Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Persimmon leaf flavonoid induces brain ischemic tolerance in mice

The persimmon leaf has been shown to improve cerebral ischemic outcomes; however, its mechanism of action remains unclear. In this study, mice were subjected to 10 minutes of ischemic preconditioning, and persimmon leaf flavonoid was orally administered for 5 days. Results showed that the persimmon leaf flavonoid significantly improved the content of tissue type plasminogen activator and 6-keto prostaglandin-F1 α in the cerebral cortex, decreased the content of thromboxane B2, and reduced the content of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 in mice. Following optical microscopy, persimmon leaf flavonoid was also shown to reduce cell swelling and nuclear hyperchromatism in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus of mice. These results suggested that persimmon leaf flavonoid can effectively inhibit brain thrombosis, improve blood supply to the brain, and relieve ischemia-induced pathological damage, resulting in brain ischemic tolerance.
Prediction of distribution relationship of titanium surface topography created by abrasive waterjet

The paper deals with an identification and analysis of a traverse speed of a cutting head in relation to titanium surface topography created by hydro-abrasive cutting. A surface roughness of titanium was quantified by using the profile roughness parameter Ra which was measured in 19 depth traces. Information about surface topography of experimentally made samples was obtained by a contacting profile-meter Mitutoyo 401. Based on surface roughness parameters some views on hydro-abrasive jet interaction, a mechanism of stock material and a new way in classification of qualitative different zones created by hydro-abrasive water jet interaction with titan were developed. The entire titanium surface created by hydro-abrasive cutting was quantified, including an initial zone, that is often neglected. An optimal cutting head traverse speed was semi-empirically determined. From a practical point of view there is a problem solving proposal in the field of economic performance of titanium cutting, where the optimal cutting speed is well-balanced with respect to roughness and economy of the cutting process. New relations were derived from quadratic sum of the tensile and pressure component of SIGdef that can be used to predict a topographic function across the width of the cut.
A Data Processing and Analysis Testbed for WSNs: Design and Implementation

In this paper, we design and implement a reliable data processing and analysis test bed (NESCTB) for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). It contains 36 wireless sensor nodes connected through Ethernet to a central server so that, with web interface, remote users are able to schedule tasks and monitor the nodes' operations online. In addition, reprogramming and data logging can also be provided via the wired network. Powerful data processing and analysis tools are developed for information searching and processing, real-time topology visualization, 2-D and 3-D viewing of statistical diagrams, snapshots and timing sequences. The tools can significantly improve user-friendliness and operability of the test bed. The application scenarios of the test bed are discussed and a validation experiment for the referred application case NESCSurge demonstrates the convenience and effectiveness of NESCTB.
Determinants of Birth Weight in Botswana

The study investigated the determinants of birth weight in Botswana using the control function approach and the Botswana Family Health Survey (BFHS) data for 1996. The findings suggest that birth weight is positively and significantly influenced by the mother’s tetanus immunization status, age, education level, access to quality antenatal care, and household income. The policy implication is that improvement in the health status of the children in Botswana (proxied by birth weight) can be attained through concerted efforts to improve the education levels of especially the women and provision of quality reproductive health care services (tetanus immunization and antenatal care) to expectant mothers.
Expression Pattern and Biochemical Properties of Zebrafish N-Acetylglutamate Synthase

The urea cycle converts ammonia, a waste product of protein catabolism, into urea. Because fish dispose ammonia directly into water, the role of the urea cycle in fish remains unknown. Six enzymes, N-acetylglutamate synthase (NAGS), carbamylphosphate synthetase III, ornithine transcarbamylase, argininosuccinate synthase, argininosuccinate lyase and arginase 1, and two membrane transporters, ornithine transporter and aralar, comprise the urea cycle. The genes for all six enzymes and both transporters are present in the zebrafish genome. NAGS (EC 2.3.1.1) catalyzes the formation of N-acetylglutamate from glutamate and acetyl coenzyme A and in zebrafish is partially inhibited by L-arginine. NAGS and other urea cycle genes are highly expressed during the first four days of zebrafish development. Sequence alignment of NAGS proteins from six fish species revealed three regions of sequence conservation: the mitochondrial targeting signal (MTS) at the N-terminus, followed by the variable and conserved segments. Removal of the MTS yields mature zebrafish NAGS (zfNAGS-M) while removal of the variable segment from zfNAGS-M results in conserved NAGS (zfNAGS-C). Both zfNAGS-M and zfNAGS-C are tetramers in the absence of L-arginine; addition of L-arginine decreased partition coefficients of both proteins. The zfNAGS-C unfolds over a broader temperature range and has higher specific activity than zfNAGS-M. In the presence of L-arginine the apparent Vmax of zfNAGS-M and zfNAGS-C decreased, their Km app for acetyl coenzyme A increased while the Km app for glutamate remained unchanged. The expression pattern of NAGS and other urea cycle genes in developing zebrafish suggests that they may have a role in citrulline and/or arginine biosynthesis during the first day of development and in ammonia detoxification thereafter. Biophysical and biochemical properties of zebrafish NAGS suggest that the variable segment may stabilize a tetrameric state of zfNAGS-M and that under physiological conditions zebrafish NAGS catalyzes formation of N-acetylglutamate at the maximal rate.
Tactile perception of fabrics with an artificial finger compared to human sensing

The assessment of fabric quality is highly dependent on the human tactile sense, which is affected by many factors. There is currently no approach to measure fabric quality directly. To build the relationship between tactile perception and fabric texture, vibration data obtained from a biomimetic sensor while scanning fabric surfaces were recorded and compared with the human judgments. Human subjective sensing experiments were performed with 20 volunteers by classifying texture into 10 grades according to three dimensions: Rough–Smooth, Coarse–Fine and Complex–Uniform. The vibrations and the coefficient of friction (COF) between the skin and fabric were measured using an artificial finger and a tribometer as the artificial finger scanned across various fabrics. Five characteristic values were extracted based on features of the fabric texture from the vibration data: peak average (PA), peak ratio (PR), spectral centroid (SC), power (P) and Shannon entropy (SE). These feature values were evaluated by comparison with those from human sensing experiments. It was found that P, SC, SE and COF could characterize the perceived Rough–Smooth, Coarse–Fine, Complex–Uniform and surface comfort, respectively.
Childhood trauma and problem behavior: Examining the mediating roles of experiential avoidance and mindfulness processes

ABSTRACT Objective: Childhood trauma is associated with a variety of risky, unhealthy, or problem behaviors. The current study aimed to explore experiential avoidance and mindfulness processes as mechanisms through which childhood trauma and problem behavior are linked in a college sample. Participants: The sample consisted of college-aged young adults recruited November-December, 2016 (N = 414). Methods: Participants completed self-report measures of childhood trauma, current problem behavior, experiential avoidance, and mindfulness processes. Bootstrapped mediation analyses examined the mechanistic associations of interest. Results: Mediation analyses indicated that experiential avoidance was a significant mediator of the association between childhood trauma and problem behavior. Additionally, multiple mediation analyses indicated that specific mindfulness facets–act with awareness and nonjudgment of inner experience–significantly mediated the same association. Conclusions: Interventions for college students who have experienced childhood trauma might profitably target mechanisms such as avoidance and mindfulness in order to minimize engagement in problem behavior.
High efficiency,compact UV 355 nm laser

A LD end-pumped Nd:YAG,all-solid-state ultraviolet laser is demonstrated under acousto-optic Q-switch operation,by using a simple and compact flat-flat cavity resonator,with type Ⅰ phase-match LiB3O5(LBO) as secong harmonic generation crystal and type Ⅱ phase-matched LBO as third harmonic generation crystal.With an input pump power of 28 W,average power of 8.1 W at 1 064 nm was generated with the repetition rate 10 kHz.Using the extra-cavity frequency conversion of critical phase match LBO crystal,2.4 W second harmonic radiation at 532 nm was obtained,after frequency tripling 1.65 W of 355 nm laser with single pulse energy 165 μJ and pulse width 6 ns was obtained,the peak power of 355 nm laser was up to 27.5 kW.
Fluorescence-Based Classification of Caribbean Coral Reef Organisms and Substrates

A diverse group of coral reef organisms, representing several phyla, possess fluorescent pigments. We investigated the potential of using the characteristic fluorescence emission spectra of these pigments to enable unsupervised, optical classification of coral reef habitats. We compiled a library of characteristic fluorescence spectra through in situ and laboratory measurements from a variety of specimens throughout the Caribbean. Because fluorescent pigments are not species-specific, the spectral library is organized in terms of 15 functional groups. We investigated the spectral separability of the functional groups in terms of the number of wavebands required to distinguish between them, using the similarity measures Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM), Spectral Information Divergence (SID), SID-SAM mixed measure, and Mahalanobis distance. This set of measures represents geometric, stochastic, joint geometric-stochastic, and statistical approaches to classifying spectra. Our hyperspectral fluorescence data were used to generate sets of 4-, 6-, and 8-waveband spectra, including random variations in relative signal amplitude, spectral peak shifts, and water-column attenuation. Each set consisted of 2 different band definitions: ‘optimally-picked’ and ‘evenly-spaced. ’ The optimally-picked wavebands were chosen to coincide with as many peaks as possible in the functional group spectra. Reference libraries were formed from half of the spectra in each set and used for training purposes. Average classification accuracies ranged from 76.3% for SAM with 4 evenly-spaced wavebands to 93.8% for Mahalanobis distance with 8 evenly-spaced wavebands. The Mahalanobis distance consistently outperformed the other measures. In a second test, empirically-measured spectra were classified using the same reference libraries and the Mahalanobis distance for just the 8 evenly-spaced waveband case. Average classification accuracies were 84% and 87%, corresponding to the extremes in modeled water-column attenuation. The classification results from both tests indicate that a high degree of separability among the 15 fluorescent-spectra functional groups is possible using only a modest number of spectral bands.
Radiosynthesis and validation of (±)-[18F]-3-fluoro-2-hydroxypropionate ([18F]-FLac) as a PET tracer of lactate to monitor MCT1-dependent lactate uptake in tumors

Cancers develop metabolic strategies to cope with their microenvironment often characterized by hypoxia, limited nutrient bioavailability and exposure to anticancer treatments. Among these strategies, the metabolic symbiosis based on the exchange of lactate between hypoxic/glycolytic cancer cells that convert glucose to lactate and oxidative cancer cells that preferentially use lactate as an oxidative fuel optimizes the bioavailability of glucose to hypoxic cancer cells. This metabolic cooperation has been described in various human cancers and can provide resistance to anti-angiogenic therapies. It depends on the expression and activity of monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs) at the cell membrane. MCT4 is the main facilitator of lactate export by glycolytic cancer cells, and MCT1 is adapted for lactate uptake by oxidative cancer cells. While MCT1 inhibitor AZD3965 is currently tested in phase I clinical trials and other inhibitors of lactate metabolism have been developed for anticancer therapy, predicting and monitoring a response to the inhibition of lactate uptake is still an unmet clinical need. Here, we report the synthesis, evaluation and in vivo validation of (±)-[18F]-3-fluoro-2-hydroxypropionate ([18F]-FLac) as a tracer of lactate for positron emission tomography. [18F]-FLac offers the possibility to monitor MCT1-dependent lactate uptake and inhibition in tumors in vivo.
A Model of Children ’ s Acquisition of Grammatical Word Categories from Adult Language Input Using an Adaption and Selection Algorithm Emily

A Model of Children’s Acquisition of Grammatical Word Categories from Adult Language Input Using an Adaption and Selection Algorithm Emily Marie Berardi Department of Communication Disorders, BYU Master of Science Previous models of language acquisition have had partial success describing the processes that children use to acquire knowledge of the grammatical categories of their native language. The present study used a computer model based on the evolutionary principles of adaptation and selection to gain further insight into children's acquisition of grammatical categories. Transcribed language samples of eight parents or caregivers each conversing with their own child served as the input corpora for the model. The model was tested on each child's language corpus three times: two fixed mutation rates as well as a progressively decreasing mutation rate, which allowed less adaptation over time, were examined. The output data were evaluated by measuring the computer model’s ability to correctly identify the grammatical categories in 500 utterances from the language corpus of each child. The model's performance ranged between 78 and 88 percent correct; the highest performance overall was found for a corpus using the progressively decreasing mutation rate, but overall no clear pattern relative to mutation rate was found.
Longitudinal changes in physical function and physical activity in older adults

BACKGROUND physical function (PF) and physical activity (PA) both decline as adults age and have been linked to negative outcomes, including dementia, depression and cardiovascular diseases. Although declines in each are associated with numerous negative outcomes, the longitudinal relationship between these two measures is unclear. OBJECTIVE to examine the dynamic, bidirectional associations between declines in PF and PA. DESIGN prospective cohort. SETTING the Monongahela-Youghiogheny Healthy Aging Team (MYHAT) study. SUBJECTS about 1,404 men and women, 76.96 ± 7.2 years, 62.4% female and 95.2% white. METHODS over nine annual assessment cycles, PF was evaluated via the timed Up-and-Go task and PA via a self-reported questionnaire. Piecewise latent growth models examined bidirectional associations between PA and PF to determine whether the initial values (intercept) or early slope (cycles 1-5) (in either PF or PA) predicted later slope (cycles 5-9) (in either PF or PA). RESULTS initial PF significantly predicted early (standardised β= -0.10, P < 0.001) and later (standardised β= -0.09, P = 0.01) PA slopes. Initial PA significantly predicted later (standardised β = -0.09, P = 0.04) but not early PF slope. Associations were independent of baseline memory test scores, baseline cognitive status, later cognitive status and age. Early physical function slope neither predicts later PA slope nor did early PA slope predict later PF slope (both P values >0.10). CONCLUSIONS the relationship between PF and PA is bidirectional, with PF more consistently predicting declines of PA, both in the short- and long-term. Intervening on PF impairments may improve PA engagement, which could in turn promote PF and translate to beneficial effects on cognitive function, cardiovascular health and mood.
The application of electrospun biofunctional scaffolds for stem cell differentiation and nerve regeneration

i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.v TABLE OF CONTENTS.vii LIST OF TABLES.xiii LIST OF FIGURES.xiv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. xvii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.1 1.1. OVERVIEW.1 1.2. HYPOTHESIS.3 1.3. OBJECTIVE.4 CHAPTER TWO: RELEVANT BACKGROUND.6 2.
Detection of fast neutrons from D–T nuclear reaction using a 4H–SiC radiation detector

The particle detector based on a high purity epitaxial layer of 4H–SiC exhibits promising properties in detection of various types of ionizing radiation. Due to the wide band gap of 4H–SiC semiconductor material, the detector can reliably operate at room and also elevated temperatures. In this work we focused on detection of fast neutrons generated the by D–T (deuterium–tritium) nuclear reaction. The epitaxial layer with a thickness of 105 μm was used as a detection part. A circular Schottky contact of a Au/Ni double layer was evaporated on both sides of the detector material. The detector structure was characterized by current-voltage and capacitance-voltage measurements, at first. The results show very low current density (<0.1 nA/cm2) at room temperature and good homogeneity of free carrier concentration in the investigated depth. The fabricated detectors were tested for detection of fast neutrons generated by the D–T reaction. The energies of detected fast neutrons varied from 16.0 MeV to 18.3 MeV according to the acceleration potential of deuterons, which increased from 600 kV up to 2 MV. Detection of fast neutrons in the SiC detector is caused by the elastic and inelastic scattering on the silicon or carbide component of the detector material. Another possibility that increases the detection efficiency is the use of a conversion layer. In our measurements, we glued a HDPE (high density polyethylene) conversion layer on the detector Schottky contact to transform fast neutrons to protons. Hydrogen atoms contained in the conversion layer have a high probability of interaction with neutrons through elastic scattering. Secondary generated protons flying to the detector can be easily detected. The detection properties of detectors with and without the HDPE conversion layer were compared.
RECRYSTALLIZATION TEXTURE, CSL GRAIN BOUNDARV DISTRIBUTION AND CORROSION-RESISTING PROPERTY OF LY12 ALLOY

The evolution of recrystallization texture and coincidence site lattice (CSL) grain boundary distribution as well as corrosion-resisting property of LY12 aluminum alloy samples annealed at different temperatures and for different times were studied by means of ODF analysis and EBSP (electron back scattering pattern ) technique. The results show that the character of recrystallization texture in the sample annealed at a high temperature is similar to the cold rolling texture. In the sample recovered and then annealed at a low temperature, there exists a strong recrystallization cube texture, and CSL grain boundaries (especially X7)occur with a relatively high frequency resulted from the co-existing of the sharp cube texture component and the S texture component. The higher frequency CSL grain boundaries occur with, the better the corrosion-resisting property is.
Detecting Data Errors: Where are we and what needs to be done?

Data cleaning has played a critical role in ensuring data quality for enterprise applications. Naturally, there has been extensive research in this area, and many data cleaning algorithms have been translated into tools to detect and to possibly repair certain classes of errors such as outliers, duplicates, missing values, and violations of integrity constraints. Since different types of errors may coexist in the same data set, we often need to run more than one kind of tool. In this paper, we investigate two pragmatic questions: (1) are these tools robust enough to capture most errors in real-world data sets? and (2) what is the best strategy to holistically run multiple tools to optimize the detection effort? To answer these two questions, we obtained multiple data cleaning tools that utilize a variety of error detection techniques. We also collected five real-world data sets, for which we could obtain both the raw data and the ground truth on existing errors. In this paper, we report our experimental findings on the errors detected by the tools we tested. First, we show that the coverage of each tool is well below 100%. Second, we show that the order in which multiple tools are run makes a big difference. Hence, we propose a holistic multi-tool strategy that orders the invocations of the available tools to maximize their benefit, while minimizing human effort in verifying results. Third, since this holistic approach still does not lead to acceptable error coverage, we discuss two simple strategies that have the potential to improve the situation, namely domain specific tools and data enrichment. We close this paper by reasoning about the errors that are not detectable by any of the tools we tested.
Post-growth surface smoothing of thin films of diindenoperylene

We applied in situ x-ray reflectivity and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy to study the impact of annealing on low temperature (200 K) deposited organic thin films of diindenoperylene (DIP) on SiO2 and indium tin oxide (ITO). At 200 K, DIP is crystalline on SiO2 and amorphous on ITO. Upon heating to room temperature, the roughness of DIP is reduced on both substrates, from 1.5 nm to 0.75 nm (SiO2) and from 0.90 nm to 0.45 nm (ITO). The smoothing is accompanied by crystallization of the surface molecules, whereas the bulk structure of the films does not strongly reorganize.
Mitochondrial Targeting of Vitamin E Succinate Enhances Its Pro-apoptotic and Anti-cancer Activity via Mitochondrial Complex II*

Mitochondrial complex II (CII) has been recently identified as a novel target for anti-cancer drugs. Mitochondrially targeted vitamin E succinate (MitoVES) is modified so that it is preferentially localized to mitochondria, greatly enhancing its pro-apoptotic and anti-cancer activity. Using genetically manipulated cells, MitoVES caused apoptosis and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in CII-proficient malignant cells but not their CII-dysfunctional counterparts. MitoVES inhibited the succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity of CII with IC50 of 80 μm, whereas the electron transfer from CII to CIII was inhibited with IC50 of 1.5 μm. The agent had no effect either on the enzymatic activity of CI or on electron transfer from CI to CIII. Over 24 h, MitoVES caused stabilization of the oxygen-dependent destruction domain of HIF1α fused to GFP, indicating promotion of the state of pseudohypoxia. Molecular modeling predicted the succinyl group anchored into the proximal CII ubiquinone (UbQ)-binding site and successively reduced interaction energies for serially shorter phytyl chain homologs of MitoVES correlated with their lower effects on apoptosis induction, ROS generation, and SDH activity. Mutation of the UbQ-binding Ser68 within the proximal site of the CII SDHC subunit (S68A or S68L) suppressed both ROS generation and apoptosis induction by MitoVES. In vivo studies indicated that MitoVES also acts by causing pseudohypoxia in the context of tumor suppression. We propose that mitochondrial targeting of VES with an 11-carbon chain localizes the agent into an ideal position across the interface of the mitochondrial inner membrane and matrix, optimizing its biological effects as an anti-cancer drug.