Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Weight Loss by Ppc-1, a Novel Small Molecule Mitochondrial Uncoupler Derived from Slime Mold

Mitochondria play a key role in diverse processes including ATP synthesis and apoptosis. Mitochondrial function can be studied using inhibitors of respiration, and new agents are valuable for discovering novel mechanisms involved in mitochondrial regulation. Here, we screened small molecules derived from slime molds and other microorganisms for their effects on mitochondrial oxygen consumption. We identified Ppc-1 as a novel molecule which stimulates oxygen consumption without adverse effects on ATP production. The kinetic behavior of Ppc-1 suggests its function as a mitochondrial uncoupler. Serial administration of Ppc-1 into mice suppressed weight gain with no abnormal effects on liver or kidney tissues, and no evidence of tumor formation. Serum fatty acid levels were significantly elevated in mice treated with Ppc-1, while body fat content remained low. After a single administration, Ppc-1 distributes into various tissues of individual animals at low levels. Ppc-1 stimulates adipocytes in culture to release fatty acids, which might explain the elevated serum fatty acids in Ppc-1-treated mice. The results suggest that Ppc-1 is a unique mitochondrial regulator which will be a valuable tool for mitochondrial research as well as the development of new drugs to treat obesity.
Immunogenicity of a monovalent 2009 influenza A (H1N1) vaccine in an immunocompromised population: a prospective study comparing HIV-infected adults with HIV-uninfected adults.

BACKGROUND Limited data exist on the immunogenicity of the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) vaccine among immunocompromised persons, including those with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. METHODS We compared the immunogenicity and tolerability of a single dose of the monovalent 2009 influenza A (H1N1) vaccine (strain A/California/7/2009H1N1) between HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected adults 18-50 years of age. The primary end point was an antibody titer of ≥ 1:40 at day 28 after vaccination in those with a prevaccination level of ≤ 1:10, as measured by hemagglutination-inhibition assay. Geometric mean titers, influenza-like illnesses, and tolerability were also evaluated. RESULTS One hundred thirty-one participants were evaluated (65 HIV-infected and 66 HIV-uninfected patients), with a median age of 35 years (interquartile range, 27-42 years). HIV-infected persons had a median CD4 cell count of 581 cells/mm(3) (interquartile range, 476-814 cells/mm(3)) , and 82% were receiving antiretroviral medications. At baseline, 35 patients (27%) had antibody titers of >1:10. HIV-infected patients (29 [56%] of 52), compared with HIV-uninfected persons (35 [80%] of 44), were significantly less likely to develop an antibody response (odds ratio, .20; P = .003). Changes in the median geometric mean titer from baseline to day 28 were also significantly lower in HIV-infected patients than in HIV-uninfected persons (75 vs 153; P = .001). Five influenza-like illnesses occurred (2 cases in HIV-infected persons), but none was attributable to the 2009 influenza H1N1 virus. The vaccine was well tolerated in both groups. CONCLUSIONS Despite high CD4 cell counts and receipt of antiretroviral medications, HIV-infected adults generated significantly poorer antibody responses, compared with HIV-uninfected persons. Future studies evaluating a 2-dose series or more-immunogenic influenza A (H1N1) vaccines among HIV-infected adults are needed (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00996970).
Similarity learning via dissimilarity space in CBIR

In this paper, we introduce a new approach to learn dissimilarity for interactive search in content based image retrieval. In literature, dissimilarity is often learned via the feature space by feature selection,feature weighting or a parameterized function of the features. Different from existing techniques, we use relevance feedback to adjust dissimilarity in a dissimilarity space. To create a dissimilarity space, we use Pekalska's method [15]. After the user gives feed-back, we apply active learning with one-class SVM on this space. Results on a Corel dataset of 10000 images and a TrecVid collection of 43907 keyframes show that our proposed approach can improve the retrieval performance over the feature space based approach.
Fuzzy logic control of MPPT for photovoltaic power system

In order to use photovoltaic cell effectively and improve its photoelectric conversion efficiency, the maximum power point of photovoltaic generation system should be tracked rapidly and stably. After comparison and analysis for several kinds of frequently used maximum power point tracking control methods, fuzzy logic control method is proposed and its controller is designed. The fuzzy controller could quickly response to the changes of outside environment, keeping the photovoltaic generation system working at maximum power point all the time. The method can effectively eliminate the power oscillation around MPP and raise stability of the system. We model and simulate for a photovoltaic generation system in SIMULINK of MATLAB. The results show that the method can quickly and correctly track change of MPP in different light intensity and the system has excellent stability performance.
The Effect of Dietary Clove Oil on Broiler Performance

This study was carried out to determine the effect of addition different levels of clove oil, as a natural growth promoter, on broiler the performance . 105 unsexed, 7day-old commercial broiler chicks (Ross 308) were divided randomly into five groups, each group was subdivided into three replicates with seven chicks per each. The control diet was formulated to meet the nutrient requirements of broiler chicks (A),diet B was supplement with antibiotic(0.01),diets C,D and E were the control diet supplemented with 200,400 and 600mg/kg clove oil respectively. The diets were prepared freshly each day. Results showed that chicks fed on 600mg/kg clove oil recorded more in feed intake and body weight compared to both control and antibiotic groups ,but this increase was not significant (p<0.05). For feed conversion ratio (FCR) and body weight gain (BWG) chicks fed on diet with antibiotic recorded numerically the best value. Chicks fed on diets contain clove oil recorded the lowest rate of mortality compared to control group.
Selected Philosophical Essays: On the Cognitive Status and the Rationale of Scientific Methodology

1. Two Conceptions of the Methodology of Science In the course of its long history-most strikingly in recent centuries -scientific inquiry has vastly broadened man's knowledge and deepened his understanding of the world he lives in, and the remarkable successes of predictions and technological applications based on those insights are widely acknowledged as eloquent testimony to the soundness or the "rationality" of scientific methods of research. Yet, there is no unanimity among students of the methodology of science as to whether or to what extent it is possible to formulate clear and precise rules of procedure which are characteristic of scientific research and which make science the exemplar of rationality in the pursuit of reliable knowledge. Nor is there unanimity concerning the grounds on which such rules of scientific inquiry could be established and how, accordingly, their cognitive status is to be understood: is the method-
Subcellular Localization of Dihydropyrimidine Dehydrogenase

Although dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) has been purified and characterized from liver tissues of various mammals conflicting data exist on its subcellular localization. To determine the localization of DPD we prepared crude subcellular fractions of a rat liver homogenate by means of differential centrifugation. In the fractions obtained (heavy mitochondrial, light mitochondrial, microsomal and cytosolic) the activities of different marker enzymes were measured as well as the activity of DPD. These results showed that almost all of the activity of DPD was located in the cytosolic fraction. To exclude any particulate-associated DPD, a light mitochondrial fraction was subsequently subjected to equilibrium density gradient centrifugation. The distribution profile of the activity of DPD and the various marker enzymes indicated that DPD from rat liver was exclusively located in the cytosol since no significant activity of DPD could be detected in any subcellular organelle.
Malathion resistance and prevalence of the malathion carboxylesterase mechanism in populations of mosquito vectors of disease in Sri Lanka.

OBJECTIVE To determine the levels of malathion resistance and prevalence of the malathion carboxylesterase mechanism among mosquitoes in Sri Lanka. METHODS Bioassays were carried out using WHO-recommended methods on samples of the following Sri Lankan mosquito vectors: Culex quinquefasciatus, C. tritaeniorhynchus, C gelidus, Anopheles culicifacies B, A. subpictus, Aedes aegypti and A. albopictus. FINDINGS Malathion-specific carboxylesterase mechanisms were found in A. culicifaies and A. subpictus, both giving high rates of insecticide metabolism. In contrast, malathion resistance in C. quinquefasciatus and C. tritaeniorhynchus is linked to broad-spectrum resistance to organophosphorus compounds due to elevated levels of esterases that sequester malaoxon, but are unable to metabolize malathion. CONCLUSIONS Resistance among the Anophelesspp. must have occurred as a direct result of antimalarial activities, since malathion use in Sri Lanka is limited to public health treatments. In contrast, resistance among Culex spp. has resulted from large-scale use of the organophosphorus insecticide group as larvicides for filariasis control and on rice paddy, where C tritaeniorhynchus predominantly breeds, for agricultural purposes.
Using Schema Matching to Simplify Heterogeneous Data Translation

A broad spectrum of data is available on the Web in distinct heterogeneous sources, and stored under different formats. As the number of systems that utilize this heterogeneous data grows, the importance of data translation and conversion mechanisms increases greatly. In this paper we present a new translation system, based on schema-matching, aimed at simplifying the intricate task of data conversion. We observe that in many cases the schema of the data in the source system is very similar to that of the target system. In such cases, much of the translation work can be done automatically, based on the schemas similarity. This saves a lot of effort for the user, limiting the amount of programming needed. We define common schema and data models, in which schemas and data (resp.) from many common models can be represented. Using a rule-based method, the source schema is compared with the target one, and each component in the source schema is matched with a corresponding component in the target schema. Then, based on the matching achieved, data instances of the source schema can be translated to instances of the target schema. We show that our schema-based translation system allows a convenient specification and customization of data conversions, and can be easily combined with the traditional data-based translation languages.
Native Language Identification using Stacked Generalization

Ensemble methods using multiple classifiers have proven to be the most successful approach for the task of Native Language Identification (NLI), achieving the current state of the art. However, a systematic examination of ensemble methods for NLI has yet to be conducted. Additionally, deeper ensemble architectures such as classifier stacking have not been closely evaluated. We present a set of experiments using three ensemble-based models, testing each with multiple configurations and algorithms. This includes a rigorous application of meta-classification models for NLI, achieving state-of-the-art results on three datasets from different languages. We also present the first use of statistical significance testing for comparing NLI systems, showing that our results are significantly better than the previous state of the art. We make available a collection of test set predictions to facilitate future statistical tests.
Women’s hair as a cue to desired relationship and parenting characteristics

ABSTRACT We investigated how women’s hair color (blond, brown, black) and length (short, medium, long) influences males’ judgments about the women’s age, health, physical attractiveness, relationship potential, and parenting capability. Results, which are generally consistent with evolutionary psychology approaches, indicate that hair color and, to a lesser extent, length can affect perceptions of personal characteristics. More specifically, we found that lighter hair (blond and brown) compared to darker hair (black) is generally associated with perceptions of youth, health and attractiveness, and generally leads to more positive perceptions of relationship and parenting potential. Furthermore, the relationships between variables suggest that characteristics directly related to reproductive potential may be inferred from more obvious indirect characteristics. These results suggest that males are able to make complex judgments about women concerning their desirable relationship and parenting potential based on discernable characteristics such as hair color and length.
MicroRNA Regulatory Patterns on the Human Metabolic Network~!2008-10-09~!2008-10-22~!2008-11-28~!

MicroRNA (miRNA) is an emerging class of non-coding small RNAs, which post-transcriptionally regulate a large number of genes and become important regulators of a broad spectrum of biological processes. To understand the principles of miRNA regulation of metabolic networks, we systematically analyzed the relationships between miRNA tar- gets and network nodes (enzymes) which have distinct network structural features through mapping the miRNA targets onto a human metabolic network. Our analysis showed that miRNAs preferentially regulate hub nodes, i.e., top 5% of the highly connected nodes in the network, and the network cut points which are the bottle-necks of metabolic flows, how- ever, avoid regulating intermediate nodes which are the nodes between the hub nodes, cut points, upstream nodes and the output nodes. Furthermore, two or three consecutive linear metabolic reactions in the network are enriched with miRNA targets, while metabolic branches are depleted with miRNA targets. By targeting the network nodes with distinct network structural features, miRNA regulates metabolic networks regionally and locally to reduce specific metabolite production in a way of fine-tune modulating metabolic flows. Functional association analysis of miRNAs and metabolic pathways uncovered that miRNAs predominantly regulate central metabolic pathways such as amino acid biosynthesis, certain sugar and lipid metabolism.
Clutter suppression for harmonic Doppler detection in swept-scan high-frequency system

In high-frequency swept-scan Doppler system, the spectral broadening of tissue clutter limits the detectability of low-velocity flow signal. Conventionally, the scanning speed of transducer has to be reduced to alleviate the clutter interference but at the cost of imaging frame rate. With third harmonic (3f0) transmit phasing, the tissue harmonic clutter is suppressed and the cut-off frequency of wall filtering can be reduced to preserve low-velocity flow without compromising the frame rate. Our results indicate that the 3f0 transmit phasing effectively reduces the harmonic clutter magnitude and thus improves the flow signal-to-clutter ratio. Compared to the conventional counterpart, the clutter-suppressed color flow and power Doppler images show fewer clutter artifacts and is capable of detecting more low-velocity flow of microbubbles. The resultant color-pixel-density also improves with clutter suppression. For the swept-scan high-frequency system, 3f0 transmit phasing is capable of providing effective clutter suppression. With the same achievable scanning speed, the resultant Doppler image has higher sensitivity for low-velocity flow and is less susceptible to clutter artifacts.
Target graph matching for building reconstruction

We present a building reconstruction approach, which is based on a target graph matching algorithm to relate laser data with building models. Establishing this relation is important for adding building knowledge to the data. Our targets are topological representations of the most common roof structures which are stored in a database. Laser data is segmented into planar patches. Topological relations between segments, in terms of intersection lines and height jumps, are represented in a building roof graph. This graph is matched with the graphs from the database. Segments and intersection lines that do not fit to an existing target roof topology will be removed from the automated reconstruction approach. For the geometric reconstruction our approach is flexible to use information from data and/or model. For specific object parts it might be better to use model constraints as the data might not appropriately represent the object. As our approach combines data and model driven techniques, we speak of an object driven reconstruction approach. We present our algorithm using airborne laser scanner data with about 15 pts/m 2 . Existing 2D map data with scale 1:1000 has been used for selection of building segments, for outlining flat building roofs and to reconstruct walls.
Medical Imaging in Small Bowel Crohn's Disease—Computer Tomography Enterography, Magnetic Resonance Enterography, and Ultrasound: “Which One Is the Best for What?”

Background:Small bowel imaging in Crohn's disease (CD) is an important adjunct to endoscopy for the diagnosis, assessment of postoperative recurrence, and detection of complications. The best imaging modality for such indications though remains unclear. This systematic review aims to identify the imaging modality of choice considering the use of ultrasound (US), computed tomography enterography (CTE), and magnetic resonance enterography (MRE). Methods:Databases were systematically searched for studies pertaining to the performance of US, CTE, and MRE, as compared with a predefined reference standard in the assessment of small bowel CD. Results:Thirty-three studies, from a total of 1427 studies, were included in the final analysis. A comparable performance was demonstrated for MRE, CTE, and US for the diagnosis of small CD. Ultrasound was found to have the highest accuracy in the differentiation of inflammation and fibrosis. Postoperative recurrence detection was feasible with the use of MRE and US. All 3 modalities were shown to have a role in the detection of small bowel CD complications. The radiation exposure associated with CTE can be minimized by using lower radiation protocols. Conclusions:Ultrasound, CTE, and MRE all play an important role in the diagnosis and management of small bowel CD, with preference for a particular modality being influenced by specific indication, institution resources, and patient preference.
BpeAB-OprB, a Multidrug Efflux Pump in Burkholderia pseudomallei

ABSTRACT Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis, is intrinsically resistant to a wide range of antimicrobial agents, including β-lactams, aminoglycosides, macrolides, and polymyxins. An operon, bpeR-bpeA-bpeB-oprB, which encodes a putative repressor, a membrane fusion protein, an inner membrane protein, and an outer membrane protein, respectively, of a multidrug efflux pump of the resistance-nodulation-division family was identified in B. pseudomallei. The divergently transcribed bpeR gene encodes a putative repressor protein of the TetR family which probably regulates the expression of the bpeAB-oprB gene cluster. Comparison of the MICs and minimal bactericidal concentrations of antimicrobials for bpeAB deletion mutant KHWΔbpeAB and its isogenic wild-type parent, KHW, showed that the B. pseudomallei BpeAB-OprB pump is responsible for the efflux of the aminoglycosides gentamicin and streptomycin, the macrolide erythromycin, and the dye acriflavine. Antibiotic efflux by the BpeAB-OprB pump was dependent on a proton gradient and differs from that by the AmrAB-OprA pump in that it did not efflux the aminoglycoside spectinomycin or the macrolide clarithromycin. The broad-spectrum efflux pump inhibitor MC-207,110 did not potentiate the effectiveness of the antimicrobials erythromycin and streptomycin in B. pseudomallei.
An Information-Theoretic Approach for Privacy Protection in OLAP Systems

We address issues related to the protection of private information in Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) systems, where a major privacy concern is the adversarial inference of private information from OLAP query answers. Most previous work on privacy-preserving OLAP focuses on a single aggregate function and/or addresses only exact disclosure, which eliminates from consideration an important class of privacy breaches where partial information, but not exact values, of private data is disclosed (i.e., partial disclosure). We address privacy protection against both exact and partial disclosure in OLAP systems with mixed aggregate functions. In particular, we propose an information-theoretic inference control approach that supports a combination of common aggregate functions (e.g., COUNT, SUM, MIN, MAX, MEDIAN) and guarantees the level of privacy disclosure not to exceed thresholds pre-determined by the data owners. We demonstrate that our approach is efficient and can be implemented in existing OLAP systems with little modification. It also satisfies the simulatable auditing model and leaks no private information through query rejections. Through performance analysis, we show that compared with previous approaches, our approach provides more effective privacy protection while maintaining a higher level of query-answer availability. Furthermore, our approach can be readily integrated with perturbation-based mechanisms to improve the performance of both.
How Should We Use Colour in Euler Diagrams?

This paper addresses the problem of how best to use colour in Euler diagrams. The choice of using coloured curves, rather than black curves, possibly with coloured fill is often made in tools that automatically draw Euler diagrams for information visualization as well as when they are drawn manually. We address the problem by empirically evaluating various different colour treatments: coloured or black curves combined with either no fill or coloured fill. By collecting performance data, we conclude that Euler diagrams with coloured curves and no fill significantly outperform all other colour treatments. Most automated layout algorithms adopt colour fill and are, thus, reducing the effectiveness of the Euler diagrams produced. As Euler diagrams can be used in a multitude of areas, ranging from crime control to social network analysis, our results stand to increase the ability of users to accurately and quickly extract information from their visualizations.