Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mycotoxin binders potential on histological of ovary mice exposed by zearalenone

Aim: This study was conducted to examine the potential of mycotoxin binder in ceasing zearalenone (ZEN) effect on mice reproduction. ZEN mycotoxin can induce reactive oxygen species that may cause damage and cell death. ZEN is estrogenic so that it may affect the reproductive organs failure. Materials and Methods: Mycotoxin binder administration to female mice exposed to ZEN was aimed to count the number of primary follicles, secondary follicles, tertiary follicles, de Graaf’s follicles, and the corpus luteum (CL). Negative control group (C) was not exposed to ZEN and without the administration of mycotoxin binders, while positive control group (C+) was exposed to 0.1 mg/mouse/day ZEN and without the provision of mycotoxin binders. Treatment groups (T1, T2, T3) were exposed to 0.1 mg/mouse/day ZEN and mycotoxin binders 0.5; 1; 2 mg/BW/day. Results: ZEN and mycotoxin binders administration was conducted for 10 days. The number of primary follicles, secondary, tertiary, de Graaf’s follicles and CL in negative control (C−) was 14.2±1.36, 11.2±0.28, 6.5±0.53, 7.5±0.74, and 2.3±0.35. The number in positive control (C+) group was as follows 7.1±0.12, 3.7±1.17, 3.8±1.21, 1.5±0.62, and 2.3±0.34. Results in treatment 1 (T1) were as follows 6.2±0.16, 5.2±0.16, 3.6±0.16, 2.6±0.19, and 2.6±0.10; in treatment 2 (T2) 7.8±0.28, 5.8±0.53, 3.7±0.26, 2.7±0.26, and 2.5±0.10; and in treatment 3 (T3) 8.4±0.34, 8.4±0.34, 4.6±0.34, 4.5±1.01, and 3.4±0.23. Conclusion: The number of follicles and CL more in line with increasing doses of mycotoxin binders. Required more than 2 mg/mouse/day mycotoxin binders to inhibit the effects of ZEN so that its can maintain the number of primary follicle, secondary follicle, tertiary follicle, the de Graaf’s follicle, and the number of CL in the ovary of ZEN-exposed female mice (Mus musculus).
The EUSES Web macro Scenario Corpus, Version 1.0

Web macros use the programming-by-example concept to automate user actions within a web browser. Although web macro recorders and players have grown in sophistication over the past decade, we believe that these tools cannot yet meet the needs of real users. Based on observations of browser users, we have compiled various scenarios describing tasks that end users would benefit from automating using web macros. Our analysis of these scenarios yields specific requirements that web macro tools must support if those tools are to be applicable to real-life situations. For example, these opportunities for improvement include better support for triggering macros on events, authenticating to sites, transporting data to/from spreadsheets, taking advantage of data’s semantics, and recovering from errors. Our collection of requirements constitutes a benchmark for evaluating new and improved web macro tools. We developed this corpus as a collaboration within the EUSES Consortium, whose aim is to help End Users Shape Effective Software. This work was funded in part by the National Science Foundation under ITR grant CCF-0325273 (via the EUSES Consortium) and by the National Science Foundation under ITR grants CCF-0438929 and CCF0324861.
Monocular Vehicle Detection and Tracking

This project implements a vehicle detection and tracking system. This framework uses Haar cascade classifier for vehicle detection, and uses car-light features for validation. In order to smooth the detection and refine the detection result further, Kalman tracking is applied to every car hypothesis, additionally, a three-stage tracking is employed. Experiment shows that the car-light validation can largely reduce the false alarms, meanwhile preserving the detection rate; and that tracking can improve the detection result further. Given limited training set, although the Haar cascade classifier produces a large amount of false alarms, the detection system still yields satisfactory result with the refinement and tracking step.
Clickers, Student Engagement and Performance in an Introductory Economics Course: a Cautionary Tale

We examine whether clickers affect learning in an introductory economics course when introduced on a limited 'quizzing' basis in a traditional lecture course. Based on early and end of semester surveys, we assess whether clickers are associated with changes in student course performance or changes in student engagement. Using an education production function that controls for student GPA, etc., we find no significant differences between the clicker and nonclicker sections in student attitudes toward attendance, participation or class engagement, nor do we find any difference in exam performance. We conclude instructors should be cautious patching new technologies into traditional lecture courses, and universities cautious in mandating technology use.
Evidence of Drought Stress Memory in the Facultative CAM, Aptenia cordifolia: Possible Role of Phytohormones

Although plant responses to drought stress have been studied in detail in several plant species, including CAM plants, the occurrence of stress memory and possible mechanisms for its regulation are still very poorly understood. In an attempt to better understand the occurrence and possible mechanisms of regulation of stress memory in plants, we measured the concentrations of phytohormones in Aptenia cordifolia exposed to reiterated drought, together with various stress indicators, including leaf water contents, photosynthesis and mechanisms of photo- and antioxidant protection. Results showed that plants exposed to drought stress responded differently if previously challenged with a first drought. Gibberellin levels decreased upon exposure to the first drought and remained lower in double-stressed plants compared with those exposed to stress for the first time. In contrast, abscisic acid levels were higher in double- than single-stressed plants. This occurred in parallel with alterations in hydroperoxide levels, but not with malondialdehyde levels, thus suggesting an increased oxidation state that did not result in oxidative damage in double-stressed plants. It is concluded that (i) drought stress memory occurs in double-stressed A. cordifolia plants, (ii) both gibberellins and abscisic acid may play a role in plant response to repeated periods of drought, and (iii) changes in abscisic acid levels in double-stressed plants may have a positive effect by modulating changes in the cellular redox state with a role in signalling, rather than cause oxidative damage to the cell.
Taxation and Labor Supply of Married Couples Across Countries: A Macroeconomic Analysis

We document contemporaneous differences in the aggregate labor supply of married couples across 19 OECD countries. We quantify the contribution of international differences in non-linear labor income taxes and consumption taxes, as well as male and female wages, to the international differences in the data. Our model replicates the comparatively small differences of married men's hours worked very well. Moreover, taxes and wages account for a large part of the observed substantial differences in married women's labor supply between the US and Western, Eastern, and Northern Europe, but cannot explain the low labor supply of married women in Southern Europe.
Powerful learning environments and the development of technical expertise in Ghana: investigating the moderating effect of instructional conceptions

In this study the effectiveness of powerful learning environments (PLE), developed in line with the specifications of the 4C/ID-model, and the additional effect of ICT for fostering the development of technical expertise in traditional Ghanaian classrooms was assessed. The study also aimed at exploring the moderating effects of instructional conceptions on the effect (of the ICT and no-ICT version) of the PLE. The study involved a one by one by two pre-test post-test quasi-experiment with 144 students from three equivalent Secondary (Technical) Schools in Ghana. The average age of the participants was 18 years. Six volunteer technical teachers were trained to implement the interventions. Results indicate that a 4C/ID PLE promotes the development of technical expertise in secondary technical education better than teaching designed in line with classical instructional principles. Moreover, results reveal no significant difference of learning gains between the 4C/ID PLE with ICT group and the 4C/ID PLE without ICT group. In contrast to expectations, findings show no moderating effects of students' conceived functionality of the learning environment.
Spherical self-consistent atomic deformation model for first-principles energy calculations in ionic crystalline solids.

We present a first-principles method @called spherical self-consistent atomic deformation ~SSCAD! # for calculating the energy per unit cell in ionic crystalline solids. SSCAD is a density-functional method using the local-density approximation~LDA ! Wave functions are localized about each ion, resulting in a single-particle Schrödinger’s equation for each ion. To simplify the calculation, we spherically average the potential energy in each of these equations. The electron density is determined from the self-consistent solution of these equations. SSCAD scales as order N and runs very fast, even for crystals with large unit cells. We discuss some of the limitations of SSCAD, and we give examples of using SSCAD to determine crystalline structure, phonon dispersion, elastic moduli, and charge transfer. @S0163-1829 ~96! 07635-7#
Measurement of urinary metadrenaline and normetadrenaline by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry for the diagnosis of phaeochromocytoma

Background Measurement of metadrenalines has been recommended in the investigation of phaeochromocytoma. Urinary assays remain the most common; however, drug interference is still one of the main challenges for analytical systems. We have developed a liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method for the quantification of total urinary normetadrenaline and total urinary metadrenaline, which does not require extraction procedures prior to analysis. Method Total urinary normetadrenaline and total urinary metadrenaline were individually quantified by electrospray ionization in the multiple-reaction monitoring mode. Deuterated internal standards were used and an acid hydrolysis step was used to convert conjugated metabolites into free metadrenalines. Chromatographic separation was achieved using a Phenomenex Luna 3μ PFP column followed by analysis on an API 3200 LC–MS/MS. Results Linearity was exhibited across the calibration range for both normetadrenaline (r = 1, P < 0.0001) and metadrenaline (r = 1, P < 0.0001) with the limit of quantification of 0.05 and 0.02 μmol/L, respectively. Intra-assay imprecision for both normetadrenaline and metadrenaline was less than 5.5% with % coefficient of variations of less than 4%. Inter-assay imprecision was less than 13%. Neither noradrenaline or adrenaline interfere with the assay as determined by the spiking of samples with high concentrations of noradrenaline or adrenaline (P > 0.05). Acceptable analytical performance was seen with comparison to a high-performance liquid chromatography method and on External Quality Assessment returns. Conclusions An analytically simple and sensitive method has been developed and evaluated for the analysis of total urinary normetadrenaline and total urinary metadrenaline which is now in routine use.
Three-dimensional empiritraveltimes: construction and applications

SUMMARY A new approach for predicting traveltimes is proposed which makes use of sophisticated smoothing and interpolation techniques applied to observations from large earthquake catalogues. The technique produces 3-D empirical traveltimes directly from a database of observations and does not impose any arbitrary spatial scalelength on the data, for example by smoothing observations over a pre-determined distance interval. This feature allows the spatial variability in data density, as well as multiple length scales of heterogeneity, to be handled in a natural way. After removing the empirical traveltimes from observed traveltimes, the remaining residuals are spatially uncorrelated and, in this sense, all of the heterogeneity signal in the data is accounted for. Traveltimes predicted with the new approach compare favourably with those from 1-D and 3-D earth models. Application to nuclear blast data shows that traveltime residuals are reduced by 62 per cent, and for earthquake residuals a reduction of up to 42 per cent is achieved across a range of teleseismic phases. Our results show that the pattern of regional variability in P-wave traveltimes can also be recovered accurately. In the epicentre determination of 25 nuclear blasts, the use of empirical traveltimes in place of 3-D global velocity models reduced the average mislocation by over 59 per cent. This new approach can also be used to ‘de-noise’ large arrival time databases and to identify outliers. The methodology is quite flexible and can equally well be applied to local and regional seismicity.
Entity Linking Leveraging Automatically Generated Annotation

Entity linking refers entity mentions in a document to their representations in a knowledge base (KB). In this paper, we propose to use additional information sources from Wikipedia to find more name variations for entity linking task. In addition, as manually creating a training corpus for entity linking is laborintensive and costly, we present a novel method to automatically generate a large scale corpus annotation for ambiguous mentions leveraging on their unambiguous synonyms in the document collection. Then, a binary classifier is trained to filter out KB entities that are not similar to current mentions. This classifier not only can effectively reduce the ambiguities to the existing entities in KB, but also be very useful to highlight the new entities to KB for the further population. Furthermore, we also leverage on the Wikipedia documents to provide additional information which is not available in our generated corpus through a domain adaption approach which provides further performance improvements. The experiment results show that our proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches.
Clinical Phase 1 Testing of the Safety and Immunogenicity of an Epitope-Based DNA Vaccine in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1-Infected Subjects Receiving Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy

ABSTRACT A DNA vaccine encoding sequence-conserved human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-derived cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes from multiple HIV-1 gene products (designated EP HIV-1090) was evaluated in a placebo-controlled, dose escalation phase 1 clinical trial of HIV-1-infected subjects receiving potent combination antiretroviral therapy. Patients received four intramuscular immunizations with EP HIV-1090 over a 4-month period at one of four doses (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, or 4.0 mg) or received a placebo. The vaccine was determined to be safe and well tolerated at all doses tested. CTL responses were measured from cryopreserved peripheral blood mononuclear cells using gamma interferon enzyme-linked immunospot assays, with and without in vitro peptide stimulation (IVS). Responses to one or more vaccine epitopes were detected throughout the course of vaccination in 37.5% (12/32) and 47% (15/32) of vaccine recipients measured without and with IVS, respectively, indicating possible vaccine-induced priming of epitope-specific T cells. However, differences in rates of response to HIV-1 epitopes between vaccine and placebo recipients did not achieve statistical significance. The HIV-1 epitope-specific CTL responses measured in the peripheral blood after vaccination were often low level and short-lived, and therefore, alternative immunization schedules, routes of delivery, or vaccine formulations may be required to increase vaccine potency.
Depth Camera-Based 3D Hand Gesture Controls with Immersive Tactile Feedback for Natural Mid-Air Gesture Interactions

Vision-based hand gesture interactions are natural and intuitive when interacting with computers, since we naturally exploit gestures to communicate with other people. However, it is agreed that users suffer from discomfort and fatigue when using gesture-controlled interfaces, due to the lack of physical feedback. To solve the problem, we propose a novel complete solution of a hand gesture control system employing immersive tactile feedback to the user's hand. For this goal, we first developed a fast and accurate hand-tracking algorithm with a Kinect sensor using the proposed MLBP (modified local binary pattern) that can efficiently analyze 3D shapes in depth images. The superiority of our tracking method was verified in terms of tracking accuracy and speed by comparing with existing methods, Natural Interaction Technology for End-user (NITE), 3D Hand Tracker and CamShift. As the second step, a new tactile feedback technology with a piezoelectric actuator has been developed and integrated into the developed hand tracking algorithm, including the DTW (dynamic time warping) gesture recognition algorithm for a complete solution of an immersive gesture control system. The quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the integrated system were conducted with human subjects, and the results demonstrate that our gesture control with tactile feedback is a promising technology compared to a vision-based gesture control system that has typically no feedback for the user's gesture inputs. Our study provides researchers and designers with informative guidelines to develop more natural gesture control systems or immersive user interfaces with haptic feedback.
Contact-activated Monocytes: Efficient Antigen Presenting Cells for the Stimulation of Antigen-specific T cells

Mature dendritic cells (DCs) are potent antigen presenting cells (APCs) that have been used in vaccine studies and adoptive immunotherapy protocols. For many clinical studies DCs are derived from monocytes in the presence of cytokines, which are expensive and often unavailable for clinical use. Here we describe a cytokine independent method for the differentiation of monocytes into APCs for the reactivation of antigen-specific memory T cells from both healthy donors and cancer patients. Contact activation of monocytes resulted in secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, such as IL-8, and increased cell surface expression of costimulatory molecules. To determine if activated monocytes (actMo) like DC can reactivate antigen-specific CTL, they were transduced with adenoviral vectors encoding the subdominant Epstein Barr virus antigens, latent membrane proteins (LMP) 1 and 2, which are expressed in Epstein Barr virus-positive malignancies. Stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells with LMP1- and LMP2-expressing actMo activated LMP1- and LMP2-specific T cells, which could be further expanded with LMP1 or LMP2 expressing lymphoblastoid cell lines. The use of actMo as APCs simplifies the production/manufacture of antigen-specific T cells for clinical trials.
Role of reservoir operation in sustainable water supply to Subak irrigation schemes in Yeh Ho River Basin

A Subak irrigation scheme, primarily in Bali, Indonesia concerns an irrigation system of which the construction, operation and management are based on agreed principles of technology, management of agriculture and religious community. Subak systems have been well known since the 9th Century. As a manifestation of the Cultural Landscape of Bali Province the Subak schemes are since June, 2012 included in the World Heritage List of UNESCO. These systems are managed by a Subak Association based on the Tri Hita Karana philosophy - harmony between human beings and God, harmony between people and nature, and harmony between people and people. The problem of insufficient water in the dry season developed in the Yeh Ho River Basin. Because of this the main objective of this study was to develop an optimal reservoir operation strategy in relation to the water supply of the Subak irrigation schemes, capable to support agricultural productivity at upstream, midstream and downstream level. Based on a Generic Algorithm the RIBASIM model was applied using the dependable 80% of discharge and shifting the start of land preparation. The results provide evidence that the cropping pattern of the fifth scenario results in an overall optimal agriculture production of the Subak schemes. The recoverable flow considered in the river basin scheme model plays an important role in the optimisation. Nevertheless, if a normal hydro-climate occurs, the other scenarios, especially the first scenario, can be applied as well. This reflects the applicability of the Tri Hita Karana philosophy on harmony among people and harmony among people and nature.
The EHU Systems for the NIST 2011 Language Recognition Evaluation

This paper describes the systems developed by the Software Technologies Working Group of the University of the Basque Country (EHU) for the NIST 2011 Language Recognition Evaluation (LRE). One primary and three contrastive systems were submitted, all of them fusing five component subsystems: a Linearized Eigenchannel GMM (LE-GMM) subsystem, an iVector subsystem and three phone-lattice-SVM subsystems based on the publicly available BUT decoders for Czech, Hungarian an Russian. The four submitted systems were identical except for the backend approach and the development dataset used to estimate the backend and fusion parameters. Multiclass discriminative fusion was performed separately for each nominal duration. A development set was defined, including the evaluation sets of LRE07 and LRE09 and the development data provided by NIST for 9 additional languages in the 2011 campaign. The official results, which were among the best submitted to the evaluation, are presented and briefly discussed. Post-key analyses are also addressed in the paper, including the performance attained by component subsystems and a study of their contribution to fusion performance by means of a greedy selection procedure.
Characterization of the mitochondrial genome of Diphyllobothrium latum (Cestoda: Pseudophyllidea) – implications for the phylogeny of eucestodes

SUMMARY The complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome was determined for the fish tapeworm Diphyllobothrium latum. This genome is 13 608 bp in length and encodes 12 protein-coding genes (but lacks the atp8), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) and 2 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, corresponding to the gene complement found thus far in other flatworm mitochondrial (mt) DNAs. The gene arrangement of this pseudophyllidean cestode is the same as the 6 cyclophyllidean cestodes characterized to date, with only minor variation in structure among these other genomes; the relative position of trnS2 and trnL1 is switched in Hymenolepis diminuta. Phylogenetic analyses of the concatenated amino acid sequences for 12 protein-coding genes of all complete cestode mtDNAs confirmed taxonomic and previous phylogenetic assessments, with D. latum being a sister taxon to the cyclophyllideans. High nodal support and phylogenetic congruence between different methods suggest that mt genomes may be of utility in resolving ordinal relationships within the cestodes. All species of Diphyllobothrium infect fish-eating vertebrates, and D. latum commonly infects humans through the ingestion of raw, poorly cooked or pickled fish. The complete mitochondrial genome provides a wealth of genetic markers which could be useful for identifying different life-cycle stages and for investigating their population genetics, ecology and epidemiology.
Toxic Effects of Silver‐Silver Chloride Electrodes on Vascular Smooth Muscle

We found that silver, either as silver metal or silver chloride, exerted toxic effects on the smooth muscle of isolated cannulated hamster cheek pouch arterioles. Silver initially stimulated the smooth muscle, producing a marked vasoconstriction. The vessels then dilated back to control diameters. Once the arterioles began to dilate, they became refractory to norepinephrine or potassium stimulation. We caution the use of silver in the presence of smooth muscle, especially when tissue mass is small or free protein concentration is low.