Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterisation of antibacterial Australian medicinal plant extracts by investigation of the mechanism of action and the effect of interfering substances

Propidium iodide (PI) uptake and salt tolerance assays were used to investigate the mechanism of antibacterial action of an extract of the leaves of Eremophila duttonii, a traditional Australian medicinal plant previously shown to have potent bactericidal activity against Gram positive bacteria. The extract compromised the integrity of the cytoplasmic membrane of Staphylococcus aureus , leading to increased membrane permeability (indicated by uptake of PI) and a decrease in ability to exclude NaCl. The bactericidal action of the E. duttonii extract was concluded to be due to its membrane‐active properties. The effect of contaminants on the efficacy of this extract and other medicinal plant extracts was also investigated. Organic contaminants (bakers' yeast and skim milk powder) decreased the efficacy of all extracts investigated, while hard water had no effect. Greater understanding of the biocidal properties of the plant extracts investigated may determine if they have medical, industrial or environmental applications. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Management of Bone Loss After Organ Transplantation

Organ transplant recipients experience rapid bone loss and high fracture rates, particularly during the early post‐transplant period. Early rapid bone loss occurs in the setting of uncoupled bone turnover with increased bone resorption and decreased bone formation. Because there are no clinical factors that reliably predict post‐transplant bone loss and fractures in the individual patient, all transplant recipients should be considered candidates for early preventive therapy for osteoporosis. Long‐term transplant recipients with densitometric osteoporosis and/or fractures should also receive treatment. Although active metabolites of vitamin D and bisphosphonates have both shown efficacy, data from clinical trials suggest that bisphosphonates are the safest and most consistently effective agents for the prevention and treatment of post‐transplantation osteoporosis in adults. Kidney transplant recipients represent a special population, and more research is needed to delineate the risks and benefits of treating bone disease in these patients.
Does CRM Training Improve Teamwork Skills in the Cockpit?: Two Evaluation Studies

Crew resource management (CRM) has been the most widely used instructional strategy to enhance teamwork skills within aviation. However, few studies have provided empirical evidence that this strategy results in increased use of teamwork behaviors. The current paper describes 2 evaluation studies of CRM training that were conducted with 96 naval aviators and followed a multiple assessment approach. Results indicated that highly experienced aviators benefited from the training, which focused on increasing the use of several critical teamwork skills. These rare evaluation data suggest that CRM training is a viable strategy for improving teamwork in the cockpit. Implications for team training are discussed.
Prefrontal cognition in schizophrenia and bipolar illness in relation to Val66Met polymorphism of the brain‐derived neurotrophic factor gene

Abstract The measures of prefrontal cognition have been used as endophenotype in molecular‐genetic studies. Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been implicated in cognitive functions and in the pathogenesis of major psychoses. This study investigates the relationship between Val66Met polymorphisms of the BDNF gene and prefrontal cognitive function in 129 patients with schizophrenia and 111 patients with bipolar mood disorder. Cognitive tests included the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), with such domains as number of perseverative errors, non‐perseverative errors, completed corrected categories, conceptual level responses, and set to the first category, and the N‐back test, where mean reaction time and percent of correct reactions were measured. Genotyping for Val66Met BDNF polymorphism was done by polymerase chain reaction method. In schizophrenia, no relationship between Val66Met polymorphism of the BDNF gene and the results of the WCST was observed. Patients with Val/Val genotype had a higher percentage of correct reactions in the N‐back test than those with the remaining genotypes. Bipolar patients with Val/Val genotype obtained significantly better results on three of five domains of the WCST. No relationship between BDNF polymorphism and the results of the N‐back test was found in this group. A limitation to the results could be variable psychopathological state and medication during cognitive testing and lack of Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in schizophrenia group. Val66Met polymorphism of the BDNF gene may be associated with cognitive performance on the WCST in bipolar mood disorder but not in schizophrenia. An association of this polymorphism with performance on the N‐back test in schizophrenia and not in bipolar illness may suggest that in schizophrenia, the BDNF system may be connected with early phases of information processing.
ProphetMT: A Tree-based SMT-driven Controlled Language Authoring/Post-Editing Tool

This paper presents ProphetMT, a tree-based SMT-driven Controlled Language (CL) authoring and post-editing tool. ProphetMT employs the source-side rules in a translation model and provides them as auto-suggestions to users. Accordingly, one might say that users are writing in a Controlled Language that is understood by the computer. ProphetMT also allows users to easily attach structural information as they compose content. When a specific rule is selected, a partial translation is promptly generated on-the-fly with the help of the structural information. Our experiments conducted on English-to-Chinese show that our proposed ProphetMT system can not only better regularise an author’s writing behaviour, but also significantly improve translation fluency which is vital to reduce the post-editing time. Additionally, when the writing and translation process is over, ProphetMT can provide an effective colour scheme to further improve the productivity of post-editors by explicitly featuring the relations between the source and target rules.
The Effect of Semantic Difference on Non-expert Judgments of Simplified Sentences

Advances in text simplification depend on reliable judgments of sentence difficulty. The ability of untrained native English speakers to judge sentence difficulty in the presence of variation in semantic similarity is examined using cloze tests and a forced-choice comparison task. Judgments from participants in web-based experiments demonstrate ability to assess sentence difficulty of professionally leveled sentence pairs with 84% accuracy. The comparison task results suggest that participants’ ability to judge comparative sentence difficulty is inversely related to semantic similarity; that is, contrary to our intuition, speakers appear more accurate at judging sentence difficulty for sentences that are dissimilar than for those that are similar.
Analysis and Performance Evaluation of the IEEE 802.16 ARQ Mechanism

The IEEE 802.16 standard defines the ARQ mechanism as a part of the MAC layer. The functioning of the ARQ mechanism depends on a number of parameters. The IEEE 802.16 specification defines them but it does not provide concrete values and solutions. This paper studies the key features and parameters of the 802.16 ARQ mechanism. In particular, we consider a choice for the ARQ feedback type, an algorithm to build block sequences, the ARQ feedback intensity, a scheduling of the ARQ feedbacks and retransmissions, the ARQ block rearrangement, ARQ transmission window and the ARQ block size. We ran simulation scenarios to study these parameters and how they impact the performance of application protocols. The simulation results reveal that the ARQ mechanism and its correct configuration play an important role in achieving reliable data transmission.
People Mobility Behaviour Study in a University Campus Using WLANs

Wireless Local Area Networks are becoming necessary in university campuses and enterprise areas. Taking advantage of this technology, many benefits can be obtained. One of them is the use of the user’s mobility information when there is ubiquity in the wireless network. This information can tell us which places are most visited, if people have to go to places that are far from their office, detect the best situation for critic points, etc. The study presented in this paper show us the case study of a university campus of two square kilometers and how we have taken advantage of the information gathered from the wireless network. This approach can be used by the enterprises to optimize the sites to place their resources (network printers, servers, meeting rooms, etc.). Furthermore, a network administrator will be able to relocate bandwidth in order to increase the comfort of the end users.
Rastaman: The Rastafarian movement in England

Preface 1. Introduction: The Sociological Interest in Rasta 2. The Rastaman in Jamaica 3. From Evasion to Truculence 4. Rasta Renaissance 5. The Journey to Jah 6. Echoes of Suffering 7. Creating Rastafarian Reality 8. In search of the True Self 9. Encounters in Babylon 10. The Handsworth Panic 11. Conclusion: The Spell of Africa Appendix: Statement of a Rastaman Bibliography Index
Endangered Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) of the Northern Mariana Islands: Nesting Ecology, Poaching, and Climate Concerns

Marine turtles in the western Pacific remain threatened by anthropogenic impacts, but the region lacks long-term biological data for assessing conservation status and trends. The Central West Pacific (CWP) population of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) was listed as Endangered by the U.S. in 2016, highlighting a need to fill existing data gaps. This study focuses on the subset of this population nesting in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Using 11 years of nesting data, we (i) estimate reproductive demographic parameters, (ii) quantify abundance and trends, and (iii) estimate the impacts of anthropogenic threats, such as poaching of nesting females and increasing sand temperatures. In 2006-2016, nesting beach surveys, identification tagging, and nest excavations were conducted on Saipan, and rapid assessments of nesting activity were conducted on Tinian and Rota. On Saipan, temperature data-loggers were deployed inside nests and evidence of poaching (adults and eggs) was recorded. This study documents year-round nesting with a peak in March–July. Nester abundance for the three islands combined was 12 ± 6 (mean ± standard deviation) females annually, with at least 63 ± 35 nests observed per year. For 39 tagged individuals, straight carapace length was 95.6 ± 4.5 cm, remigration interval was 4.6 ± 1.3 years, and somatic growth was 0.3 ± 0.2 cm yr-1. Reproductive parameter estimates included clutch frequency of 7 ± 1.3 nests per female, inter-nesting interval of 11.4 ± 0.9 days, clutch size of 93 ± 21 eggs, incubation period of 55 ± 6.4 days, hatching success of 77.9% ± 27.0, and emergence success of 69.6% ± 30.3. Mean nest temperature of 30.9 ± 1.5°C was above the pivotal threshold of 29.0°C for temperature dependent sex determination, suggesting a female-bias may already exist. Model results suggest (i) hatching success decreases and embryonic death increases when nests experience maximum temperatures beyond 34°C, and (ii) embryonic death increases in nests with mean temperatures beyond 31°C. On Saipan, 32% of nesters were poached, reducing the annual population growth rate from 11.4% to 7.4%. This study provides the first comprehensive assessment of a nesting green turtle population in the Mariana Archipelago.
Evidence for a functional relevance of the selenocysteine residue in mammalian thioredoxin reductase

Human thioredoxin reductase was recently shown to contain a TGA encoded selenocysteine residue at the penultimate position of its amino acid chain. Depending on the availability of selenium during biosynthesis, an authentic selenocysteine‐containing or a selenium‐free enzyme truncated at the penultimate position is expected to be formed. Correspondingly, the enzymatic activity should be altered by selenium restriction, if the selenocysteine residue is functionally important. In order to check the catalytic role of the selenocysteine residue, four different human cell lines were grown in selenium deficient media or with adequate selenium supplementation (40 nM sodium selenite) and thioredoxin reductase activity was measured as NADPH‐dependent DTNB reduction or thioredoxin‐mediated insulin reduction. Thioredoxin reductase activities, like glutathione peroxidase activities, were consistently higher in selenium supplemented cells, whereas glutathione reductase activity was not affected by the selenium. The dose‐response was similar for thioredoxin reductase and glutathione peroxidase, but the recovery of glutathione peroxidase activity upon selenium supplementation was faster than with thioredoxin reductase. Also the increase of glutathione peroxidase activities was substantially higher than that of thioredoxin reductase (400–1200% versus a maximum of 250%). These observations clearly indicate a catalytic role of the selenocysteine residue in the thioredoxin reductase, but suggest either the existence of a selenium‐unresponsive isoenzyme or a residual disulfide reductase activity in the selenium‐free truncated protein made under conditions of selenium deficiency.
A Space-Vector Modulation Method for Common-Mode Voltage Reduction in Current-Source Converters

The common-mode voltage (CMV) produced from a converter system is a source of many problems, e.g., in the motor drive system, CMV might appear at the neutral point of the motor stator windings with respect to the ground and induce destructive bearing current. Reduced CMV space-vector modulation (RCMV SVM) methods have been proposed in both voltage-source converter (VSC) and current-source converter (CSC) systems. The available RCMV SVMs reduce the CMV by avoiding using zero-state vectors. However, this will lead to some negative effects, such as shrink of modulation index range, increase of switching frequencies, bipolar line-to-line voltage pulse patterns in VSCs, and power quality performance deterioration. In this paper, a RCMV SVM method for CSCs is proposed. By allowing the use of zero-state vectors, the proposed RCMV SVM still produces much lower CMV. However, its other performance indices, such as switching frequency and harmonic performance, are unaffected and comparable to the conventional SVMs. The effectiveness of the proposed RCMV SVM for CSCs is verified in the simulations and experiments.
Diabetes risk perception in women with recent gestational diabetes: delivery to the postpartum visit

Abstract Objective: Low perceived risk for type 2 diabetes (T2DM) may be a barrier to lifestyle change in women with recent gestational diabetes (GDM). We assessed perceived risk for T2DM at delivery and postpartum. Methods: We used a validated diabetes risk perception instrument to survey women with GDM at delivery and postpartum. We compared women with low perceived risk for T2DM at delivery to those with high perceived risk. Results: The majority (N = 43 of 70, 61%) perceived high risk at delivery. Women who perceived low risk were younger (30.7 ± 6.3 versus 35.0 ± 4.5 years, p = 0.003) than women who perceived high risk. Although knowledge of risk factors for T2DM was poor (mean 6.0 ± 1.9, of 11 points), 95% correctly identified GDM as a risk factor. Perceived risk was maintained in most (N = 51 of 58, 88%) who returned for their postpartum visit. Low perceived risk was not associated with loss to follow up, however correct identification of GDM as a risk factor was protective (OR 0.05, 95% CI 0.005, 0.56). Conclusions: Risk perception is accurate in most women with GDM at delivery and postpartum. Further study is needed to translate perceived risk into preventive behaviors in women with recent GDM.
Chronic insomnia is associated with nyctohemeral activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis: clinical implications.

Although insomnia is, by far, the most commonly encountered sleep disorder in medical practice, our knowledge in regard to its neurobiology and medical significance is limited. Activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis leads to arousal and sleeplessness in animals and humans; however, there is a paucity of data regarding the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in insomniacs. We hypothesized that chronic insomnia is associated with increased plasma levels of ACTH and cortisol. Eleven young insomniacs (6 men and 5 women) and 13 healthy controls (9 men and 4 women) without sleep disturbances, matched for age and body mass index, were monitored in the sleep laboratory for 4 consecutive nights, whereas serial 24-h plasma measures of ACTH and cortisol were obtained during the fourth day. Insomniacs, compared with controls, slept poorly (significantly higher sleep latency and wake during baseline nights). The 24-h ACTH and cortisol secretions were significantly higher in insomniacs, compared with normal controls (4.2 +/- 0.3 vs. 3.3 +/- 0.3 pM, P = 0.04; and 218.0 +/- 11.0 vs. 190.4 +/- 8.3 nM, P = 0.07). Within the 24-h period, the greatest elevations were observed in the evening and first half of the night. Also, insomniacs with a high degree of objective sleep disturbance (% sleep time < 70), compared with those with a low degree of sleep disturbance, secreted a higher amount of cortisol. Pulsatile analysis revealed a significantly higher number of peaks per 24 h in insomniacs than in controls (P < 0.05), whereas cosinor analysis showed no differences in the temporal pattern of ACTH or cortisol secretion between insomniacs and controls. We conclude that insomnia is associated with an overall increase of ACTH and cortisol secretion, which, however, retains a normal circadian pattern. These findings are consistent with a disorder of central nervous system hyperarousal rather than one of sleep loss, which is usually associated with no change or decrease in cortisol secretion or a circadian disturbance. Chronic activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in insomnia suggests that insomniacs are at risk not only for mental disorders, i.e. chronic anxiety and depression, but also for significant medical morbidity associated with such activation. The therapeutic goal in insomnia should be to decrease the overall level of physiologic and emotional arousal, and not just to improve the nighttime sleep.
ADAPTIVE ROBUST TECHNIQUES FOR BACKGROUND SUBTRACTION USING CLUSTERING ALGORITHM CHAITHANYA NASKANTI

IJCSIET-ISSUE5-VOLUME2-SERIES3 Page 1 ADAPTIVE ROBUST TECHNIQUES FOR BACKGROUND SUBTRACTION USING CLUSTERING ALGORITHM CHAITHANYA NASKANTI chaithanyanaskanti@gmail.com M.TECH MRS. SUWARNA GOTHANE gothane.suvarna@gmail.com ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CMRTC, MEDCHAL, HYDERABAD 2 Abstract: Background subtraction is essential part of video analysis. Video analysis includes background model followed by a regularization scheme. A model of the background allows it to be distinguished up on a per-pixel basis from the foreground with original image, while the regularization combines information from adjacent pixels within the image. In this paper we present a new method based on kmeans Algorithm to find out the objects, which are used to estimate per-pixel background distribution with the foreground. Backend image: Which is already stored whenever we start the camera? Foreground image: Which are captured by the webcam and these are compared with the background image to get the status. KMeans produce tighter clusters than hierarchical clustering, especially if the clusters are globular. Kmeans is good performance compared to remaining.
Multilayer soft switchable predictive speed controller for the drive with elastic coupling

The paper presents a new robust predictive speed controller with soft-switched controls. The proposed control structure is based on the predictive controller off-line calculated for different values of the unknown parameter. Then, depending on the parameter estimates soft switching approach follows between the MPC control laws. A preliminary point discusses the problems of motion control of the drive with elastic coupling and variable parameters. In the following chapters a model of the drive and the proposed control structure is presented. Theoretical considerations are supported by experimental studies.
SERP1 is a novel marker of poor prognosis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients via anti-apoptosis and regulating SRPRB/NF-κB axis

Stress associated endoplasmic reticulum protein 1 (SERP1), can cause accumulation of unfolded proteins in ER stress. However, studies on the role of SERP1 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) are still incomplete. The present study aimed at identifying whether SERP1 acts as a potential novel prognostic marker of PDAC, and analyzed its possible mechanism. GEO database analysis showed SERP1 was significantly upregulated in PDAC tissues, and strongly associated with advanced clinical stage of PDAC patients from TCGA database. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis further revealed SERP1 high expression was an independent factor for the prognosis of PDAC. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) revealed that SERP1 was mainly involved in regulating cell apoptosis and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling pathway, and downregulated SERP1 significantly promoted PANC-1 cell apoptosis. To further explore its possible mechanism, protein-protein interaction (PPI) and gene ontology (GO) analysis showed the functions of proteins interacting with SERP1 were mainly enriched in regulating cell apoptosis, and SRP receptor β subunit (SRPRB) was the core of the whole PPI network. The expression of SERP1 was negatively correlated with SRPRB expression. In vitro, downregulated SERP1 significantly increased SRPRB expression. Furthermore, upregulated SRPRB could increase cell apoptosis rate and decreased the expression level of NF-κB and the phosphorylation NF-κB. The above results indicated that SERP1 as a potential novel prognostic marker of PDAC probably via regulating cell apoptosis and NF-κB activation, which may be associated with SRPRB.
Genetics of Resistance to Haemonchus contortus infections in sheep

17 Introduction . 17 Materials and Methods . 18 Animals, management and experimental design. 18 Data analysis . 19 Results . 20 Ewes . 20 Lambs . 21 Discussion . 22 Conclusions . 23 Literature Cited . 24 CHAPTER 3. Inheritance of fecal egg count, packed cell volume, and body weight, and their relationship with production traits in sheep infected with Haemonchus contortus . 36 Abstract . 36 Introduction . 36 Materials and Methods . 37. 36 Introduction . 36 Materials and Methods . 37 Animals, management and experimental design. 37 Data analysis . 38
ATP inhibition of a mouse brain large‐conductance K+ (mslo) channel variant by a mechanism independent of protein phosphorylation

1 We investigated the effect of ATP in the regulation of two closely related cloned mouse brain large conductance calcium‐ and voltage‐activated potassium (BK) channel α‐subunit variants, expressed in human embryonic kidney (HEK 293) cells, using the excised inside‐out configuration of the patch‐clamp technique. 2 The mB2 BK channel α‐subunit variant expressed alone was potently inhibited by application of ATP to the intracellular surface of the patch with an IC50 of 30 μM. The effect of ATP was largely independent of protein phosphorylation events as the effect of ATP was mimicked by the non‐hydrolysable analogue 5′‐adenylylimidodiphosphate (AMP‐PNP) and the inhibitory effect of ATPγS was reversible. 3 In contrast, under identical conditions, direct nucleotide inhibition was not observed in the closely related mouse brain BK channel α‐subunit variant mbr5. Furthermore, direct nucleotide regulation was not observed when mB2 was functionally coupled to regulatory β‐subunits. 4 These data suggest that the mB2 α‐subunit splice variant could provide a dynamic link between cellular metabolism and cell excitability.