Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inflammatory cytokine gene expression in THP‐1 cells exposed to Stachybotrys chartarum and Aspergillus versicolor

Very little is known about the mechanisms that occur in human cells upon exposure to fungi as well as their mycotoxins. A better understanding of toxin‐regulated gene expression would be helpful to identify safe levels of exposure and could eventually be the basis for establishing guidelines for remediation scenarios following a water intrusion event. In this research, cytokine mRNA expression patterns were investigated in the human monocytic THP‐1 cell line exposed to fungal extracts of various fragment sizes obtained from Stachybotrys chartarum RTI 5802 and/or Aspergillus versicolor RTI 3843, two common and well‐studied mycotoxin producing fungi. Cytokine mRNA expression was generally upregulated 2–10 times following a 24 h exposure to fungal extracts. Expression of the proinflammatory interleukin‐1β, interleukin‐8, and tumor necrosis factor‐α genes increased while the anti‐inflammatory gene interleukin‐10 also increased albeit at very low level, suggesting that negative feedback regulation mechanism of production of proinflammatory cytokines initiated upon 24 h of incubation. In addition, submicron size extracts of A. versicolor caused significant death of THP‐1 cells, whereas extracts of S. chartarum caused no cell death while the mixture of the two fungi had an intermediate effect. There was no general correlation between gene expression and fragment sizes, which suggests that all submicron fragments may contribute to inflammatory response. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol, 2013.
An effective control method for quasi-Z-source cascade multilevel three-phase grid-tie photovoltaic power system

An effective control method for a three-phase quasi-Z-source cascade multilevel inverter (qZS-CMI) based grid-tie photovoltaic (PV) power system is proposed. The control scheme achieves distributed maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and independent dc-link voltage balance for all quasi-Z-source H-bridge inverter (qZS-HBI) based PV modules, and balanced three-phase grid-injected power for the qZS-CMI based PV system. A system-level modeling, which can be used to design the controllers, is also disclosed. Simulation and experiment are carried out on a 7-level qZS-CMI based PV system to validate the proposed scheme.
Genome wide expression profiling identifies specific deregulated pathways in meningioma

Genome‐wide expression signatures improve the understanding of tumor biology. We performed expression profiling of 24 meningioma including 8 of each WHO grade and 2 dura controls analyzing 55.000 transcripts including 18.300 known genes. We compared expression in meningioma vs. dura, expression of low grade (WHO I) vs. higher‐grade (WHO II and WHO III) tumors and expression of meningothelial and syncytial meningioma vs. fibroblastic meningioma. Overall expression was significantly decreased in meningioma compared to dura and in meningothelial and syncytial compared to fibroblastic meningioma. Gene expression was exemplarily confirmed by immunohistochemistry using independent samples. Applying our statistical gene set analysis toolkit “GeneTrail”, we identified significantly deregulated biochemical pathways using Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes and Transpath databases. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathways with decreased expression in meningioma included cell adhesion molecules (p < 0.0001) and cytokine–cytokine receptor interactions (p < 0.0001). Pathways with increased expression included several metabolic pathways. Extended expression profiling by a novel statistical gene set enrichment identified pathways that have previously not been associated with meningioma. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A prospective, randomized, controlled trial of benzodiazepines and nitroglycerine or nitroglycerine alone in the treatment of cocaine-associated acute coronary syndromes.

The purpose of the present study was to compare the use of lorazepam plus nitroglycerine (NTG) versus NTG alone in the reduction of cocaine induced chest pain in the emergency department. The secondary objective of the study was to help determine the safety of lorazepam in the treatment of cocaine- associated chest pain. The study was a prospective, randomized, single-blinded, controlled trial conducted at an university-affiliated urban emergency department (ED). All patients who presented with cocaine-associated chest pain were enrolled. Exclusion criteria included age greater than 45 years, documented coronary artery disease, chest pain of more than 72 hours duration, or pretreatment with nitroglycerin. Patients were given either sublingual nitroglycerine (SL NTG) (Group 1) or SL NTG plus 1 mg of lorazepam intravenously (Group 2) every 5 minutes for a total of 2 doses. Chest pain was recorded on an ordinal scale of 0 to 10 at baseline, and then at 5 minutes after each dose. Adverse reactions to medication were also recorded. Twenty-seven patients met the inclusion criteria and were enrolled in the study. The average age of these subjects was 34.1 years, and 67% were men. The NTG-only group consisted of 15 patients and the NTG-plus-lorazepam group consisted of 12 patients. Baseline mean chest-pain scores were 6.87 in Group 1 and 6.54 in Group 2, with no differences between groups. Five minutes after initial treatment, mean scores for the two groups were 5.2 and 3.9, respectively, with a difference in means of 1.24 (95% confidence interval [CI] -0.8-3.8). Five minutes after the second treatment, the mean scores were 4.6 and 1.5, respectively, with a difference in means of 3.1 (95% CI 1.2-5). Kruskal-Wallis testing showed a significant difference in pain relief between the two study groups (P =.003), with greater pain relief noted at 5 and 10 minutes in the NTG-plus-lorazepam group (P =.02 and P =.005, respectively). All patients in the study were admitted to the hospital, but no patient in either group had an acute myocardial infarction or cardiac complications in the ED. No adverse side effects were noted for either group. The early use of lorazepam with NTG was more efficacious than NTG alone, and appears to be safe in relieving cocaine-associated chest pain.
Improved instantaneous current control for the three-phase dual-active bridge DC-DC converter

With the share of renewable and decentralized power sources increasing, the need for power electronics and especially for efficient high-power dc-dc converters is expected to grow. The three-phase dual-active bridge is a promising technology, as it has a high power density and inherently features galvanic isolation. A highly dynamic method to control the current and thus the transferred power for this converter type has recently been published. The published approach gives excellent results for transformers with a high decay time constant. However, the method can be improved for transformers with significant influence of the winding resistance. The present paper suggests two exact approaches that reach steady state in one third and half of a switching period, respectively. Independent of the winding resistance, the suggested control schemes give superior results, oscillations of the dc current are completely eliminated. The control schemes are investigated in detail and proven mathematically in an elegant manner. Simulations and an experimental verification on a laboratory prototype confirm the outstanding performance of the developed approach.
Sustainable soil and water resources: modelling soil erosion and its impact on the environment

With the projected increase in world population to 9 billion by 2050, along with per capita income growth, the demand for land and water resources is going to increase significantly. Conversion of land to intensive agriculture has led to dramatic decreases in plant, animal and insect biodiversity, with approximately 40% of the world’s land surface now covered by croplands and pastures. Intensive agricultural practices cause erosion and lead to transport of soil particles and associated sorbed chemical (fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides) contaminants, which are responsible for significant degradation in the quality of both surface and subsurface water bodies. Soil erosion is an outcome of complex interactions between precipitation, physical transport, topography and conservation management strategies; and there have been many physically based mathematical models developed over the past 20 years that attempt to make predictions of erosion rates as a function of these interactions. These have been applied across scales corresponding to the laboratory, plot, hillslope and watershed with varying degrees of success. Two particular characteristic features of erosion data from both the laboratory and field scale that almost all these models have yet to reproduce reliably are hysteresis in the water discharge versus sediment discharge relationship, and the size distributions of transported sediment. We show that the model of Hairsine and Rose is able to produce the known common types of hysteresis curves, these being clockwise, counter-clockwise, figure 8 (both flow orientations), and that these forms are in keeping with measured data in the literature. Numerical simulations demonstrate that such curves are a consequence of (i) the soil’s sediment size distribution and (ii) the existence and evolution of a deposited layer of non-cohesive sediment on top of original un-eroded cohesive soil. It is shown that the initial state of this layer prior to a rainfall event plays a significant role in determining which type of hysteresis loop evolves. An application to published experimental data for flow-driven erosion down a rill is then considered. Excellent agreement between measured and suspended sediment concentrations was found throughout the hysteretic cycle.
Translating Animal Doses of Task-Specific Training to People With Chronic Stroke in 1-Hour Therapy Sessions: A Proof-of-Concept Study

Objective. The purposes of this study were to (1) examine the feasibility of translating high-repetition doses of upper-extremity (UE) task-specific training to people with stroke within the confines of the current outpatient delivery system of 1-hour therapy sessions and (2) to gather preliminary data regarding the potential benefit of this intensity of training. Methods. A total of 15 patients with chronic (>6 months) UE paresis caused by stroke underwent 3 weeks of baseline assessments followed by 6 weeks of the high-repetition intervention (3 sessions/wk for 6 weeks). During each 1-hour session, participants were challenged to complete 300 or more repetitions of UE functional task training (3 tasks × 100 repetitions). Assessments during and after the intervention were used to measure feasibility and potential benefit. Results. For the 13 participants completing the intervention, the average number of repetitions per session was 322. The percentage of sessions attended was 97%. Participant ratings of pain and fatigue were low. Action Research Arm test scores improved an average of 8 points during the intervention and were maintained at the 1-month follow-up. Secondary measures of activity and participation increased, but the measure of impairment did not. Conclusions. It is feasible to deliver hundreds of repetitions of task-specific training to people with stroke in 1-hour therapy sessions. Preliminary outcome data suggest that this intervention may be beneficial for some people with stroke.
Snowflake: A Lightweight Portable Stencil DSL

Stencil computations are not well optimized by general-purpose production compilers and the increased use of multicore, manycore, and accelerator-based systems makes the optimization problem even more challenging. In this paper we present Snowflake, a Domain Specific Language (DSL) for stencils that uses a "micro-compiler" approach, i.e., small, focused, domain-specific code generators. The approach is similar to that used in image processing stencils, but Snowflake handles the much more complex stencils that arise in scientific computing, including complex boundary conditions, higher-order operators (larger stencils), higher dimensions, variable coefficients, non-unit-stride iteration spaces, and multiple input or output meshes. Snowflake is embedded in the Python language, allowing it to interoperate with popular scientific tools like SciPy and iPython; it also takes advantage of built-in Python libraries for powerful dependence analysis as part of a just-in-time compiler. We demonstrate the power of the Snowflake language and the micro-compiler approach with a complex scientific benchmark, HPGMG, that exercises the generality of stencil support in Snowflake. By generating OpenMP comparable to, and OpenCL within a factor of 2x of hand-optimized HPGMG, Snowflake demonstrates that a micro-compiler can support diverse processor architectures and is performance-competitive whilst preserving a high-level Python implementation.
POSTER: Neural Network-based Graph Embedding for Malicious Accounts Detection

We present a neural network based graph embedding method for detecting malicious accounts at Alipay, one of the world's leading mobile payment platform. Our method adaptively learns discriminative embeddings from an account-device graph based on two fundamental weaknesses of attackers, i.e. device aggregation and activity aggregation. Experiments show that our method achieves outstanding precision-recall curve compared with existing methods.
Minimal Pruning and Reduced Plant Protection Promote Predatory Mites in Grapevine

Improving natural pest control by promoting high densities of predatory mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae) is an effective way to prevent damage by pest mites (e.g., Eriophyidae, Tetranychidae) and other arthropod taxa that can cause serious damage to vineyards. Here, we investigate the influence of innovative management on predatory mite densities. We compare (i) full versus reduced fungicide applications and (ii) minimal pruning versus a traditional trellis pruning system in four fungus-resistant grapevine varieties. As predatory mites also feed on fungus mycelium, we assessed fungal infection of grapevine leaves in the experimental vineyard. Predatory mites were significantly more abundant in both minimal pruning and under reduced plant protection. Increases in predatory mites appeared to be independent of fungal infection, suggesting mostly direct effects of reduced fungicides and minimal pruning. In contrast to predatory mites, pest mites did not increase under innovative management. Thus, conditions for natural pest control are improved in fungus-resistant grapevines and under minimal pruning, which adds to other advantages such as environmental safety and reduced production cost.
BCL-2 Is Consistently Expressed in Hyperplastic Marginal Zones of the Spleen, Abdominal Lymph Nodes, and Ileal Lymphoid Tissue

BCL-2 is an antiapoptotic protein overexpressed in follicular lymphomas, principally as a result of the t(14;18)(q32;q21), and useful in distinguishing follicular lymphoma (usually BCL-2 positive) from follicular hyperplasia (BCL-2 negative). BCL-2 is also overexpressed in other lymphoma types without the t(14;18), including marginal zone B-cell lymphoma, because of other, poorly understood mechanisms. It has been suggested that BCL-2 immunoreactivity can distinguish between malignant (BCL-2 positive) and reactive (BCL-2 negative) marginal zone B cells. In this study, we evaluated 26 spleen, 10 abdominal lymph node, and 3 ileum specimens with marginal zone B-cell hyperplasia for BCL-2 expression immunohistochemically. We also analyzed these cases using polymerase chain reaction methods to evaluate for the presence of clonal rearrangements of the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene (IgH) using consensus V FRIII and J region primers, and the t(14;18) involving both the major breakpoint and the minor cluster regions of the bcl-2 gene. All (100%) cases of splenic, abdominal lymph node, and ileal marginal zone hyperplasia displayed strong BCL-2 reactivity in the marginal zone B cells. In all cases analyzed, IgH polymerase chain reaction demonstrated a polyclonal pattern, and bcl-2/JH DNA fusion sequences were not detected. Our results indicate that BCL-2 is consistently expressed by reactive marginal zone B cells of the spleen, abdominal lymph nodes, and ileal lymphoid tissue and should not be used as a criterion for discriminating between benign and malignant marginal zone B-cell proliferations involving these sites.
Swarming Algorithm for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Quadrotors - Swarm Behavior for Aggregation, Foraging, Formation, and Tracking

This paper presents the fusion of swarm behavior inmulti robotic system speciﬁcally the quadrotors un-manned aerial vehicle (QUAV) operations. This studydirected on using robot swarms because of its key fea-ture of decentralized processing amongst its member.This characteristicleadstoadvantagesofrobotopera-tionsbecauseanindividual robotfailurewill notaffectthe group performance. The algorithm emulating theanimal or insect swarm behaviors is presented in thispaper and implemented into anartiﬁcial roboticagent(QUAV) in computer simulations. The simulation re-sults concluded that for increasing number of QUAVthe aggregation accuracy increases with an accuracyof 90.62%. The experiment for foraging revealed thatthe number of QUAV does not affect the accuracy ofthe swarm instead the iterations needed are greatlyimproved with an averageof 160.53iterations from 50to 500 QUAV. For swarm tracking, the average accu-racy is 89.23%. The accuracy of the swarm forma-tion is 84.65%. These results clearly deﬁned that theswarmsystemis accurateenoughto performthe tasksand robust in any QUAV number.Keywords: swarm robotics, swarm intelligence, socialbehaviors, unmannedaerial vehicles
A Decision Support System for Design of Transmission System of Low Power Tractors

A decision support system (DSS) was developed in Visual Basic 6.0 programming language to design transmission system of low horsepower agricultural tractors, which involved the design of clutch and gearbox. The DSS provided graphical user interface by linking databases to support decision on design of transmission system for low horsepower tractors on the basis of modified ASABE draft model. The developed program for design of tractor transmission system calculated clutch size, gear ratios, number of teeth on each gear, and various gear design parameters. Related deviation was computed for design of transmission system of tractors based on measured and predicted values (simulated). The related deviation was less than 7% for design of clutch plate outer diameter and less than 3% for inner diameter. There was less than 1% variation between the predicted results by the developed DSS and those obtained from actual measurement for design of gear ratio. The DSS program was user friendly and efficient for predicting the design of transmission system for different tractor models to meet requirements of research institutions and industry. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ. Comput Appl Eng Educ 23:760–770, 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21648
The Diadenosine Hexaphosphate Hydrolases fromSchizosaccharomyces pombe andSaccharomyces cerevisiae Are Homologues of the Human Diphosphoinositol Polyphosphate Phosphohydrolase

Aps1 from Schizosaccharomyces pombe(Ingram, S. W., Stratemann, S. A., and Barnes, L. D. (1999) Biochemistry 38, 3649–3655) and YOR163w fromSaccharomyces cerevisiae (Cartwright, J. L., and McLennan, A. G. (1999) J. Biol. Chem. 274, 8604–8610) have both previously been characterized as MutT family hydrolases with high specificity for diadenosine hexa- and pentaphosphates (Ap6A and Ap5A). Using purified recombinant preparations of these enzymes, we have now discovered that they have an important additional function, namely, the efficient hydrolysis of diphosphorylated inositol polyphosphates. This overlapping specificity of an enzyme for two completely different classes of substrate is not only of enzymological significance, but in addition, this finding provides important new information pertinent to the structure, function, and evolution of the MutT motif. Moreover, we report that the human protein previously characterized as a diphosphorylated inositol phosphate phosphohydrolase represents the first example, in any animal, of an enzyme that degrades Ap6A and Ap5A, in preference to other diadenosine polyphosphates. The emergence of Ap6A and Ap5A as extracellular effectors and intracellular ion-channel ligands points not only to diphosphorylated inositol phosphate phosphohydrolase as a candidate for regulating signaling by diadenosine polyphosphates, but also suggests that diphosphorylated inositol phosphates may competitively inhibit this process.
Experiences of registered nurses at one community health centre near Pretoria providing termination of pregnancy services

Legalising abortion in many countries has given women the choice or right to decide to terminate a pregnancy. In South Africa the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy (CTOP) Act, 92 of 1996, was promulgated in 1997. This legislation promotes reproductive rights including the choice to have an unwanted pregnancy terminated timeously, safely and legally. This exploratory, descriptive and contextual qualitative (phenomenological) study was designed to gain insight into the experiences of registered nurses providing TOP services and to provide relevant recommendations. Participants comprised registered nurses providing TOP services at one community health centre near Pretoria. Registered nurses have the right to refuse to participate in TOPs; those who do provide services could experience psychological trauma.
3-D Directional Diffusion

In this paper we propose a 3D filter for denoising and enhancing strongly oriented data. Our approach is based on 2D directional diffusion model proposed by Terebes et al. (2004). The diffusion process is modulated by a non-linear function depending on the absolute values of the directional derivatives in the 3 orthogonal directions of the space. These directions are the eigenvectors of a structure tensor. We compare this extension with an existing 3D extension designed by Dargent et al. (2004)
An Enhanced Framework for Web Recommenders

The web-based transactions, web services, and service oriented platforms require mechanism to announce, select, and use different services. There is a dilemma of ‘use and trust’ or ‘trust and use’ for different services based on the notion of reputation. Indirect servicing makes it difficult to really assess a given service or provider. The paper presents a framework and appropriate mechanisms to evaluate the services/providers in the light of their respective direct impact on user perception. It is shown that the proposed mechanism allows capturing situations usually not possible to be captured in the current approach. The technique has a major impact on e-commerce systems, on systems based on service-oriented architecture, and on all auction-based transactions.
Naphthalene Degradation Capability and Molecular Phylogeny of a Bacterial Strain NAP A Isolated from Wastewater

In the study, a selective medium was used to enrich and isolate a naphthalene-degrading bacterium NAP_A from the activated sludge of Zhangdian Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant in Zibo, China. Cultivation and gas chromatography analysis showed NAP_A degraded naphthalene fast under 30degC~35degC and pH7. The 16S rRNA gene of NAP A was cloned and sequenced (EU142847). Basing on this sequence and its related sequences in the GenBank database, a multialignment was conducted then a phylogenetic tree was constructed with DNAMAN software. The results showed that strain NAP_A was located in the lineage of Ochrobactrum genus, sharing the highest homology with O. pseudintermedium (99%), which indicated the strain was a member of O. pseudintermedium. This revealed for the first time that Ochrobactrum species could degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, which would guide the biotreatment of such environmental contaminant with the bacterium.