Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Carnitine Enigma: From Antioxidant Action to Vitagene Regulation. Part 2. Transcription Factors and Practical Applications

A growing interest has been shown in the potential uses of carnitine in medical practice and animal/poultry industry. The molecular mechanisms accounting for the positive effect of LC on livestock animals are not yet fully understood but many protective effects of LC in various stress conditions reported in literature, have been related to its antioxidant action. Based on the analysis of the recent publications presented in the review it could be concluded that antioxidant actions of carnitine are associated to much extent with redox signaling in the cell. Indeed, LC is shown to upregulate Nrf2 and PPARs and downregulates NF-κB leading to anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammation actions of carnitine. In fact, Nrf2-mediated synthesis of antioxidant enzymes, including SOD, GSH-Px, GR, GST and GSH, in response to carnitine supplementation could be a main driving force of antioxidant action of carnitine and its derivatives. Furthermore, LC and its derivatives are shown to affect vitagene networks resulting in increased adaptive ability to stresses via additional synthesis of protective molecules, including heat shock proteins (HO-1), upregulating sirtuins, thioredoxins and SOD. It seems likely that in biological system in vivo the interactions of the aforementioned mechanisms provide an important place for carnitine to be a crucial part of the integrated antioxidant systems of the animal and human body. Furthermore, direct scavenging ROS and chelating properties of carnitine would be very much relevant to the antioxidant system of the gut. Taking into account low carnitine content in grains and poultry and pig diet formulations with limited amounts of animal proteins, carnitine requirement and possible inadequacy in commercial poultry and pig nutrition should receive more attention. Furthermore, protective roles of carnitine in stress conditions of commercial poultry and pig production, including its immunomodulating properties, are of great importance. Therefore, a development of carnitine-containing antioxidant compositions supplying via drinking water seems to be an important way forward in decreasing the detrimental consequence of various stresses in poultry and pig production.
An RNA degradosome assembly in Caulobacter crescentus

In many bacterial species, the multi-enzyme RNA degradosome assembly makes key contributions to RNA metabolism. Powering the turnover of RNA and the processing of structural precursors, the RNA degradosome has differential activities on a spectrum of transcripts and contributes to gene regulation at a global level. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of an RNA degradosome assembly from the α-proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus, which is a model organism for studying morphological development and cell-cycle progression. The principal components of the C. crescentus degradosome are the endoribonuclease RNase E, the exoribonuclease polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase), a DEAD-box RNA helicase and the Krebs cycle enzyme aconitase. PNPase and aconitase associate with specific segments in the C-terminal domain of RNase E that are predicted to have structural propensity. These recognition ‘microdomains’ punctuate structurally an extensive region that is otherwise predicted to be natively disordered. Finally, we observe that the abundance of RNase E varies through the cell cycle, with maxima at morphological differentiation and cell division. This variation may contribute to the program of gene expression during cell division.
Factors determining the formation of e-mail communities in a university class

This thesis is an attempt to explain some of the factors impacting on e-mail adoption and use in undergraduates. It is an extended case study, and therefore real world based, spanning eight years from 1993 to 2001, the population under scrutiny being five cohorts of undergraduates studying Psychology at a Scottish University. In a time of rapid technological advance, where computer experience is rising, access to computers is widespread, and IT training is compulsory for students in the institution under investigation, e-mail use has changed too. However, an unexpected drop in e-mail use during the 1996/97 session seemed to be atypical and led the original focus of the thesis away from individual differences such as computer experience, computer related attitudes, gender and personality, towards social and situational factors. Careful observation of the 1993/94 and 1994/95 cohorts’ e-mail behaviour, using surveys, e-mail logs, and examination of e-mail messages, provided insight into the unique nature of the e-mail environment for these groups. The final conclusions of the thesis are that what appeared to be small features of the e-mail system, and the nature of the computer laboratories where access was restricted to the class, provided the requirements for an e-mail community to form. Some significant results were found for individual differences, and these had some effect on the adoption of mail by the earliest users (those who really instigated the network) but a minimal effect on eventual e-mail use with the class. A group of enthusiastic e-mail users, with very little training in the system, began to mail either groups of classmates, or individuals, making use of the system’s list of class e-mail addresses, and the list of users logged on to the system. These were speculative messages to unknown recipients but they were to individuals the senders knew they had some common interest with as they were in the same social group (the class). The mail was mainly of a social nature, often almost synchronous, and obviously enjoyable to those who adopted the novel technology. The e-mail messages revealed evidence of ‘playfulness’ in the exchanges ranging from the use of nicknames in headers, signatures, and distribution of poetry, song lyrics, jokes and graphics. The class was large and forming e-mail relationships was one way of ‘meeting’ others. This behaviour was missing in the 1996/97 sample, when e-mail was not available in the computer laboratories. E-mail was available throughout the campus but the computer laboratory became a place for work only, and not for communication with classmates. In the 1999/00 and 2001/02 cohorts there is still no evidence of an electronic community forming in the class, despite even more computers being available for e-mail. Changeover to a university-wide e-mail system for students has removed the features that were so important to the formation of the network in the 1993/94 and 1994/95 cohorts.
Optimal illuminator design for automatic optical inspection systems

This paper presents an illuminator for the Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) system. First, the structure of the designed illuminator is introduced. The structure consists of three Light Emitting Diode (LED) arrays, which have different colour and radiation angles. Second, the radiance model of the illuminator and the irradiance model of the solder joint are developed. Third, the dimensions of the illuminator are optimised based on the irradiance model. Finally, the inspection method is implemented and tested, and experimental results verify the validity of the design.
Transcriptome Analysis of Storage Roots and Fibrous Roots of the Traditional Medicinal Herb Callerya speciosa (Champ.) ScHot

Callerya speciosa (Champ.) ScHot is a woody perennial plant in Fabaceae, the roots of which are used medicinally. The storage roots of C. speciosa are derived from fibrous roots, but not all fibrous roots can develop into storage roots. To detect key genes involved in storage roots formation, we performed Illumina sequencing of the C. speciosa storage roots and fibrous roots. De novo assembly resulted in 161,926 unigenes, which were subsequently annotated by BLAST, GO and KEGG analyses. After expression profiling, 4538 differentially expressed genes were identified. The KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed changes in the biosynthesis of cytokinin, phenylpropanoid, starch, sucrose, flavone and other secondary metabolites. Transcription factor-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were also identified, including such gene families as GRAS, COL, MIKC, ERF, LBD, and NAC. The DEGs related to light signaling, starch, sugar, photohormones and cell wall-loosening might be involved in the formation of storage roots. This study provides the first transcriptome profiling of C. speciosa roots, data that will facilitate future research of root development and metabolites with medicinal value as well as the breeding of C. speciosa.
Predicting interference in concurrent multitasking

Investigations into multitasking have shown that overlap in cognitive resource use between tasks leads to lower performance. Various computational models have been developed to explain this phenomenon. However, most concurrent multitasking models have been tested in dual-task situations only. In order to see if single-task models could explain dual-task performance, we developed a computational cognitive model that was fit on single-task performance. The model was used to generate a priori predictions of behavior for an experiment in which three tasks with various resource requirements were performed in isolation and in combination. The model predictions closely matched the behavioral data, indicating that models designed for single tasks can indeed account for performance degradation in dual-task situations. To further validate the model, a prediction of neuroimaging data in six regions of interest was generated, which was tested in an fMRI experiment. We achieved a partial fit for the neuroimaging data, indicating that some aspects of the BOLD response require further modeling.
The Euro and the Productivity Puzzle: An Alternative Interpretation

This paper documents the evidence for a productivity based model of the Dollar/Euro real exchange rate over the 1985-2001 period. Cointegrating relationships between the real exchange rate and productivity, government spending and the real price of oil are estimated using the Johansen (1988) and Stock-Watson (1993) procedures. We find that each percentage point in the US-Euro area productivity differential results in a five percentage point real appreciation of the dollar. This finding is robust to the estimation methodology, the variables included in the regression, and the sample period. We conjecture that productivity-based models cannot explain the observed patterns with the standard set of assumptions, and describe cases in which the models can be reconciled with the observed data.
Disability, depression and suicide ideation in multiple sclerosis

Background. Depression is under-recognised in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and is the single best predictor for suicide ideation and suicide. Suicide rates are elevated in people with MS and are thought to be influenced by disability and depression. Methods. Twenty-three participants with progressive MS completed four questionnaires: Guy's neurological disability scale, the Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale-29, Beck-depression inventory-II and Beck Suicide Scale. Using a cross-sectional design, correlation analyses were used to explore the relationship between disability and perceived disability in MS, with symptoms of depression and suicide ideation. Results. A significant correlation was found between disability and depression. No significant relationship was found between: physical disability, perceived disability and suicidal ideation; and depression and suicide ideation. No significant relationship was found between total perceived disability scores and depression. MSIS-29 psychological items positively and significantly correlated with depression. Conclusion. Symptoms of depression worsen with increasing disability in progressive MS. A lack of relationship between disability and perceived disability, depression and suicide ideation may be due to the limited variation and significant skew of scores on the Beck Suicide Scale. Further clarification is needed to determine the impact of disability on suicide ideation by way of a larger sample size.
Towards a Conceptual Representation of Lexical Meaning in WordNet

Knowledge acquisition is an essential and intractable task for almost every natural language processing study. To date, corpus approach is a primary means for acquiring lexical-level semantic knowledge, but it has the problem of knowledge insufficiency when training on various kinds of corpora. This paper is concerned with the issue of how to acquire and represent conceptual knowledge explicitly from lexical definitions and their semantic network within a machine-readable dictionary. Some information retrieval techniques are applied to link between lexical senses in WordNet and conceptual ones in Roget's categories. Our experimental results report an overall accuracy of 85.25% (87, 78, 89, and 87% for nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, respectively) when evaluating on polysemous words discussed in previous literature.
Interacting with learning agents: Implications for ML from HCI

Computers excel at repetitive tasks. But automating them usually involves programming, which is beyond the reach of most non-specialist users. One solution is for machines to learn procedures by observing users at work—and if this enhanced users’ productivity and sense of achievement, they might even be persuaded to help the system by supplying some additional information. In principle, combining machine learning with instructional interaction should increase the speed with which tasks are acquired, and enhance reliability too.
La thérapie cognitive des troubles dépressifs chez la personne âgée : Stratégies adaptatives et modèles d'intervention

Le traitement psychologique de la depression chez la personne âgee a beneficie des developpements de l'approche dite cognitive. La psychotherapie cognitive semble en particulier bien adaptee et bien acceptee par la personne âgee deprimee. Dans cet article, nous presenterons les donnees bibliographiques, les strategies adaptatives ainsi que notre modele d'intervention de ce type de psychotherapie. La revue de la litterature met en evidence un interet croissant pour la psychotherapie cognitive avec les patients âges et une adaptation des strategies therapeutiques aux changements developpementaux. aux caracteristiques personnelles de la trajectoire de vie et aux cognitions specifiques de l'âge. Dans notre modele, nous insistons sur l'integration des aspects psychogerontologiques et neuropsychologiques que nous considerons comme essentiels pour le therapeute qui travaille avec la personne âgee. Nous proposons un protocole d'intervention incluant une evaluation psychiatrique et neuropsychologique, un entretien d'indication a la therapie cognitive, la passation d'instruments d'auto-evaluation adaptes a l'âge ainsi qu'une conceptualisation du cas. Meme si les idees negatives envers la psychotherapie chez la personne âgee n'ont pas totalement disparu, nous sommes convaincus que la psychotherapie cognitive est benefique pour le patient âge et qu'elle se revele enrichissante pour le therapeute.
Switched state-feedback control for continuous time-varying polytopic systems

This article deals with switched state-feedback ℋ2 control design of continuous time-varying polytopic systems. More specifically, the main goal is to determine, simultaneously, a set of state-feedback gains and a switching rule to orchestrate them, rendering the closed-loop system globally asymptotically stable for all time-varying uncertain parameter under consideration and assuring a guaranteed ℋ2 cost. A contribution of the present switched control technique compared to the gain scheduling, widely used in the literature, is that the online measurement of the uncertain parameter is not required and no assumption on its time derivative is imposed. The conditions are based on modified Lyapunov–Metzler inequalities and can be solved by line search coupled with LMIs. An academic example illustrates the theoretical results and compares the present technique with other techniques from literature.
Cyclooxygenase‐2 Inhibitor Nimesulide Blocks Ultraviolet B‐induced Photocarcinogenesis in SKH‐1 Hairless Mice †

Cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) inhibition can inhibit UVB‐induced carcinogenesis in the skin. We have shown that COX‐2 is overexpressed in UVB‐induced squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs). Celecoxib, a specific inhibitor of COX‐2, blocks UVB‐induced papillomas and carcinomas in murine skin. However, as COX‐2 inhibitors of this type are associated with an increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events, we decided to study nimesulide, a different class of COX‐2 inhibitor, an N‐arylmethanesulfonamide derivative not known to have these untoward effects. To assess the antitumor‐promoting effects of nimesulide, 90 mice were equally divided into three groups. Group I animals received no test agent or UVB and served as age‐matched controls; group II animals were irradiated with UVB (180 mJ cm−2, twice weekly for 35 weeks) and group III animals received 300 p.p.m. nimesulide in drinking water and were irradiated with UVB as described for group‐II. Nimesulide treatment reduced the growth of UVB‐induced tumors both in terms of tumor number and tumor volume. By weeks 25, 30 and 35, the tumor numbers in the nimesulide‐treated group were 79%, 49% and 53% less than the number occurring in UVB‐treated animals whereas tumor volume was reduced 69%, 54% and 53%, respectively, compared to the UVB‐irradiated control group. Nimesulide also inhibited the malignant progression of SCCs. The reduction in tumorigenesis was paralleled by a decrease in cell cycle regulatory proteins (cyclins A, B1, D1, E, CDK2/4/6) and the antiapoptotic protein (Bcl2); concomitantly there was an increase in proapoptotic markers, poly (ADP‐ribose) polymerase (PARP) and caspase‐3. Nimesulide also decreased ornithine decarboxylase expression and the nuclear accumulation of nuclear factor kappa B transcriptionally active protein complexes. These results show that alternative classes of COX‐2 inhibitors may likely be efficacious as cancer chemopreventive agents and may have an improved therapeutic index.
Consumer satisfaction and word-of-mouth in Electronic Commerce: a possible segmentation method

Over the last 10 years the B2C online market and its characteristics – for example the perceived electronic service quality (e-SQ) – has become a relevant research area, not only in the Western countries but also in smaller, less-developed countries. Therefore the first aim of this paper is to provide a description of an analysis into how the dimensions of perceived e-SQ relate to satisfaction and WOM intention in Hungary. Secondly, using the results of a PLS-SEM model we show how consumers may be segmented based on their perceptions of quality. According to our research only the dimension of efficiency and responsiveness have a significant positive effect on satisfaction, and the perception of the quality of fulfilment’s also significantly influences word-of-mouth intention. Using the relevant latent variable scores a segmentation method was developed in which four significantly different segments were identified.
Depression and Anxiety Among Transitioning Adolescents and College Students With ADHD, Dyslexia, or Comorbid ADHD/Dyslexia

Objective: To investigate depressive and anxious symptomatology among transitioning adolescents and college students with ADHD, dyslexia, or comorbid ADHD/dyslexia. Method: Transitioning adolescents and college students with these disorders along with a non-ADHD/dyslexia college sample completed self-report measures of depression and anxiety. Results: Results indicated no differences between the college-level groups, although a main effect for gender was found and trended toward females with dyslexia reporting more symptoms of depression and anxiety than did males with dyslexia. Internalizing symptomatology differences were not found for subtypes of ADHD. Transitioning high school students with ADHD, dyslexia, or ADHD/dyslexia reported fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression than did college underclassmen with these disorders. Conclusion: The unique characteristics and experiences of the college population of individuals with ADHD and/or dyslexia are discussed relative to the general adult population with these disorders.
The Advanced Computing Systems Association 5 Th Usenix Conference on Object-oriented Technologies and Systems (coots '99) Resource Control for Java Database Extensions Resource Control for Java Database Extensions

While object-relational database servers can be extended with user-defined functions (UDFs), the security of the server may be compromised by these extensions. The use of Java to implement the UDFs is promising because it addresses some security concerns. However, it still permits interference between different users through the uncontrolled consumption of resources. In this paper, we explore the use of a Java resource management mechanism (JRes) to monitor resource consumption and enforce usage constraints. JRes enhances the security of the database server in the presence of extensions allowing for (i) detection and neutralization of denial-of-service attacks aimed at resource monopolization, (ii) monitoring resource consumption which enables precise billing of users relying on UDFs, and (iii) obtaining feedback that can be used for adaptive query optimization. The feedback can be utilized either by the UDFs themselves or by the database system to dynamically modify the query execution plan. Both models have been prototyped in the Cornell Predator database system. We describe the implementation techniques, and present experiments that demonstrate the effects of the adaptive behavior facilitated by JRes. We conclude that, minimally, a database system supporting extensions should have a built-in resource monitoring and controlling mechanism. Moreover, in order to fully exploit information provided by the resource control mechanisms, both the query optimizer and the UDFs themselves should have access to this information.