Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Induced Responses in Phenolic Metabolism in Two Norway Spruce Clones after Wounding and Inoculations with Ophiostoma polonicum, a Bark Beetle-Associated Fungus

Two Norway spruce (Picea abies Karst.) clones, one resistant and the other susceptible to mass inoculation with Ophiostoma polonicum Siem. , were compared with regard to their phenolic compositions and chalcone synthase (CHS) and stilbene synthase activities of their phloem before and at 6 and 12 d after artificial inoculation with sterile malt agar or O. polonicum. In unwounded phloem, the resistant clone differed from the susceptible clone by the presence of taxifolin glycoside, lower concentrations of stilbene glycosides, and higher CHS activity. After inoculation, (+)-catechin concentration and CHS activity dramatically increased around the wound, particularly in the resistant clone. Stilbene synthase activity also increased, but more slowly and to a lower level, whereas the concentrations of stilbenes remained stable. Tanning ability decreased in the susceptible clone, whereas it remained stable in the resistant one. It is proposed that the induced phenolic response of Norway spruce phloem consists of an activation of the phenolic pathway, finally leading to tannins and insoluble polymers. It is suggested that resistance to O. polonicum depends on the ability of the tree to easily activate the flavonoid pathway.
Associations between healthcare quality and use of electronic health record functions in ambulatory care

OBJECTIVES Contemporary electronic health records (EHRs) offer a wide variety of features, creating opportunities to influence healthcare quality in different ways. This study was designed to assess the relationship between physician use of individual EHR functions and healthcare quality. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty-five providers eligible for "meaningful use" were included. Data were abstracted from office visit records during the study timeframe (183 095 visits with 61 977 patients). Three EHR functions were considered potential predictors: acceptance of best practice alerts, use of order sets, and viewing panel-level reports. Eighteen clinical quality measures from the "meaningful use" program were abstracted. RESULTS Use of condition-specific best-practice alerts and order sets was associated with better scores on clinical quality measures capturing processes in diabetes, cancer screening, tobacco cessation, and pneumonia vaccination. For example, providers above the median in use of tobacco-related alerts had higher performance on tobacco cessation intervention metrics (median 80.6% vs. 66.7%; P < .001), and providers above the median in use of diabetes order sets had higher quality on diabetes low density lipoprotein (LDL) testing (68.2% vs. 59.5%; P == .001). Post hoc examination of the results showed that the positive associations were with measures of healthcare processes (such as rates of LDL testing), whereas there were no positive associations with measures of healthcare outcomes (such as LDL levels). DISCUSSION Among primary care providers in the ambulatory setting using a single EHR, intensive use of certain EHR functions was associated with increased adherence to recommended care as measured by performance on electronically reported "meaningful use" quality measures. This study is relevant to current policy as it uses quality metrics constructed by contemporary certified EHR technology, and quantitative EHR use metrics rather than self-reported use. CONCLUSION In the early stages of the "meaningful use" program, use of specific EHR functions was associated with higher performance on healthcare process metrics.
A Diverse Repertoire of CD4 T Cells Targets the Immediate-Early 1 Protein of Human Cytomegalovirus

T-cell responses to the immediate-early 1 (IE-1) protein of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) are associated with protection from viral disease. Thus, IE-1 is a promising target for immunotherapy. CD8 T-cell responses to IE-1 are generally strong. In contrast, CD4 T-cell responses to IE-1 were described to be comparatively infrequent or undetectable in HCMV carriers, and information on their target epitopes and their function has been limited. To analyze the repertoire of IE-1-specific CD4 T cells, we expanded them from healthy donors with autologous IE-1-expressing mini-Epstein–Barr virus-transformed B-cell lines and established IE-1-specific CD4 T-cell clones. Clones from seven out of seven HCMV-positive donors recognized endogenously processed IE-1 epitopes restricted through HLA-DR, DQ, or DP. Three to seven IE-1 epitopes were recognized per donor. Cumulatively, about 27 different HLA/peptide class II complexes were recognized by 117 IE-1-specific clones. Our results suggest that a highly diversified repertoire of IE-1-specific CD4 T cells targeting multiple epitopes is usually present in healthy HCMV carriers. Therefore, multiepitope approaches to immunomonitoring and immunotherapy will make optimal use of this potentially important class of HCMV-specific effector cells.
Gaussian Elimination with Randomized Complete Pivoting

Gaussian elimination with partial pivoting (GEPP) has long been among the most widely used methods for computing the LU factorization of a given matrix. However, this method is also known to fail for matrices that induce large element growth during the factorization process. In this paper, we propose a new scheme, Gaussian elimination with randomized complete pivoting (GERCP) for the efficient and reliable LU factorization of a given matrix. GERCP satisfies GECP (Gaussian elimination with complete pivoting) style element growth bounds with high probability, yet costs only marginally higher than GEPP. Our numerical experimental results strongly suggest that GERCP is as reliable as GECP and as efficient as GEPP for computing the LU factorization.
Low Levels of Nogo-B in Human Carotid Atherosclerotic Plaques Are Associated With an Atheromatous Phenotype, Restenosis, and Stenosis Severity

Objective—Reticulon-4/Nogo (Nogo-B) protects mouse arteries from lumen loss by reducing smooth muscle cell (SMC) migration and intimal thickening. Our goal was to determine plaque and circulating levels of Nogo-B in atherosclerotic and control subjects. Therefore, we studied the relationships between local Nogo-B, plaque characteristics, and clinical data in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy. Methods and Results—Western blot analysis showed that endarterectomy specimens from the femoral (n=19) and carotid arteries (n=145) contained significantly less Nogo-B than nonatherosclerotic mammary arteries (n=8; P<0.003) and aortas (n=15; P=0.03). Immunohistochemistry revealed that in atherosclerotic lesions, Nogo-B was expressed by macrophage/foam cells, SMC rich, and neo-vascularized areas. Atheromatous plaques (>40% fat content) showed a significant reduction in Nogo-B expression (P=0.002). Nogo-B expression levels were significantly lower in patients with more than 90% of carotid stenosis (P=0.04) or restenotic lesions after prior carotid intervention (duplex; P=0.01). In contrast, plasmatic levels of Nogo-B (soluble Nogo-B) did not differ between atherosclerotic subjects (n=68) and risk-factor matched controls (n=63; P=0.5). Conclusion—Our findings suggest that local reduction of Nogo-B in atherosclerotic tissue might contribute to plaque formation and/or instability triggering luminal narrowing. In contrast, plasma Nogo-B levels are not associated with clinically manifested atherosclerotic disease.
Enhancing the First Year Student Experience by Facilitating the Development of Peer Networks through a One-day Workshop

Transition to university involves adapting to a new academic and social environment. Recent research on this process indicates that a significant number of students experience at least some difficulties during this transition, but that this may be alleviated by various institutional measures designed to assist students with the transition, e.g. the fostering of peer study groups. From 1996, the Faculty of Science of the University of Sydney has offered a "Transition Workshop" to all incoming first year science students. Follow-up surveys from the 1997 cohort indicated that students who attended the workshop exhibited significantly better adjustment on a range of measures. Compared to equivalent peers not attending the workshop, attendees also recorded higher levels of academic performance (on average) during their first year of study. A qualitative evaluation found that the workshop facilitated the establishment of strong peer relationships, and that these enhanced study, self-motivation and general enjoyment of university life. These findings suggest that such workshops assist in the development of peer networks and are helpful in easing the transition of undergraduate students.
Formal mentoring systems: An examination of the effects of mentor-protégé cognitive styles on the mentoring process

In informal mentoring systems, proteges seek help from other organizational members between whom there is often mutual attraction and rapport resulting in a level of interpersonal comfort between the members of the relationship. Because of the apparent benefits for both employee and organization, many human resource managers now attempt to establish formal mentoring systems in which mentors and proteges are brought together systematically. It is recognized, however, that assigned mentoring relationships are not usually as beneficial as those that develop informally. There appears, therefore, to be a need to match partners in some way. It has been suggested that a better grasp of psychological factors is necessary if this is to be achieved. One personality variable that may be partly responsible for shaping the overall effectiveness of such relationships is cognitive style. The present study, involving 53 mentor–protege dyads, examined the effects of the cognitive styles of mentors and proteges on the process of formal mentoring. Data were collected from both partners in each dyadic relationship, and findings suggest that in dyads whose mentor is more analytic, congruence between the partners’ cognitive styles enhances the quality of their mentoring relationships. Cognitive style was also found to work indirectly through its influence on other variables to enhance mutual liking and psychosocial and career mentoring functions. Gender composition was also found to have a significant impact on the mentoring process. Dyads with female mentors and male proteges were found to be the least favourable combination.
Educator Sexual Misconduct and Nondisclosure Agreements: Policy Guidance from Missouri's Amy Hestir Student Protection Act

Abstract Allegations of sexual misconduct may prompt districts to enter into non-disclosure or settlement agreements with alleged perpetrators in exchange for a recommendation. Non-disclosure settlements typically limit how much information districts can share with other districts. This process, often referred to as passing the trash, can be particularly troublesome. Missouri's Amy Hestir Student Protection Act provides policy guidance regarding non-disclosure agreements when allegations of educator sexual misconduct arise.
Implementing a functional spreadsheet in clean

Abstract It has been claimed that recent developments in the research on the efficiency of code generation and on graphical input/output interfacing have made it possible to use a functional language to write efficient programs that can compete with industrial applications written in a traditional imperative language. As one of the early steps in verifying this claim, this paper describes a first attempt to implement a spreadsheet in a lazy, purely functional language. An interesting aspect of the design is that the language with which the user specifies the relations between the cells of the spreadsheet is itself a lazy, purely functional and higher order language as well, and not some special dedicated spreadsheet language. Another interesting aspect of the design is that the spreadsheet incorporates symbolic reduction and normalisation of symbolic expressions (including equations). This introduces the possibility of asking the system to prove equality of symbolic cell expressions: a property which can greatly enhance the reliability of a particular user-defined spreadsheet. The resulting application is by no means a fully mature product. It is not intended as a competitor to commercially available spreadsheets. However, with its higher order lazy functional language and its symbolic capabilities it may serve as an interesting candidate to fill the gap between calculators with purely functional expressions and full-featured spreadsheets with dedicated non-functional spreadsheet languages. This paper describes the global design and important implementation issues in the development of the application. The experience gained and lessons learnt during this project are discussed. Performance and use of the resulting application are compared with related work.
Applying data mining for ontology building

Ontology represents the concepts and the relationship between them for specialized domain. Building ontology is a complex work, in order to build ontology you need a domain expert to help you to declare all domain concepts and the relationship between them. In this work we propose a methodology for building ontology based on the output of data mining result. We used c4.5 decision tree algorithm to discover and extract knowledge from structure data. Then we built ontology from the generated decision tree. We represent the generated ontology in XML and OWL languages. We work in two case studies; in the first case study we work in soybean diseases, and built ontology to represent the knowledge of diseases and their symptoms. In the second case study we work in animal diseases and extracted the knowledge related to them and we built ontology from the extracted knowledge.
Protective effects of a natural product, curcumin, against amyloid β induced mitochondrial and synaptic toxicities in Alzheimer's disease

The purpose of our study was to investigate the protective effects of a natural product—‘curcumin’— in Alzheimer's disease (AD)-like neurons. Although much research has been done in AD, very little has been reported on the effects of curcumin on mitochondrial biogenesis, dynamics, function and synaptic activities. Therefore, the present study investigated the protective effects against amyloid β (Aβ) induced mitochondrial and synaptic toxicities. Using human neuroblastoma (SHSY5Y) cells, curcumin and Aβ, we studied the protective effects of curcumin against Aβ. Further, we also studied preventive (curcumin+Aβ) and intervention (Aβ+curcumin) effects of curcumin against Aβ in SHSY5Y cells. Using real time RT-PCR, immunoblotting and immunofluorescence analysis, we measured mRNA and protein levels of mitochondrial dynamics, mitochondrial biogenesis and synaptic genes. We also assessed mitochondrial function by measuring hydrogen peroxide, lipid peroxidation, cytochrome oxidase activity and mitochondrial ATP. Cell viability was studied using the MTT assay. Aβ was found to impair mitochondrial dynamics, reduce mitochondrial biogenesis and decrease synaptic activity and mitochondrial function. In contrast, curcumin enhanced mitochondrial fusion activity and reduced fission machinery, and increased biogenesis and synaptic proteins. Mitochondrial function and cell viability were elevated in curcumin treated cells. Interestingly, curcumin pre- and post-treated cells incubated with Aβ showed reduced mitochondrial dysfunction, and maintained cell viability and mitochondrial dynamics, mitochondrial biogenesis and synaptic activity. Further, the protective effects of curcumin were stronger in pretreated SHSY5Y cells than in post-treated cells, indicating that curcumin works better in prevention than treatment in AD-like neurons. Our findings suggest that curcumin is a promising drug molecule to treat AD patients.
Public Key Based Cryptoschemes for Data Concealment in Wireless Sensor Networks

In-network data aggregation is a popular technique for reducing the energy consumption tied to data transmission in a multi-hop wireless sensor network. However, data aggregation in untrusted or even hostile environments becomes problematic when end-to-end privacy between sensors and the sink is desired. In this paper we revisit and investigate the applicability of additively homomorphic public-key encryption algorithms for certain classes of wireless sensor networks. Finally, we provide recommendations for selecting the most suitable public key schemes for different topologies and wireless sensor network scenarios.
Investigating the effectiveness of managers through an analysis of stakeholder perceptions

Contemporary management thinking is paying a great deal of attention to stakeholder theory which posits that sustainable success rests, to a great extent, with a systematic consideration of the needs and goals of all key stakeholders. This paper examines managerial effectiveness under the light of stakeholder theory. Using multivariate analysis, it investigates perceptions of importance of the dimensions of their effectiveness held by the site managers running 61 high‐rise residential construction projects and 268 key project stakeholders. The views were collected through a non‐results‐based performance measurement tool. The findings of the research show that perceptions of the importance of each one of the performance elements vary significantly across professional groups. Opinions of high performing managers also differ form those of low‐performing ones. The application of the method presented in this paper can provide a framework for improvement of both managerial performance and stakeholder relationships.
Adherence to the Mediterranean diet is associated with lower platelet and leukocyte counts: results from the Moli-sani study.

Platelet (PLT) and white blood cell (WBC) counts are 2 markers of inflammation and have been linked to the risk for cerebrovascular and coronary heart disease. A Mediterranean diet (MD) has been associated with reduced inflammation and mortality for major chronic diseases. We aimed at evaluating the association between the MD and both PLT and WBC counts. This cross-sectional analysis in a population-based cohort study included 14,586 healthy Italian citizens enrolled within the Moli-sani study. Adherence to MD was appraised by either the MD Score (MDS) or the Italian Mediterranean Index (IMI). PLT and WBC counts were both inversely related to MD adherence (MDS: P < .0001 and P = .008, respectively). As compared with those with poorer MD adherence, subjects with greater adherence had both reduced odds of being in the highest PLT-count group (MDS: odds ratio = 0.50; 95% confidence interval, 0.31-0.80) and increased odds of being in the lowest WBC-count group (IMI: odds ratio = 1.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.07-1.86). The association between WBC count and MDS disappeared when further adjusted for PLT count, whereas the association between PLT count and the MD was not affected by adjustment for WBCs. Food antioxidant and dietary fiber content modified the inverse association between MDS and WBC count and partially accounted for the association with PLTs.
Chaos and Nonlinear Dynamics: Application to Financial Markets

After the stock market crash of October 19, 1987, interest in nonlinear dynamics, especially deterministic chaotic dynamics, has increased in both the financial press and the academic literature. This has come about because the frequency of large moves in stock markets is greater than would be expected under a normal distribution. There are a number of possible explanations. A popular one is that the stock market is governed by chaotic dynamics. What exactly is chaos and how is it related to nonlinear dynamics? How does one detect chaos? Is there chaos in financial markets? Are there other explanations of the movements of financial prices other than chaos? The purpose of this paper is to explore these issues. Copyright 1991 by American Finance Association.
Throughput Maximization for Wireless Powered Communications Harvesting from Non-dedicated Sources

We consider the wireless powered communications where users harvest energy from non-dedicated sources. The user follows a harvest-then-transmit protocol: in first phase of a slot time the source node harvests energy from a nearby conventional Access Point, then transmit information to its destination node or relay node in the second phase. We obtain the optimal\textit{ harvesting ratio} to maximize the expected throughput for direct transmission (DT )and decode forward (DF) relay under outage constraint, respectively. Our results reveal that the optimal harvest ratio for DT is dominated by the outage constraint while for DF relay, by the data causality .
Consilience and Performance in the ‘Art of the State’

The future of the liberal arts lies. in addressing the fundamental questions of human existence head on, without embarrassment or fear, taking them from the top down in easily understood language, and progressively rearranging them into domains of inquiry that unite the best of science and the humanities at each level of organization in turn. I find it hard to conceive of an adequate core curriculum in colleges and universities that avoids the cause-and-effect connections among the great branches of learning - not metaphor, not the usual second-order lucubrations on why scholars of different disciplines think this or that, but material cause and effect. (Wilson, 1998, p.301).
Post‐infarction ventricular septal defect: Percutaneous transvenous temporary closure using a Swan‐Ganz catheter

We report on a case of temporary closure of a post‐infarction ventricular septal defect (VSD) using a Swan‐Ganz catheter through a femoral transvenous approach. This resulted in substantial improvement in the hemodynamic status of the patient. Six hr later, the patient underwent surgery for VSD closure. When immediate surgical intervention is not possible, it may be helpful to stabilize the patient until surgery can be performed. Thus, such a treatment has potential as a temporary measure for patients awaiting surgical repair of post‐infarction VSD. Cathet. Cardiovasc. Intervent. 47:208–210, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Conversations about Recovery at and Away from a Drop-in Center among Members of a Collegiate Recovery Community

As the population of young adults in recovery from substance abuse increases, colleges are developing collegiate recovery communities. The goal of these communities is to provide students in recovery the opportunity to receive social support for abstinence from other abstaining individuals. To examine how social support in such a recovery community context occurs, this study analyzed 1,304 end-of-day reports made by 55 abstaining college students, 39 males and 16 females (mean age = 22.6). Two “talking with others about recovery” outcomes were examined: recovery talks outside of the community drop-in center and recovery talks at the drop-in center. Preliminary analyses revealed that the majority of recovery talks at and outside the drop-in center varied more between days within participants than they did across participants. Primary results revealed that daily levels of cravings and negative mood predicted same-day variation in recovery talks occurring outside of the drop-in center. In contrast, recovery talks at the drop-in center were not associated with these predictors. By demonstrating that college students in recovery receive more conversational support for recovery though not at the community drop-in center and that this out-of-center support appears more responsive to members' needs, this study provides insight into how social support for abstinence can succeed within college recovery communities.