Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Isoflurane-, Sevoflurane-, and Desflurane-Induced Pre- and Postconditioning Against Myocardial Infarction in Mice In Vivo

The murine in vivo model of acute myocardial infarction is increasingly used to investigate anesthetic-induced preconditioning (APC) and postconditioning (APOST). However, in mice the potency of different volatile anesthetics to reduce myocardial infarct size (IS) has never been investigated systematically nor in a head to head comparison with regard to ischemic preconditioning (IPC) and postconditioning (IPOST). Male C57BL/6 mice were subjected to 45 min of coronary artery occlusion (CAO) and 180 min of reperfusion. To induce APC, 1.0 MAC isoflurane (ISO), sevoflurane (SEVO) or desflurane (DES) was administered 30 min prior to CAO for 15 min. In an additional group, ISO was administered 45 min prior to CAO for 30 min. To induce APOST, 1.0 MAC ISO, SEVO or DES was administered for 18 min starting 3 min prior to the end of CAO. IPC was induced by 3 or 6 cycles of 5 min ischemia/reperfusion, 40 or 60 min prior to CAO, respectively. IPOST was induced by 3 cycles of 30 sec reperfusion/ischemia at the beginning of reperfusion. Area at risk (AAR) and IS were determined with Evans Blue and TTC staining, respectively. IS (IS/AAR) was 50 ± 4% (mean ± SEM) in the control group and was significantly (*P < 0.05) reduced by 3×5 IPC (26 ± 3%*), 6×5 IPC (26 ± 4%*), IPOST (20 ± 2%*), ISO APOST (19 ± 1%*), SEVO APOST (15 ± 1%*), DES APOST (14 ± 2%*) and SEVO APC (27 ± 6%*). ISO APC significantly reduced IS compared to control when administered 30 min (33 ± 4%*), but not when administered 15 min (48 ± 6%). DES APC significantly reduced IS compared to control and to SEVO APC (7 ± 1%*). Within the paradigm of preconditioning, the potency of volatile anesthetics to reduce myocardial infarct size in mice significantly increases from ISO over SEVO to DES, whereas within the paradigm of postconditioning the potency of these volatile anesthetics to reduce myocardial infarct size in mice is similar.
Facial Motion Analysis using Clustered Shortest Path Tree Registration

We describe a method of automatically annotating video sequences, defining a set of corresponding points in every frame. This is an important pre-processing step for many motion analysis systems. Rather than tracking feature points through the sequence, we treat the problem as one of ‘groupwise registration’, in which we seek to find the correspondence between every image and an automatically computed model reference, ignoring the ordering of frames. The main contribution of this work is to demonstrate a method of clustering the frames and constructing a shortest path tree over the clusters. This tree defines the order in which frames will be registered with an evolving estimate of the mean. This technique is shown to lead to a more accurate final result than if all frames are registered simultaneously. We describe the method in detail, and demonstrate its application to face sequences used in an experiment to assess the degree of facial motion. The resulting ranking is found to correlate well with that produced by human subjects.
Synthesis and Ultrasonic Investigations of CuO-PVA Nanofluid

Study of nanofluids is important for different types of heat transfer management systems. Cupric oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) were prepared by the chemical route and different nanofluid samples of CuO NPs dispersed in PVA in dif- ferent concentrations were prepared using ultrasonication. The apparatus acoustic particle sizer (APS-100) was used to make high precision measurements of the ultrasonic attenuation depending upon different frequencies in the frequency range 48 to 99 MHz. The ultrasonic attenuation data are inverted to particle size distribution (PSD) and are used for particle size determination of CuO NPs. Temperature dependent ultrasonic velocity in the samples is also measured. The results of ultrasonic spectroscopy are compared with the microscopic measurements such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). There is good agreement between data produced by ultrasonic spec- troscopy and the microscopic measurements.
The Relationships among Perceived Job Stressors, Workplace Bullying and Job Stress in the Health Care Services in Turkey: A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) Approach 1

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships among perceived job stressors, workplace bullying and job stress using structural equation modeling. The data is obtained from 300 health service staff (junior doctors and nurses) in Turkey. Considering the findings, it is concluded that nurses experience more workplace bullying and job stress than junior doctors. It is also noted that the averages of work-overload, work-related bullying and burnout sub-factors are higher than the others. Results obtained from the structural equation modeling indicate that perceived job stressors affect workplace bullying positively and that perceived job stressors have a positive influence on job stress. Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between workplace bullying and job stress. In other words, job stress of health employees who experience workplace bullying is high.
GABAergic Excitatory Synapses and Electrical Coupling Sustain Prolonged Discharges in the Prey Capture Neural Network of Clione limacina

Afterdischarges represent a prominent characteristic of the neural network that controls prey capture reactions in the carnivorous molluscClione limacina. Their main functional implication is transformation of a brief sensory input from a prey into a lasting prey capture response. The present study, which focuses on the neuronal mechanisms of afterdischarges, demonstrates that a single pair of interneurons [cerebral A interneuron (Cr-Aint)] is responsible for afterdischarge generation in the network. Cr-Aint neurons are electrically coupled to all other neurons in the network and produce slow excitatory synaptic inputs to them. This excitatory transmission is found to be GABAergic, which is demonstrated by the use of GABA antagonists, uptake inhibitors, and double-labeling experiments showing that Cr-Aint neurons are GABA-immunoreactive. The Cr-Aint neurons organize three different pathways in the prey capture network, which provide positive feedback necessary for sustaining prolonged spike activity. The first pathway includes electrical coupling and slow chemical transmission from the Cr-Aint neurons to all other neurons in the network. The second feedback is based on excitatory reciprocal connections between contralateral interneurons. Recurrent excitation via the contralateral cell can sustain prolonged interneuron firing, which then drives the activity of all other cells in the network. The third positive feedback is represented by prominent afterdepolarizing potentials after individual spikes in the Cr-Aint neurons. Afterdepolarizations apparently represent recurrent GABAergic excitatory inputs. It is suggested here that these afterdepolarizing potentials are produced by GABAergic excitatory autapses.
A study for high speed compliant legged robot

Recently, we study for high speed compliant legged robot. We use the biologically inspired approach and simple trajectory generation for the control method. We obtained about 4.15m/s with compliant initial leg length 0.1m robot. In this paper, we present the control method and the experimental result.
Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) facilitates retinal angiogenesis in a model of oxygen-induced retinopathy.

PURPOSE Angiogenesis, or the formation of new retinal blood vessels, is a key feature of many proliferative retinal diseases including diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusion, and retinopathy of prematurity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of the serine proteinase inhibitor plasminogen activator inhibitor -1 (PAI-1) in facilitating retinal angiogenesis. METHODS The temporal expression of PAI-1 was examined by real-time PCR, Western blot analysis, and immunohistochemistry in retinal tissues from mice with oxygen-induced retinopathy. The requirement for PAI-1 in facilitating the retinal angiogenic response in this model was examined by quantitating the angiogenic response with wild-type and PAI-1 null mice. The mechanism by which PAI-1 mediates angiogenesis was further investigated with isolated human retinal vascular endothelial cells. RESULTS PAI-1 expression was upregulated in the retinas of mice with oxygen-induced retinopathy, which coincided with a significant increase in the expression of vitronectin in the retina of the experimental mice. There was significant reduction in the angiogenic response of PAI-1(-/-) mice compared with wild-type mice. PAI-1 promotes endothelial cell migration in vitro and facilitates the migration of cells on a vitronectin substrate by regulating alpha v integrin cell surface expression. CONCLUSIONS These observations suggest a role for PAI-1 during retinal angiogenesis and point to a potential new therapeutic target in the prevention or treatment of retinal neovascularization seen in many ocular diseases.
Security Analysis of `An Improved Low Computation Cost User Authentication Scheme for Mobile Communication'

Recently, Lee et al. proposed `an improved low computation cost user authentication scheme for mobile communication'. We demonstrate that their scheme is vulnerable and susceptible to the attacks and can be easily cryptanalyzed. We point out that their scheme performs unilateral authentication (only client authentication) and there is no mutual authentication between user and remote system, so their scheme suscepts from the server spoofing attack. Furthermore, an adversary can impersonate legitimate users by copying data of their stolen or lost smart card. Moreover, Lee et al.'s scheme is poorly reparable, which makes their method infeasible to implement
Variational auto-encoding of protein sequences

Proteins are responsible for the most diverse set of functions in biology. The ability to extract information from protein sequences and to predict the effects of mutations is extremely valuable in many domains of biology and medicine. However the mapping between protein sequence and function is complex and poorly understood. Here we present an embedding of natural protein sequences using a Variational Auto-Encoder and use it to predict how mutations affect protein function. We use this unsupervised approach to cluster natural variants and learn interactions between sets of positions within a protein. This approach generally performs better than baseline methods that consider no interactions within sequences, and in some cases better than the state-of-the-art approaches that use the inverse-Potts model. This generative model can be used to computationally guide exploration of protein sequence space and to better inform rational and automatic protein design.
Imaging‐based predictors of permanent pacemaker implantation after transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Cardiac conduction abnormalities requiring permanent pacemaker (PPM) implantation are major complications of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). We aimed to investigate whether the relationship between prosthetic valve size and cardiac‐gated computed tomography (CT)‐based aortic root complex measurements can aid in recognizing patients at risk for PPM implantation post‐TAVR.
A Helping Hand ? Teacher Quality and Learning Outcomes in Kindergarten 1

We assigned two cohorts of kindergarten students, totaling more than 23,000 children, to teachers within schools with a rule that is as-good-as-random. We collected data on children at the beginning of the school year, and applied 12 tests of math, language and executive function (EF) at the end of the year. All teachers were filmed teaching for a full day, and the videos were coded using a recentlydeveloped measure of teacher behaviors (the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, or CLASS). We find substantial teacher effects: A one-standard deviation increase in teacher quality results in 0.13, 0.11, and 0.07 standard deviation higher test scores in language, math, and EF, respectively. Teacher characteristics, including IQ and personality traits, are weak predictors of performance. On the other hand, teacher behaviors are strongly associated with better learning outcomes. Once we correct for measurement error in the CLASS, a one-point increase in the CLASS (on a 1-7 point scale) is associated with a 0.6 standard deviation increase in child learning outcomes. Children from across the distribution benefit from better teachers. Better teachers affect the intensive margin (more learning per days of school attended) rather than the extensive margin (fewer absences from school). Parents recognize better teachers, but do not change their behaviors to take account of differences in teacher quality.
Degradation of 3-Phenoxybenzoic Acid in Soil byPseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes POB310(pPOB) and Two ModifiedPseudomonas Strains

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes POB310(pPOB) andPseudomonas sp. strains B13-D5(pD30.9) and B13-ST1(pPOB) were introduced into soil microcosms containing 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-POB) in order to evaluate and compare bacterial survival, degradation of 3-POB, and transfer of plasmids to a recipient bacterium. Strain POB310 was isolated for its ability to use 3-POB as a growth substrate; degradation is initiated by POB-dioxygenase, an enzyme encoded on pPOB. Strain B13-D5 contains pD30.9, a cloning vector harboring the genes encoding POB-dioxygenase; strain B13-ST1 contains pPOB. Degradation of 3-POB in soil by strain POB310 was incomplete, and bacterial densities decreased even under the most favorable conditions (100 ppm of 3-POB, supplementation with P and N, and soil water-holding capacity of 90%). Strains B13-D5 and B13-ST1 degraded 3-POB (10 to 100 ppm) to concentrations of <50 ppb with concomitant increases in density from 106 to 108 CFU/g (dry weight) of soil. Thus, in contrast to strain POB310, the modified strains had the following two features that are important for in situ bioremediation: survival in soil and growth concurrent with removal of an environmental contaminant. Strains B13-D5 and B13-ST1 also completely degraded 3-POB when the inoculum was only 30 CFU/g (dry weight) of soil. This suggests that in situ bioremediation may be effected, in some cases, with low densities of introduced bacteria. In pure culture, transfer of pPOB from strains POB310 and B13-ST1 to Pseudomonas sp. strain B13 occurred at frequencies of 5 × 10−7 and 10−1 transconjugant per donor, respectively. Transfer of pPOB from strain B13-ST1 to strain B13 was observed in autoclaved soil but not in nonautoclaved soil; formation of transconjugant bacteria was more rapid in soil containing clay and organic matter than in sandy soil. Transfer of pPOB from strain POB310 to strain B13 in soil was never observed.
Ambiguous Assignment of Release Data in Stability Studies

Release data are often used improperly in stability studies by reproducing the same data and assigning it to each subset of a lot. The proper use of release data in stability studies is explored in this paper. The maximum likelihood solution is determined and compared with multiple imputation and one ad hoc procedure. Maximum likelihood is seen not to lead to a practical solution. One such procedure is found to compare favorably with multiple imputation.
ELM-based adaptive neural estimation for actuator faults detection and diagnosis of nonlinear uncertain systems

Actuator, as a key component of control system, whose faults detection and diagnosis (FDD) is a complex problem due to system modeling uncertainty, so it is essential to propose advanced FDD scheme that accurately detects the faults. In this paper, we develop an actuator FDD scheme for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems based on extreme learning machine (ELM). In ELM, all parameters of hidden layer nodes need not be adjusted during learning, which may simply be assigned with random values, and the output weights only need to be adjusted. Within this scheme, two ELMs are employed to learn the unknown system function and unknown fault function. Firstly, a stable adaptive observer is designed to monitor faults in an online manner. Secondly, adaptive threshold is designed to make the fault detection, and deviation between the actual and the estimated system is known as residual. If the residual exceeds threshold at finite time denotes a fault occurrence. Different from the existing schemes, online computational efficiency and learning speed are improved considerably because ELM is introduced in this FDD scheme. Finally, a single-link robotic arm will be employed in simulation to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed FDD scheme.
Pediatric Drug Disposition and Pharmacokinetics Age-Dependent Human Hepatic Carboxylesterase 1 ( CES 1 ) and Carboxylesterase 2 ( CES 2 ) Postnatal Ontogeny

Human hepatic carboxylesterase 1 and 2 (CES1 and CES2) are important for the disposition of esterand amide-bond–containing pharmaceuticals and environmental chemicals. CES1 and CES2 ontogeny has not been well characterized, causing difficulty in addressing concerns regarding juvenile sensitivity to adverse outcomes associated with exposure to certain substrates. To characterize postnatal human hepatic CES1 and CES2 expression, microsomal and cytosolic fractions were prepared using liver samples from subjects without liver disease (N = 165, aged 1 day to 18 years). Proteins were fractionated, detected, and quantitated by Western blotting. Median microsomal CES1 was lower among samples from subjects younger than 3 weeks (n = 36) compared with the rest of the population (n = 126; 6.27 vs. 17.5 pmol/mg microsomal protein, respectively; P < 0.001; Kruskal-Wallis test). Median cytosolic CES1 expression was lowest among samples from individuals between birth and 3 weeks of age (n = 36), markedly greater among those aged 3 weeks to 6 years (n = 90), and modestly greater still among those older than 6 years (n = 36; median values = 4.7, 15.8, and 16.6 pmol/mg cytosolic protein, respectively; P values < 0.001 and 0.05, respectively; KruskalWallis test). Median microsomal CES2 expression increased across the same three age groupswithmedian values of 1.8, 2.9, and 4.2 pmol/mg microsomal protein, respectively (P < 0.001, both). For cytosolic CES2, only the youngest age group differed from the two older groups (P < 0.001;median values = 1.29, 1.93, 2.0, respectively). These data suggest that infants younger than 3 weeks of age would exhibit significantly lower CES1and CES2-dependent metabolic clearance compared with older individuals.
Protein Profiling with Cleavable Isotope-coded Affinity Tag (cICAT) Reagents

Protein expression profiles in yeast cells, in response to salinity stress, were determined using the cleavable isotope-coded affinity tag (cICAT) labeling strategy. The analysis included separation of the mixed protein samples by SDS-PAGE, followed by excision of the entire gel lane, and division of the lane into 14 gel regions. Regions were subjected to in-gel digestion, biotin affinity chromatography, and analysis by nano-scale microcapillary liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. The novel 13C-labeled ICAT reagents have identical elution profiles for labeled peptide pairs and broadly spread the distribution of labeled peptides during reversed-phase chromatography. A total of 560 proteins were identified and quantified, with 51 displaying more than 2-fold expression differences. In addition to some known proteins involved in salt stress, four RNA-binding proteins were found to be up-regulated by high salinity, suggesting that selective RNA export from the nucleus is important for the salt-stress response. Some proteins involved in amino acid synthesis, which have been observed to be up-regulated by amino acid starvation, were also found to increase their abundance on salt stress. These results indicate that salt stress and amino acid starvation cause overlapping cellular responses and are likely to be physiologically linked.
Unstable Escherichia coli L Forms Revisited: Growth Requires Peptidoglycan Synthesis

ABSTRACT Growing bacterial L forms are reputed to lack peptidoglycan, although cell division is normally inseparable from septal peptidoglycan synthesis. To explore which cell division functions L forms use, we established a protocol for quantitatively converting a culture of a wild-type Escherichia coli K-12 strain overnight to a growing L-form-like state by use of the β-lactam cefsulodin, a specific inhibitor of penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) 1A and 1B. In rich hypertonic medium containing cefsulodin, all cells are spherical and osmosensitive, like classical L forms. Surprisingly, however, mutant studies showed that colony formation requires d-glutamate, diaminopimelate, and MurA activity, all of which are specific to peptidoglycan synthesis. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis confirmed that these L-form-like cells contain peptidoglycan, with 7% of the normal amount. Moreover, the β-lactam piperacillin, a specific inhibitor of the cell division protein PBP 3, rapidly blocks the cell division of these L-form-like cells. Similarly, penicillin-induced L-form-like cells, which grow only within the agar layers of rich hypertonic plates, also require d-glutamate, diaminopimelate, and MurA activity. These results strongly suggest that cefsulodin- and penicillin-induced L-form-like cells of E. coli—and possibly all L forms—have residual peptidoglycan synthesis which is essential for their growth, probably being required for cell division.
Analysis and simulation on gain flattening filter of an erbium doped fiber amplifier for multi-channel WDM system

A serious issue in case of multi-channel WDM systems is the flatness of gain which does not plays an important when single channel is used. The proposed work is dealing with the analysis & simulation for a multi-channel (in our case-8 channels) WDM covering the C-band (1530–1565 nm) i.e. being demonstrated with and without including Gain Flattening Filter (GFF), also known as Gain Equalization Filter. Optical power for both the cases is being measured at individual channel with the help of Optical power meter from which it is observed that there is a difference in the optical power of 8 dB when we compare channel 1 & channel 8, which reduces to almost 4 dB difference in the optical power between the corresponding channels while incorporating GFF along with EDFA. Flattening of gain is also obtained with the help of GFF. For the Optimization purpose the transmission values are evaluated with the help of channel's center frequencies. Maximum gain of 29 dB is also obtained in our case with single pumping source-GFF combination. The model consists of WDM transmitter, WDM MUX-ES, Backward Pump Laser, Dual Port WDM analyzer, GFF, Optical Power Meter and EDFA as key components.
Crystal structure of (E)-4,6-dimethoxy-2-(4-methoxystyryl)-3-methylbenzaldehyde

In the title molecule, C19H20O4, the central C=C double bond adopts an E configuration. The dihedral angle formed by the planes of the two benzene rings is 83.57 (12)°. The three methoxy groups are essentially coplanar with the benzene rings to which they are attached, with C C—O—C torsion angles of −0.2 (3), −2.3 (3) and −4.1 (3)°.