Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protective effects of tanshinone IIA on myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury by reducing oxidative stress, HMGB1 expression, and inflammatory reaction

Abstract Context: Although there were reports on the protective functions of tanshinone IIA (TSA) on rat myocardial ischemia, the exerting mechanism has not been completely clarified. Objective: An attempt was made to further verify the protective effect of TSA on myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury and elucidate its underlying mechanism. Materials and methods: The rats were given TSA (10, 20, and 40 mg/kg bw per day) in intraperitoneal injection for 15 d. Rami anterior descending branch of coronary artery was ligated for 30 min and then re-perfused for 120 min to establish a reperfusion model. Effects of TSA on the infarct area, creatine kinase (CK), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), high mobility group box B1 protein (HMGB1), and inflammation and oxidation were investigated. Results: Compared with those in the IR group, infarct size percentages of rats’ myocardium in L-TSA, M-TSA, and H-TSA groups were reduced by 1.21, 4.26, and 12.50%, respectively, CK activities by 7.4, 11.2, and 12.5%, respectively, and AST activities also declined (p < 0.05). Furthermore, compared with those in the IR group, SOD and GSH-Px activities increased, and MDA, TNF-α, IL-6, and iNOS levels decreased in L-TSA, M-TSA, and H-TSA groups (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, compared with those in the IR group, HMGB1 expressions in L-TSA, M-TSA, and H-TSA groups were lowered by 21.9, 32.4, and 35.6%, respectively. Discussion and conclusion: The protective function of TSA on myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury may be possibly exerted by inhibiting the increase of ROS caused by the reperfusion to attenuate the expression of HMGB1 and inhibit inflammation.
Induction of Glutathione S-Transferases in Arabidopsis by Herbicide Safeners1

Herbicide safeners increase herbicide tolerance in cereals but not in dicotyledenous crops. The reason(s) for this difference in safening is unknown. However, safener-induced protection in cereals is associated with increased expression of herbicide detoxifying enzymes, including glutathione S-transferases (GSTs). Treatment of Arabidopsis seedlings growing in liquid medium with various safeners similarly resulted in enhanced GST activities toward a range of xenobiotics with benoxacor, fenclorim, and fluxofenim being the most effective. Safeners also increased the tripeptide glutathione content of Arabidopsis seedlings. However, treatment of Arabidopsis plants with safeners had no effect on the tolerance of seedlings to chloroacetanilide herbicides. Each safener produced a distinct profile of enhanced GST activity toward different substrates suggesting a differential induction of distinct isoenzymes. This was confirmed by analysis of affinity-purified GST subunits by two-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.AtGSTU19, a tau class GST, was identified as a dominant polypeptide in all samples. When AtGSTU19 was expressed inEscherichia coli, the recombinant enzyme was highly active toward 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene, as well as chloroacetanilide herbicides. Immunoblot analysis confirmed that AtGSTU19 was induced in response to several safeners. Differential induction of tau GSTs, as well as members of the phi and theta classes by safeners, was demonstrated by RNA-blot analysis. These results indicate that, although Arabidopsis may not be protected from herbicide injury by safeners, at least one component of their detoxification systems is responsive to these compounds.
Non-anchored Unified Naming for Ubiquitous Computing Environments

Users and developers require some way to identify by human readable names the many resources that comprise a ubiquitous computing environment. In addition, naming in such environments should work well despite ad hoc situations, and it should also provide context-based naming. This paper describes the Non- anchored Unified Naming (NUN) system, which satisfies these requirements. It is based on relative naming among resources and provides the ability to name arbitrary types of resources. By having resources themselves take part in naming, resources are able to contribute their specialized knowledge into the name resolution process, making context-dependent mapping of names to resources possible.
WASSUP? LOL : Characterizing Out-of-Vocabulary Words in Twitter

Language in social media is mostly driven by new words and spellings that are constantly entering the lexicon thereby polluting it and resulting in high deviation from the formal written version. The primary entities of such language are the out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words. In this paper, we study various sociolinguistic properties of the OOV words and propose a classification model to categorize them into at least six categories. We achieve 81.26% accuracy with high precision and recall. We observe that the content features are the most discriminative ones followed by lexical and context features.
A Robust Nonlinear Observer for a Class of Neural Mass Models

A new method of designing a robust nonlinear observer is presented for a class of neural mass models by using the Lur'e system theory and the projection lemma. The observer is robust towards input uncertainty and measurement noise. It is applied to estimate the unmeasured membrane potential of neural populations from the electroencephalogram (EEG) produced by the neural mass models. An illustrative example shows the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Concentrations of Particulate Matter Emitted from Large Cattle Feedlots in Kansas

ABSTRACT Particulate matter (PM) emitted from cattle feedlots are thought to affect air quality in rural communities, yet little is known about factors controlling their emissions. The concentrations of PM (i.e., PM2.5, PM10, and total suspended particulates or TSP) upwind and downwind at two large cattle feedlots (KS1, KS2) in Kansas were measured with gravimetric samplers from May 2006 to October 2009 (at KS1) and from September 2007 to April 2008 (at KS2). The mean downwind and net (i.e., downwind − upwind) mass concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, and TSP varied seasonally, indicating the need for multiple-day, seasonal sampling. The downwind and net concentrations were closely related to the moisture content of the pen surface. The PM2.5/PM10 and PM2.5/TSP ratios at the downwind sampling location were also related to the moisture content of the pen surface, humidity, and temperature. Measurement of the particle size distribution downwind of the feedlot with a cascade impactor showed geometric mean diameter ranging from 7 to 18 μm, indicating that particles that were emitted from the feedlots were generally large in size. IMPLICATIONS This work characterized the total suspended particulates (TSP), PM10, and PM2.5 concentrations emitted from large cattle feedlots in Kansas, providing baseline information on concentrations and size distribution of particulates emitted from feedlots in the Great Plains. As expected, high dust events were observed during the spring and summer; dust control strategies should target those potential dust events. PM emitted from the feedlots was dominated by coarse particles; as such, development and evaluation of dust control strategies, including water sprinkling, shelterbelts, etc., might have to focus more on the coarse particles. The moisture content of the pen surface was one of the most significant factors affecting PM concentrations in cattle feedlots; by controlling the moisture content, it would be possible to control dust emissions.
Features of High School Students` Components of Conceptual Ecologies

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between selected components of conceptual ecology that are reflected in high school science students` statements, when answering questions. This study follows from a position that there is reason to believe that, in the process of answering questions, many aspects of conceptual ecology are likely to play a role. Data were gathered through six audio-taped interviews, the science teacher`s profiles of each student, the students` personal journals, their assignments, and their examinations and participation in class. Kay and KY were selected as the focus of this study because theirs were both dramatic as well as representative cases. As the findings suggest, learning styles differ according to distinctions within individuals` conceptual ecologies. Thus the way in which a person learns science varies according to the construction of her/his conceptual ecology. This suggests that different forms of pedagogy may be effective with different types of learners. This also suggests that science educators may have a role in assisting students to develop into constructed, rather than received, learners.
Protein secretion in Pseudomonas aeruginosa: the xcpA gene encodes an integral inner membrane protein homologous to Klebsiella pneumoniae secretion function protein PulO

xcp mutations have pleiotropic effects on the secretion of proteins in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO. The nucleotide sequence of a 1.2-kb DNA fragment that complements the xcp-1 mutation has been determined. Sequence analysis shows the xcpA gene product to be a 31.8-kDa polypeptide, with a highly hydrophobic character. This is consistent with a localization in the cytoplasmic membrane in P. aeruginosa, determined after specific expression of the xcpA gene under control of the T7 phi 10 promoter. A very strong homology was found between XcpA and PulO, a membrane protein required for pullulanase secretion in Klebsiella pneumoniae. This suggests the existence of a signal sequence-dependent secretion process common to these two unrelated gram-negative bacteria.
Impact of speech-generating devices on the language development of a child with childhood apraxia of speech: a case study

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of speech-generating devices (SGDs) on the communication and language development of a 2-year-old boy with severe childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Methods: An A-B design was used over a treatment period of 1 year, followed by three additional follow-up measurements, in order to evaluate the implementation of SGDs in the speech therapy of a 2;7-year-old boy with severe CAS. In total, 53 therapy sessions were videotaped and analyzed to better understand his communicative (operationalized as means of communication) and linguistic (operationalized as intelligibility and consistency of speech-productions, lexical and grammatical development) development. The trend-lines of baseline phase A and intervention phase B were compared and percentage of non-overlapping data points were calculated to verify the value of the intervention. Results: The use of SGDs led to an immediate increase in the communicative development of the child. An increase in all linguistic variables was observed, with a latency effect of eight to nine treatment sessions. Conclusions: The implementation of SGDs in speech therapy has the potential to be highly effective in regards to both communicative and linguistic competencies in young children with severe CAS. Implications for Rehabilitation Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a neurological speech sound disorder which results in significant deficits in speech production and lead to a higher risk for language, reading and spelling difficulties. Speech-generating devices (SGD), as one method of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), can effectively enhance the communicative and linguistic development of children with severe CAS.
The role expectations faced by church elders in the Finnish pentecostal movement

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Solution and Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Dynamic Nonlinear Rationalexpectations Models

A solution method and an estimation method for nonlinear rational expectations models are presented in this paper. The solution method can be used in forecasting and policy applications and can handle models with serial correlation and multiple viewpoint dates. When applied to linear models, the solution method yields the same results as those obtained from currently available methods that are designed specifically for linear models. It is, however, more flexible and general than these methods. For large nonlinear models the results in this paper indicate that the method works quite well. The estimation method is based on the maximum likelihood principal. It is, as far as we know, the only method available for obtaining maximum likelihood estimates for nonlinear rational expectations models. The method has the advantage of being applicable to a wide range of models, including, as a special case, linear ,models. The method can also handle different assumptions about the expectations of the exogenous variables, something which is not true of currently available approaches to linear models.
Analysis of the microcirculatory pulse wave: age-related alterations

Morphological analysis of the pulse wave of central blood pressure signal is commonly used for the study of cardiac and vascular properties, but very few attempts were performed for analyzing the peripheral pulse wave of blood flow. In this work, we analyzed this waveform using classical methods, based on the application of FFT, followed by principal components analysis, for assessing the properties of the blood flow. As a sample problem, we evaluated the capability of the proposed method of assessing the alterations correlated with the aging of the vascular system. Results show a good discrimination between the different age groups, confirming the validity of the approach.
Monitoring Container Services at the Network Edge

Recent developments induced by the Internet of Things (IoT) force a paradigm shift to deploy on demand services to a broad range of different computing architectures. Mainly single board computers (SBCs) gained a lot of attraction in recent years, shifting highly available processing power to service consumers and IoT devices. Simultaneously, container virtualization achieved a breakthrough by the well known Docker environment that became a key competitor to the utilization of virtual machines. Nevertheless, spreading containers at small scale needs a proper allocation of resources available on SBCs. ,, As a first step, we developed a multi-architecture framework "PyMon" to monitor different computing architectures with a small footprint. PyMon itself is based on the recent version of "monit" and a "Django" application to collect monitoring data. It is delivered by several Docker images and allows monitoring with a reasonable processing overhead. Our demonstration shows the statistics of either processes or containers running on a cluster of SBCs, where each member is monitored. Furthermore, we evaluated the resource usage of the two key competitors for container cluster management on SBCs, Kubernetes and Docker Swarm, with PyMon.
Throughput-Aware Routing for Industrial Sensor Networks: Application to ISA100.11a

This paper proposes a routing algorithm that enhances throughput and decreases end-to-end delay in industrial cognitive radio sensor networks (ICRSNs) based on ISA100.11a. In ICRSNs, the throughput is downgraded by interference from primary networks. The proposed routing algorithm is targeted at large-scale networks where data are forwarded through different clusters on their way to the sink. By estimating the maximum throughput for each path, the data can be forwarded through the most optimal path. Simulation results show that our scheme can enhance throughput and decrease end-to-end delay.
The Gathering Place: Creating a Community Library in Collaboration with the Ditidaht First Nation

The overall purpose of creating a community library with the Ditidaht First Nation is to increase opportunities for children to develop their oral language skills. In Chapter 1 I reflect on why oral language proficiency is a critical factor in early literacy development, specifically for First Nations children. I also identify how oral language is addressed within the current and draft British Columbia Ministry of Education English Language Arts curriculum documents. The community library initiative features the incorporation of a culturally responsive philosophy through practical activities such as storytelling by Ditidaht elders and dialogic reading as a way to increase language development within the children. In Chapter 2 I describe how dialogic reading and storytelling are situated within a sociocultural framework and review relevant research on these activities. In Chapter 3 I describe the processes that occurred in order to develop the Ditidaht community library. I also explain how the theories and research I reviewed in Chapter 2 underscored the activities I organized for the library and informed my teaching practices to develop the Ditidaht children’s oral language. The opportunities for dialogic reading and storytelling, as well as access to quality books through the use of the community library have contributed to strengthening the Ditidaht children’s ability to communicate.
Mental health outcomes of first generation college students: is generational status associated with increased risk for depression and anxiety?

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there were differences in mental health outcomes between first generation college students and non-first generation college students. The sample (n = 6,449) consisted of undergraduate students, aged 18– 22, in bachelor’s degree programs, and was drawn from 15 colleges and universities throughout the United States. Acculturative stress was used as a theoretical framework for why first generation college students (pioneers) may screen higher in prevalence and severity of mental health outcomes. The particular mental health outcomes examined in this study were the prevalence and severity of depression and anxiety. The results revealed that pioneers did not screen higher in prevalence or severity of depression or anxiety than non-first generation students (legacy students). However, students who had at least one parent who attended college, but did not graduate (partial legacy students), screened higher for prevalence of anxiety, severity of anxiety, and prevalence of minor depression than legacy students. These results were also significant when partial legacy students were combined with pioneers. The findings suggest that there may be risk factors for depression and anxiety that are unique to partial legacy students. Implications of these findings are that colleges and universities should be aware that partial legacy students may be at risk for mental health problems–a group that has not been previously identified as at risk. Further implications point to the possibility that pioneers who attend
ADC mapping by means of a single‐shot spiral MRI technique with application in acute cerebral ischemia

Diffusion‐weighted MRI based on single‐shot echo planar imaging (EPI) has been established as a useful tool to study acute cerebral ischemia. However, EPI is prone to spatial distortion and ghosting artifacts. In this study, a pulse sequence for diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) based on a single‐shot spiral readout is presented. Using this technique, multislice apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) mapping can be performed in an interleaved fashion with the same temporal resolution as EPI. Other advantages associated with ADC mapping by the single‐shot spiral method include minimal ghosting artifacts, reduced spatial distortion, and capability to scan in arbitrary planes. This technique has been successfully tested in five normal volunteers and three stroke patients. It has been demonstrated that the single‐shot spiral technique is capable of producing high quality DWI and ADC trace maps (128 × 128) in the axial, sagittal, and coronal planes, which facilitate clinical diagnosis. Magn Reson Med 41:143‐147, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
3D video coding via motion compensation of superpixels

Most of the past and current video coders partition the input frames into regular blocks of pixels that are approximated by a motion estimation unit and coded via a block-based transform. A better performance can be obtained by adapting the size of the approximated region to the geometry and the characteristics of the objects captured by the camera. The paper presents a novel coding scheme for video+depth signals that combines a 3D object identification unit with an object-oriented motion estimation strategy. Object identification is obtained via a joint luminance-depth oversegmentation of the acquired scene which partitions the input scene into superpixels. The procedure can be easily replicated at the decoder, and therefore, does not imply the coding and transmission of object masks. The scheme outperforms the rate-distortion performance of H.264/AVC of 2 dB with a reasonable increment of the complexity for motion estimation and segmentation.