Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Involvement of Nitric Oxide in a Rat Model of Carrageenin-Induced Pleurisy

Some evidence indicates that nitric oxide (NO) contributes to inflammation, while other evidence supports the opposite conclusion. To clarify the role of NO in inflammation, we studied carrageenin-induced pleurisy in rats treated with an NO donor (NOC-18), a substrate for NO formation (L-arginine), and/or an NO synthase inhibitor (S-(2-aminoethyl) isothiourea or NG-nitro-L-arginine). We assessed inflammatory cell migration, nitrite/nitrate values, lipid peroxidation and pro-inflammatory mediators. NOC-18 and L-arginine reduced the migration of inflammatory cells and edema, lowered oxidative stress, and normalized antioxidant enzyme activities. NO synthase inhibitors increased the exudate formation and inflammatory cell number, contributed to oxidative stress, induced an oxidant/antioxidant imbalance by maintaining high O2 −, and enhanced the production of pro-inflammatory mediators. L-arginine and NOC-18 reversed the proinflammatory effects of NO synthase inhibitors, perhaps by reducing the expression of adhesion molecules on endothelial cells. Thus, our results indicate that NO is involved in blunting—not enhancing—the inflammatory response.
Memory hierarchy reconfiguration for energy and performance in general-purpose processor architectures

Conventional microarchitectures choose a single memory hierarchy design point targeted at the average application. In this paper, we propose a cache and TLB layout and design that leverages repeater insertion to provide dynamic low-cost configurability trading off size and speed on a per application phase basis. A novel configuration management algorithm dynamically detects phase changes and reacts to an application's hit and miss intolerance in order to improve memory hierarchy performance while taking energy consumption into consideration. When applied to a two-level cache and TLB hierarchy at 0.1 /spl mu/m technology, the result is an average 15% reduction in cycles per instruction (CPI), corresponding to an average 27% reduction in memory-CPI, across a broad class of applications compared to the best conventional two-level hierarchy of comparable size. Projecting to sub-. 1 /spl mu/m technology design considerations that call for a three-level conventional cache hierarchy for performance reasons, we demonstrate that a configurable L2/L3 cache hierarchy coupled with a conventional LI results in an average 43% reduction in memory hierarchy energy in addition to improved performance.
Modeling of Cement Decomposing Furnace Production Process Based on Flexible Neural Tree

The paper introduces that cement decomposing furnace plays an important role in the pre-decomposing system. To make clear the complex relation among its related factors and control its production process better, the paper presents a method of making use of flexible neural tree (FNT) to construct its production process model. The FNT modelpsilas structure and parameters are optimized by probabilistic incremental program evolution (PIPE) and simulation annealing (SA) respectively. The paper gives a detailed description of the process of constructing the FNT model, and tests the performance of the optimized model. The result demonstrates that the put forward method is effective for solving the problem. At last, comparing with other methods, the distinct advantage is that it is capable of handing the task automatically. The successful application of the method in cement decomposing production process will opens up a new research direction for cement industry production process modeling, it even has a great influence on the whole fluid industry.
Can adolescents and young adults with prelingual hearing loss benefit from a second, sequential cochlear implant?

Abstract This study aimed to determine if adolescents/young adults gained additional perceptual benefit from sequential bilateral cochlear implants within 12 months, and to document adaptation to the second implant. Assessments comprised a pediatric version of The Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ), anecdotal reports of device use and daily listening, and the Adaptive Spondee Discrimination Test (AdSpon). All nine participants achieved full-time use of, a preference for, and superior daily listening with, bilateral implants. Eight participants were comfortable using the second implant alone, and two achieved similar daily listening with either implant alone. SSQ ratings were higher post-operatively for the majority of participants. AdSpon performance was superior bilaterally for five participants with noise ipsilateral to the first implant, but not contralateral. Unilateral performance with either implant was similar for one participant. A second implant may provide additional benefit up to 19 years of age, even with congenital hearing loss and >16 years between implants. Families and clinicians should understand the aspects of second-implant candidacy and post-operative use that are unique to adolescents/young adults. Sumario El objetivo del estudio fue determinar si los adolescentes y adultos jóvenes obtenían un beneficio adicional con implantes cocleares bilaterales secuenciales en un periodo de 12 meses, y documentar la adaptación al segundo implante. La evaluación comprendió una versión pediátrica de la Escala para el Lenguaje, la Audición Espacial y las Cualidades Auditivas (SSQ), reportes anecdóticos de uso de dispositivos y escucha cotidiana; y la Prueba Adaptativa de Discriminación de Espondaicas (AdSpon). Los nueve participantes lograron el uso por tiempo completo, la preferencia por, y la escucha superior cotidiana con los implantes bilaterales. Ocho participantes se sintieron a gusto con el segundo implante solamente y dos lograron condiciones de escucha similares con cualquiera de los implantes individualmente. Las puntuaciones de SSQ fueron más altas en el postoperatorio para la mayoría de los participantes. Para seis participantes, el desempeño en la AdSpon fue superior en la condición bilateral con ruido ipsilateral en el primer implante, pero no en el contralateral. El desempeño unilateral con cualquiera de los implantes fue similar para un participante. Un segundo implante puede proporcionar beneficio adicional hasta los 19 años de edad, aun en el caso de hipoacusia congénita y más de 16 años entre implantes. Las familias y los clínicos deben entender los aspectos para la candidatura de un segundo implante y su uso postoperatorio que son singulares para los adolescentes y los adultos jóvenes.
Load Scheduling for Household Energy Consumption Optimization

This paper concerns the problem of optimally scheduling a set of appliances at the end-user premises. In the context of electricity smart grids, the electric energy fee varies over time and the user may receive a reward from an energy aggregator if he/she modifies his/her consumption profile during certain time intervals. The problem is to schedule the operation of the appliances taking into account overall costs, climatic comfort level and timeliness. We devise a MILP model and a heuristic algorithm accounting for a typical household user. Several numerical simulation results are reported, showing that the problem can be efficiently solved in real-life instances.
Wireless experimental metropolitan area network using IPv6 in Norway (WEMAN)

We report from experiments with wireless and mobile computing at the University of Oslo, Norway. We have established a wireless experimental metropolitan area network (WEMAN), based on Mobile IPv6 for mobility and IEEE 802.11 technology for wireless links and access. WEMAN is a wireless extension of the IPv6 based Internet 2 in Norway and enables flexible access for nomadic and mobile users. Using low noise amplifiers and antenna diversity, we obtain reliable performance on links longer than 15 km. We have experimented with four alternatives for automatic network configuration for mobile clients and report on initial feasibility and performance results.
Changes in carbon and nutrient fluxes from headwaters to ocean in a mountainous temperate to subtropical basin

Water erosion provides major links in global cycles of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Although significant research on erosion mechanisms has been done, there is still little knowledge on C, N and P fluxes across landscapes to the ocean and their controlling factors in subtropical climates. A four‐year study quantifying and comparing particulate and dissolved C, N and P from multiple scales (microplot, plot, microcatchment, subcatchment, catchment, sub‐basin and basin) was performed in Thukela basin (≈30 000 km2), South Africa. The basin climate was largely subtropical‐humid [mean annual precipitation (MAP) > 980 mm yr‐1], but temperate (MAP >2000 mm yr‐1) on the highlands. Open grassland, cropland and bushland were the major land uses. On average, 65, 24 and 4 g m‐2 yr‐1 C, N and P were displaced from original topsoil positions, but only 0.33, 0.005 and 0.002 mg m‐2 yr‐1 were, respectively, exported to the ocean. The fluxes decreased by 95, 97 and 84%, respectively, from plot to microcatchment outlet; and decreased further in downstream direction by >99% from microcatchment to basin outlet. The hillslope (microplot to microcatchment) fluxes correlated strongly with rainfall parameters. Particulate contributions dominated hillslope fluxes at 73, 81 and 76% of total annual C, N and P, respectively. Although particulate C dominated in the microcatchment‐catchment reach (55%), N (54%) and P (69%) were dominated by dissolved forms. The lower basin zone was dominated by dissolved flux contributions at 93, 81 and 78% for C, N and P for the sub‐basin outlet. These results suggested spatially varying drivers of C, N and P losses from the landscape to the ocean, via the river network. Deposition was envisaged the dominant hillslope level loss process, which gradually gave way to mineralization and biotic uptake in the river network as flux contributions shifted from being predominantly particulate to dissolved forms. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Applying Logistic Regression to the Fusion of the NIST'99 1-Speaker Submissions

Pigeon, Stephane, Druyts, Pascal, and Verlinde, Patrick, Applying Logistic Regression to the Fusion of the NIST'99 1-Speaker Submissions, Digital Signal Processing10(2000), 237? 248.This contribution formulates the decision fusion problem encountered in the design of a multiexpert identity verification system. For this purpose, a Bayesian classifier is used and the influence of the a priori class probabilities is investigated. Logistic regression is introduced as a particular case of the naive Bayesian classifier and is applied to the fusion of all submitted data of the 1-speaker recognition task, part of the NIST'99 campaign.
Salicylanilide Diethyl Phosphates as Potential Inhibitors of Some Mycobacterial Enzymes

Antimycobacterially active salicylanilide diethyl phosphates were evaluated to identify their potential drug target(s) for the inhibition of several mycobacterial enzymes, including isocitrate lyase, L-alanine dehydrogenase (MtAlaDH), lysine ε-aminotransferase, chorismate mutase, and pantothenate synthetase. The enzymes are related to the nongrowing state of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Salicylanilide diethyl phosphates represent new candidates with significant inhibitory activity especially against L-alanine dehydrogenase. The most active MtAlaDH inhibitor, 5-chloro-2-[(3-chlorophenyl)carbamoyl]phenyl diethyl phosphate, has an IC50 of 4.96 µM and the best docking results. Other mycobacterial enzymes were mostly inhibited by some derivatives but at higher concentrations; isocitrate lyase showed the highest resistance to salicylanilide diethyl phosphates.
Peloruside A Inhibits Growth of Human Lung and Breast Tumor Xenografts in an Athymic nu/nu Mouse Model

Peloruside A is a microtubule-stabilizing agent isolated from a New Zealand marine sponge. Peloruside prevents growth of a panel of cancer cell lines at low nanomolar concentrations, including cell lines that are resistant to paclitaxel. Three xenograft studies in athymic nu/nu mice were performed to assess the efficacy of peloruside compared with standard anticancer agents such as paclitaxel, docetaxel, and doxorubicin. The first study examined the effect of 5 and 10 mg/kg peloruside (QD×5) on the growth of H460 non–small cell lung cancer xenografts. Peloruside caused tumor growth inhibition (%TGI) of 84% and 95%, respectively, whereas standard treatments with paclitaxel (8 mg/kg, QD×5) and docetaxel (6.3 mg/kg, Q2D×3) were much less effective (%TGI of 50% and 18%, respectively). In a second xenograft study using A549 lung cancer cells and varied schedules of dosing, activity of peloruside was again superior compared with the taxanes with inhibitions ranging from 51% to 74%, compared with 44% and 50% for the two taxanes. A third xenograft study in a P-glycoprotein–overexpressing NCI/ADR-RES breast tumor model showed that peloruside was better tolerated than either doxorubicin or paclitaxel. We conclude that peloruside is highly effective in preventing the growth of lung and P-glycoprotein–overexpressing breast tumors in vivo and that further therapeutic development is warranted. Mol Cancer Ther; 14(8); 1816–23. ©2015 AACR.
Associations between Physical Fitness and Obesity Related Measures in South Asian Schoolchildren

Childhood obesity is associated with many health complications. In the South Asian population this may have an especially devastating impact due to the unique obesity phenotype of high abdominal fat and low lean body mass at a given body size which lends itself to greater disease risk at a younger age. OBJECTIVES: It is unknown what is responsible for this high risk phenotype but physical fitness levels are associated with body fatness and South Asian children report lower levels of physical fitness than their European peers. Therefore, the purpose of this descriptive study is to assess the associations between obesity related measures and physical fitness in South Asian children. METHODS: Forty-five boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 10 completed measures of physical fitness for the assessment of upper and lower body strength and aerobic capacity as well as obesity related measures. RESULTS: South Asian boys and girls showed positive associations between obesity related measures and grip strength and negative associations with standing long jump and aerobic fitness. CONCLUSION: Physical fitness and specifically aerobic fitness should be emphasized among South Asian children. This is especially relevant as South Asian children report objectively lower levels of physical activity than their European peers.
Command-Form Coverage for Testing Database Applications

The testing of database applications poses new challenges for software engineers. In particular, it is difficult to thoroughly test the interactions between an application and its underlying database, which typically occur through dynamically-generated database commands. Because traditional code-based coverage criteria focus only on the application code, they are often inadequate in exercising these commands. To address this problem, we introduce a new test adequacy criterion that is based on coverage of the database commands generated by an application and specifically focuses on the application-database interactions. We describe the criterion, an analysis that computes the corresponding testing requirements, and an efficient technique for measuring coverage of these requirements. We also present a tool that implements our approach and a preliminary study that shows the approach's potential usefulness and feasibility
outputs From XML to XML : The why and how of making the biodiversity literature accessible to researchers Conference Item

We present the ABLE document collection, which consists of a set of annotated volumes of the Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). These were developed during our ongoing work on automating the markup of scanned copies of the biodiversity literature. Such automation is required if historic literature is to be used to inform contemporary issues in biodiversity research. We consider an enhanced TEI XML markup language, which is used as an intermediate stage in translating from the initial XML obtained from Optical Character Recognition to taXMLit, the target annotation schema. The intermediate representation allows additional information from external sources such as a taxonomic thesaurus to be incorporated before the final translation into taXMLit. We give an overview of the project workflow in automating the markup process, and consider what extensions to existing markup schema will be required to best support working taxonomists. Finally, we discuss some of the particular issues which were encountered in converting between different XML formats.
Automated provisioning of BGP customers

Manual configuration of IP routers is an expensive, time-consuming, and error-prone process. For large Internet service providers, establishing service for new customers is a major part of the financial cost of running the network. Increasingly, these customers want to exchange routing information with their provider(s) using the border gateway protocol (BGP), a complex and highly programmable interdomain routing protocol. This article describes how a provider can configure its connections to BGP-speaking customers, from the technical questions asked of new customers to the individual configuration commands applied to the production routers. We present a case study of a technical questionnaire and describe how the provider assigns unique identifiers such as IP address blocks, interface names, and access control list numbers on behalf of the customer. Next, we describe an example set of provisioning rules that use the customer-specific information to generate a sequence of configuration commands - a "configlet" - for adding the new connection to the network; our configuration rules are expressed using Cisco Internet Operating System (IOS) commands as an example. Then we describe a database schema for storing and accessing the customer-specific data, and discuss how to use a virtual view on this database to populate a template that captures the syntax of the router commands. Our provisioning system provides an inexpensive, efficient, and accurate way for a provider to configure connections to new BGP-speaking customers.
The Role of Positively Charged Amino Acids in ATP Recognition by Human P2X1 Receptors*

P2X receptors for ATP are a family of ligand-gated cation channels. There are 11 conserved positive charges in the extracellular loop of P2X receptors. We have generated point mutants of these conserved residues (either Lys → Arg, Lys → Ala, Arg → Lys, or Arg → Ala) in the human P2X1receptor to determine their contribution to the binding of negatively charged ATP. ATP evoked concentration-dependent (EC50 ∼ 0.8 μm) desensitizing responses at wild-type (WT) P2X1 receptors expressed inXenopus oocytes. Suramin produced a parallel rightward shift in the concentration response curve with an estimated pKB of 6.7. Substitution of amino acids at positions Lys-53, Lys-190, Lys-215, Lys-325, Arg-202, Arg-305, and Arg-314 either had no effect or only a small change in ATP potency, time course, and/or suramin sensitivity. Modest changes in ATP potency were observed for mutants at K70R and R292K/A (20- and 100-fold decrease, respectively). Mutations at residues K68A and K309A reduced the potency of ATP by >1400-fold and prolonged the time course of the P2X1 receptor current but had no effect on suramin antagonism. Lys-68, Lys-70, Arg-292, and Lys-309 are close to the predicted transmembrane domains of the receptor and suggest that the ATP binding pocket may form close to the channel vestibule.
A Concept of Smart Agro-Photovoltaic Tunnels

This paper is a review of chosen reports on the integration of photovoltaics and agrotechnics and also presents the concept of an agro-photovoltaic foil tunnel module. This concept assumes the possibility of integrating modules into intelligent agro-photovoltaic fields. The proposed solution combines cultivation in a foil tunnel with a photovoltaic farm. The paper reviews electronic solutions to control ambient parameters, particularly those influencing the rate of photosynthesis in foil tunnels. The article also presents an analysis of the energy and water balances of the module in 4 different climate zones, including locations in Poland, Spain, Algeria, and Colombia. The module’s water requirements include drip irrigation and fogging systems. Water is assumed to be obtained from rainfall, desalination, non-conventional (treated, desalinated) resources, groundwater, and sub-artesian wells. The module’s energy needs include electricity consumption for pumping freshwater, desalination and water treatment, irrigation and fertilization, additional lighting and heating of plants, folding and unfolding of foil covers, and energy consumption related to automation. The article also analyzes crop shading by solar panels and its impact on the selected crop. The functionality of the presented solution was assessed for tomato cultivation in the four selected areas. A 240 m2 foil tunnel was considered. 60 m2 of the tunnel was covered by PV panels. The analysis results show that the most energetically effective agro-photovoltaic cultivation of tomatoes appears to be in the Saharan region of Africa where a 16 MWh annual energy surplus was obtained. Cultivations in Spain (Cartagena) and Colombia (Cali) seem to be slightly less effective, with approximately 15.5 MWh/a. The least effective agro-photovoltaic cultivation of tomatoes proved to be in Poland where the energy surplus reached 8.5 MWh/a. However, the economic return from cultivation strongly depends on local energy and tomato prices. The system of smart tunnels proposed by the authors combines photovoltaics with controlled protection of crops against unfavorable and extreme climatic conditions. In addition, the system allows plants to be grown with the maximum possible days with natural growing conditions, i.e. with uncovered tunnels, with natural bio-fertilization, and with natural sunlight.
Communication challenges experienced by migrants with cancer: A comparison of migrant and English‐speaking Australian‐born cancer patients

Understanding the difficulties faced by different migrant groups is vital to address disparities and inform targeted health‐care service delivery. Migrant oncology patients experience increased morbidity, mortality and psychological distress, with this tentatively linked to language and communication difficulties. The objective of this exploratory study was to investigate the communication barriers and challenges experienced by Arabic, Greek and Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) speaking oncology patients in Australia.