.77 to −0.13] versus control −0.20 [−0.53 to 0.13], P = 0.293). The intervention resulted in significant change differences in diabetes knowledge at 12 months (P = 0.001), self-efficacy (P = 0.001), blood glucose self-monitoring (P = 0.02), and diet, including dietary quality (P = 0.01), kilocalories consumed (P < 0.001), percentage of fat (P = 0.003), and percentage of saturated fat (P = 0.04). These changes were in turn significantly associated with HbA1c change at 12 months. CONCLUSIONS Literacy-sensitive, culturally tailored interventions can improve diabetes control among low-income Latinos; however, strategies to sustain improvements are needed.
Overexpression of a Streptomyces viridochromogenes gene (glnII) encoding a glutamine synthetase similar to those of eucaryotes confers resistance against the antibiotic phosphinothricyl-alanyl-alanine

Phosphinothricyl-alanyl-alanine (PTT), also known as bialaphos, contains phosphinothricin, a potent inhibitor of glutamine synthetase (GS). A 2.75-kilobase NcoI fragment of the Streptomyces viridochromogenes PTT-resistant mutant ES2 cloned on a multicopy vector mediated PTT resistance to S. lividans and to S. viridochromogenes. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the 2.75-kb NcoI fragment revealed the presence of three open reading frames. Open reading frame 3 was termed glnII since significant similarity was found between its deduced amino acid sequence and those from GS of eucaryotes and GSII of members of the family Rhizobiaceae. Subcloning experiments showed that PTT resistance is mediated by overexpression of glnII encoding a 37.3-kilodalton protein of 343 amino acids. A three- to fourfold increase in gamma-glutamyltransferase activity could be observed in S. lividans transformants carrying the glnII gene on a multicopy plasmid. For S. viridochromogenes it was shown that PTT resistance conferred by the 2.75-kb NcoI fragment was dependent on its multicopy state. GS activity encoded by glnII was found to be heat labile. Southern hybridization with seven different Streptomyces strains suggested that they all carry two types of GS genes, glnA and glnII.