Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sonochemical synthesis of nanosized hollow hematite.

Nanosized hollow iron oxide was synthesized using high-intensity ultrasound with carbon nanoparticles as a template. The hollow iron oxide was characterized by TEM, STEM, EELS, XRD, Raman, Mossbauer, and SQUID analyses. The TEM examination, EDS, and EELS analyses demonstrated the formation of iron oxide with nanosized hollow cores. XRD, Raman, and Mossbauer studies revealed that the hollow iron oxide is the most thermodynamically stable iron oxide, hematite (α-Fe2O3). Magnetization measurements showed that the hollow nanospheres of hematite are weakly ferromagnetic. Upon annealing, the hollow hematite becomes more crystalline but still maintains the hollow structure. Without the use of the carbon template, only agglomerated amorphous iron oxide was obtained.
Laminar flow activation of ERK5 leads to cytoprotective effect via CHIP-mediated p53 ubiquitination in endothelial cells

Atherosclerosis is readily observed in areas where disturbed flow is formed, while the atheroprotective region is found in areas with steady laminar flow (L-flow). It has been established that L-flow protects endothelial cells against endothelial dysfunction, including apoptosis and inflammation. It has also been reported that extracellular signal-regulated kinase 5 (ERK5) regulated endothelial integrity and protected endothelial cells from vascular dysfunction and disease under L-flow. However, the molecular mechanism by which L-flow-induced ERK5 activation inhibits endothelial apoptosis has not yet been determined. Transcription factor p53 is a major pro-apoptotic factor which contributes to apoptosis in various cell types. In this study, we found that 15-deoxy-Δ(12,14)-prostaglandin J2 induced p53 expression and that endothelial apoptosis was reduced under the L-flow condition. This anti-apoptotic response was reversed by the biochemical inhibition of ERK5 activation. It was also found that activation of ERK5 protected endothelial apoptosis in a C terminus of Hsc70-interacting protein (CHIP) ubiquitin ligase-dependent manner. Moreover, molecular interaction between ERK5-CHIP and p53 ubiquitination were addressed with a CHIP ubiquitin ligase activity assay. Taken together, our data suggest that the ERK5-CHIP signal module elicited by L-flow plays an important role in the anti-apoptotic mechanism in endothelial cells.
Leap Forward Virtual Clock : An O ( log logN ) Fair Queuing Scheme withGuaranteed Delays and Throughput

We describe an e cient fair queuing scheme, Leap Forward Virtual Clock , that provides endto-end delay bounds almost identical to that of PGPS fair queuing, along with throughput fairness. Our scheme can be implemented with a worst-case time O(log logN ) per packet (inclusive of sorting costs), which improves upon all previously known schemes that achieve guaranteed delay and throughput fairness. As its name suggests, our scheme is based on Zhang's virtual clock. While the original virtual clock scheme does not achieve throughput fairness, we can modify it with a simple leap forward mechanism that keeps the server clock from lagging too far behind the packet tags. We prove that our scheme guarantees a fair share of the available bandwidth to each of the backlogged users, while precisely matching the delay bounds of PGPS schemes. In order to improve computational e ciency, we introduce a \coarsened" version of our scheme in which all tags assume values from a set of O(N ) integers. We then use \approximate sorting" and a nite-universe priority queue to achieve O(log logN ) processing time per packet. We can show that the coarsening of tags increases the delay bound by a very small additive constant. Finally, our proofs are based on a dual version of the algorithm called Leap Backward, whose behavior is identical to the Leap Forward but that admits a simpler analysis. Leap Forward Virtual Clock: An O(log logN) Fair Queuing Scheme with Guaranteed Delays and Throughput Fairness Subhash Suri suri@cs.wustl. edu +1 314 935 7546 George Varghese varghese@askew.wustl. edu +1 314 935 4963 Girish P. Chandranmenon girish@cs.wustl. edu +1 314 935 4163
First Characterization of the Neospora caninum Dense Granule Protein GRA9

The obligate intracellular apicomplexan parasite Neospora caninum (N. caninum) is closely related to Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii). The dense granules, which are present in all apicomplexan parasites, are important secretory organelles. Dense granule (GRA) proteins are released into the parasitophorous vacuole (PV) following host cell invasion and are known to play important roles in the maintenance of the host-parasite relationship and in the acquisition of nutrients. Here, we provide a detailed characterization of the N. caninum dense granule protein NcGRA9. The in silico genomic organization and key protein characteristics are described. Immunofluorescence-based localization studies revealed that NcGRA9 is located in the dense granules and is released into the interior of the PV following host cell invasion. Immunogold-electron microscopy confirmed the dense granule localization and showed that NcGRA9 is associated with the intravacuolar network. In addition, NcGRA9 is found in the “excreted secreted antigen” (ESA) fraction of N. caninum. Furthermore, by analysing the distribution of truncated versions of NcGRA9, we provide evidence that the C-terminal region of this protein is essential for the targeting of NcGRA9 into the dense granules of N. caninum, and the truncated proteins show reduced secretion.
Byzantine Fault Detectors for Solving Consensus

Unreliable fault detectors can be defined in terms of completeness and accuracy properties and can be used to solve the consensus problem in asynchronous distributed systems that are subject to crash faults. We extend this result to asynchronous distributed systems that are subject to Byzantine faults. First, we define and categorize Byzantine faults. We then define two new completeness properties, eventual strong completeness and eventual weak completeness. We use these completeness properties and previously defined accuracy properties to define four new classes of unreliable Byzantine fault detectors. Next, we present an algorithm that uses a Byzantine fault detector to solve the consensus problem in an asynchronous distributed system of n processes in which the number k of Byzantine faults satisfies k ≤� (n − 1)/3� . We also give algorithms that implement a Byzantine fault detector in a model of partial synchrony. Finally, we prove the correctness of the consensus algorithm and analyze its complexity.
Query-based data warehousing tool

Data warehousing is an essential element of decision support. It aims at enabling the knowledge user to make better and faster daily business decisions. In order to supply a decisional database, meta-data is needed to enable the communication between various function areas of the warehouse and an ETL tool (Extraction, Transformation, and Load) is needed to define the warehousing process. The developers use a mapping guideline to specify the ETL tool with the mapping expression of each attribute. In this paper, we will define a model covering different types of mapping expressions. We will use this model to create an active ETL tool. In our approach, we use queries to achieve the warehousing process. SQL queries will be used to represent the mapping between the source and the target data. Thus, we allow DBMS to play an expanded role as a data transformation engine as well as a data store. This approach enables a complete interaction between mapping meta-data and the warehousing tool. In addition, this paper investigates the efficiency for a Query-based data warehousing tool. It describes a query generator for reusable and more efficient data warehouse (DW) processing. Besides exposing the advantages of this approach, this paper shows a case study based on real scale commercial data to verify our tool features.
Ectopic Thyroid at the Base of the Tongue of a Young Patient

Lingual thyroid is defined as an ectopic thyroid gland tissue located in the midline of the tongue base and it is uncommonly observed in clinical practice and is rare in children. This paper describes the surgical treatment of ectopic thyroid at the base of the tongue in a child. The chief complaint of the 12-year-old, melanodermic female patient was the difficulty to swallow for 15 days. The intraoral physical examination barely showed a nodular lesion at tongue base. The CT scan showed a round, well defined hyperdense lesion of approximately 25.8 mm at its largest diameter, with infiltrative growth in the posterior region of the base of the tongue. The proposed treatment was complete resection of the lesion. The histopathological diagnosis was lingual thyroid. After the diagnosis was established, the patient was referred to an endocrinologist for exams and medical follow-up. Lingual thyroid is a rare condition and its diagnosis in children is even rarer. Its approach should be transdisciplinary and should take into consideration the hormonal aspects of the patient in addition to the clinical condition of the lesion. In the presented case, the removal of the alteration was performed via conservative surgical procedure followed by immediate referral of the patient to the endocrinologist for a follow-up.
Diagnosis between sinusoidal oscillations and oscillatory colored noise

The practice of oscillation compensation in control loops depends on the source of the oscillation. While retuning the controller is required to compensate the oscillations caused by aggressive controller tuning, it is not an effective approach to compensate oscillations due to valve problems or sinusoidal disturbances. Thus, it is of great value to distinguish between oscillations which are truly caused by the controller tuning from oscillations due to other kind of sources. The paper discusses the special properties of oscillations caused by controller tuning and proposes a method to distinguish it from sinusoidal disturbances. The method is based on analyzing the auto correlation function of the signals for both detection and diagnosis of oscillations in the presence of multiple oscillations.
Differentiation and characterization of human facial subcutaneous adipocytes

Aging is associated with the loss of facial subcutaneous fat and with increased abdominal subcutaneous fat. Site specific differences in adipocyte phenotype and/or gene expression may play a role in these age-related changes. In this study, we isolated and characterized human facial preadipocytes and investigated distinct metabolic properties such as a differentiation pattern in relation to abdominal preadipocytes. Subcutaneous preadipocytes were isolated from human facial and abdominal skin and cultured in the presence of differentiation factors including rosiglitazone, a known peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) agonist, isobutyl-methyl xanthine (IBMX) and insulin. Differentiation was characterized microscopically and by quantitative real-time PCR. Unexpected superior adipogenic capacity of facial preadipocytes was observed; more facial preadipocytes differentiated in response to rosiglitazone than abdominal preadipocytes and facial preadipocytes retained their ability to differentiate through passage 11 compared with passage 5 for abdominal preadipocytes. Experiments confirmed a reduced lipolysis response in facial versus abdominal adipocytes after exposure to isoproterenol, which was consistent with the reduced β2-adrenergic receptor expression by 60% in the facial cells. The expression of other lipid metabolic gene markers was similar in both facial and abdominal adipocytes with the exception of β3-adrenergic receptor which was only found in abdominal adipose tissue. Gene profiling, by microarray analysis, identified that several HOX genes are robustly reduced in facial adipocytes compared to abdominal adipocytes, suggesting different characteristics between the 2 fat depots. These differences may have implications for development of treatments for facial fat loss during aging.
Adhesion of Salmonella typhimurium to porcine intestinal epithelial surfaces: identification and characterization of two phenotypes

Salmonella typhimurium 798 is known to persistently colonize swine. A key step required to initiate colonization of intestines is adhesion of the organism to the intestinal epithelium. However, S. typhimurium 798 initially failed to attach to porcine enterocytes in vitro. An enrichment procedure was used to select adhesive S. typhimurium, and when cells of one colony type were grown in tryptone phosphate broth they were adhesive. Cells from a colony with a different morphology were not adhesive. Adhesion was time dependent, with maximal adhesion occurring at 1 h. As determined by electron microscopy, cells of the adhesive phenotype had pili while none of the cells with the nonadhesive phenotype produced pili. The pili on the adhesive cells were morphologically similar to type 1 pili. Mannose (0.5%) did not affect adhesion, suggesting that the adhesin on strain 798 did not recognize mannose as a receptor. An analysis of envelope proteins from cells of both phenotypes showed that the adhesive-phenotype cells expressed at least 10 unique proteins ranging in size from 20 to 60 kDa. Absorbed antiserum against cells of the adhesive phenotype agglutinated adhesive cells and was used to detect unique surface antigens on the cells of the adhesive phenotype by Western blots (immunoblots). These antigens were in the range of 30 kDa in size. An envelope extract competitively inhibited the binding of S. typhimurium to enterocytes, as did Fab fragments prepared from the absorbed serum. Cells of both phenotypes contained two plasmids, and each had identical restriction digestion patterns. Cells of the adhesive phenotype consistently were found to be more readily phagocytosed by pig leukocytes, and once in the phagocytes they survived better than cells of the nonadhesive phenotype.
Using Theory of Mind Methods to Investigate Empathic engagement with Synthetic Characters

This paper is concerned with the simulation of human-likess capabilities in synthetic characters within the domain of Personal and Social Education. Our aim was to achieve socially meaningful and engaging interactions with children in the 8–12 age group to enable an exploration of bullying and coping strategies. We consider the engagement between the interacting partners, focusing particularly on the affective and empathic aspects of this relationship. We have used Theory of Mind methods to enable us to evaluate children's understanding of social scenarios and the thinking of others. The results from this 345 children study highlight that children are able to recognize and interpret affect in synthetic characters and are empathically engaged with the characters in the scenarios.
In vitro folliculogenesis of rat preantral follicles.

The impact of various gonadotropic hormones on the growth and development of secondary follicles from primordial and primary follicles obtained by enzymatic dissociation of the ovaries of immature 14-day-old rats was studied in vitro. The substratum-adherent culture technique developed for studying folliculogenesis in the current study permitted direct visualization of follicular growth on a day to day basis by avoiding the cumbersome process of fixing and sectioning follicles in culture. The cultures were maintained in a serum-free modified McCoy's medium in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO2 at 37 C. Daily observation of the culture dishes under the phase contrast microscope revealed that the follicles grew and developed from primordial to primary and secondary follicular stages in the presence of FSH. Large antral follicles were able to secrete estradiol and progesterone into the medium, indicating that the follicles are not merely formed by cellular reorganization, but are physiologically functional competent units. The organized release of the oocyte with accompanying corona radiata was made possible in some secondary follicles with large antral structures by introducing LH into the culture medium. However, introduction of hCG (which has the biological properties of LH) into the cultures on day 1 resulted in follicular degeneration within 3-4 days of culture. Follicular organization was also disrupted when LH was introduced together with FSH into the medium on day 1 of culture. Primordial or primary follicles obtained from the ovaries could survive, but could not transform to secondary follicles in the absence of FSH. The results of our in vitro studies indicate, and therefore are in agreement with earlier in vivo studies, that FSH alone is essential for the progression of folliculogenesis to the preovulatory condition, and that LH is essential for the organized expulsion of the oocyte from a mature follicle. Our technique, described in the current study, for producing physiologically functional secondary follicles in culture not only allows progress in folliculogenesis to be monitored very closely, but also serves as a model for studying the various intrinsic factors that may be involved in the successful development of dominant mature Graafian follicles that can finally ovulate. It also facilitates access to the growing follicle along with its oocyte, which can, therefore, be used as a powerful model to study the effects of various test substances on follicular development. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Nonstationary Function Optimization using the Structured Genetic Algorithm

In this paper, we describe the application of a new type of genetic algorithm called the Structured Genetic Algorithm (sGA) for function optimization in nonstationary environments. The novelty of this genetic model lies primarily in its redundant genetic material and a gene activation mechanism which utilizes a multi-layered structure for the chromosome. In adapting to nonstationary environments of a repeated nature genes of long-term utility can be retained for rapid future deployment when favourable environments recur. The additional genetic material preserves optional solution space and works as a long term distributed memory within the population structure. This paper presents important aspects of sGA which are able to exploit the repeatability of many nonstation-ary function optimization problems. Theoretical arguments and empirical study suggest that sGA can solve complex problems more eeciently than has been possible with simple GAs. We also noted that sGA exhibits implicit genetic diversity and viability as in biological systems.
The impact of organic additives on phase transformation and particle size of Bayer process desilication product

Organic additives are used to tune the morphology and particle size of crystals in the zeolite manufacturing industry. However, their impact on phase transformation and size distribution of desilication product (DSP, belonging to the zeolite family) in Bayer desilication has not yet been extensively studied. In order to probe this impact, crystallisation of DSP in the presence of fifteen organic additives was studied in a batch reactor using synthetic solution. The results indicate that certain additives effect the phase transformation of zeolite A to sodalite and the particle size distribution of DSP produced. Solids samples were characterized using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and their particle size distributions were measured using an AccuSizer particle counter.
Effects of simultaneous compression and one-sided heat flux on the time to failure of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites

The time to failure of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites is investigated during simultaneous compression and one-sided thermal degradation from a constant heat flux. The purpose of this investigation is to determine the rate of thermal degradation and mechanical property loss from fire exposure by observing the time to failure during simultaneous compression loading. A custom compression test fixture is designed and validated for use under thermomechanical loading. Testing is conducted on CFRP samples of varying thicknesses and quasi-isotropic layups. Test conditions are adjusted for a range of heat fluxes and compressive loads. Test parameters are isolated to observe individual impacts on time to failure. In each case, decreasing exponential trends are observed. High heat fluxes and high compressive loads result in shorter failure times. Temperature profiles are created based on heat flux exposure time and the position through the material thickness in order to determine failure criteria for thermomechanical loading. An empirical model is created to extrapolate and predict failure times using a stretched exponential function, based on mechanical preload, heat flux, and material thickness.
Evaluation of in-house polymerase chain reaction assay sensitivity, can it be utilized in limited-resources settings?

Background: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay has widely used for the detection of tuberculosis (TB). This study tried to compare in-house PCR with some well-known commercial PCR kits for detection of TB agent. Methods: Clinical samples obtained from 620 TB suspected patients were analyzed for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) by in-house PCR. All samples were obtained through pulmonary specimens consisted of 384 sputum, 148 bronchial aspirates and 88 pleural effusions. Results: Considering culture as a golden criterion, in which its diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of PCR assay were 87.7% and 85.6%, respectively. The findings of this study also indicate 22.1% (137/620) of the specimens were detected as MTC by PCR. Both PCR and culture confirmed presence of MTC in 57 of the samples. In comparison to culture, the diagnostic sensitivity of PCR for sputum was 87.5% (42/48), bronchial aspirates 100% (12/12), and 60% (3/5) for pleural effusions. The sensitivity of in-house PCR method is comparable with the sensitivity of Amplicor and Cobas TaqMan for MTC. Conclusion: The study illustrates the in-house PCR assay for detection of MTC has high sensitivity and specificity versus approved commercial kits. This could be reliable test in the diagnosis of MTC in resource-limited countries.
Inhibition of the Equilibrative Nucleoside Transporter 1 and Activation of A2A Adenosine Receptors by 8-(4-Chlorophenylthio)-modified cAMP Analogs and Their Hydrolytic Products*

Cyclic AMP analogs containing hydrophobic modification of C8 at the adenine ring such as 8-(4-chlorophenylthio)-cAMP (8-pCPT-cAMP) and 8-(4-chlorophenylthio)-2′-O-methyl-cAMP (8-pCPT-2′-O-methyl-cAMP) can penetrate membranes due to their high lipophilicity and directly activate intracellular cAMP effectors. Therefore, these cAMP analogs have been used in numerous studies, assuming that their effects reflect the consequences of direct activation of cAMP effectors. The present study provides evidence that 8-pCPT-modified cAMP analogs and their corresponding putative hydrolysis products (8-(4-chlorophenylthio)-adenosine (8-pCPT-ado) and 8-(4-chlorophenylthio)-2′-O-methyl-adenosine (8-pCPT-2′-O-methyl-ado)) inhibit the equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (ENT1). In PC12 cells, in which nucleoside transport strongly depended on ENT1, 8-pCPT-ado, 8-pCPT-2′-O-methyl-ado, and, to a smaller extent, 8-pCPT-2′-O-methyl-cAMP caused an increase of protein kinase A substrate motif phosphorylation and anti-apoptotic effect by an A2A adenosine receptor (A2AR)-dependent mechanism. In contrast, the effects of 8-pCPT-cAMP were mainly A2AR-independent. In HEK 293 showing little endogenous ENT1-dependent nucleoside transport, transfection of ENT1 conferred A2AR-dependent increase in protein kinase A substrate motif phosphorylation. Together, the data of the present study indicate that inhibition of ENT1 and activation of adenosine receptors have to be considered when interpreting the effects of 8-pCPT-substituted cAMP/adenosine analogs.