Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FLLL32, a curcumin analog, ameliorates intestinal injury in necrotizing enterocolitis

Background Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a devastating gastrointestinal disease that primarily affects premature infants. It is characterized by inflammation and leukocyte infiltration that can progress to intestinal necrosis, perforation, systemic inflammatory response, and death. In this study, we examined the effect of FLLL32, a curcumin analog, on an NEC-like neonatal intestinal injury model. Methods NEC was induced in CD-1 mice pups using the Paneth cell ablation and Klebsiella infection model. Pups were divided into sham, NEC, and NEC + FLLL32 groups. At the end of the experiment, pups were euthanized; whole blood and small intestines were harvested. Intestinal inflammatory cytokine profile, in vivo intestinal permeability using serum fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran, and histological injury scores were compared between the groups. Results and conclusion FLLL32-treated pups had lower intestinal injury, improved intestinal permeability, and lower proinflammatory cytokine profiles compared to those in untreated pups with NEC. These results suggest that FLLL32 plays a protective role in NEC.
UGC-driven social influence study in online micro-blogging sites

In Web 2.0 era, the content on a Web page is increasingly generated by end users, rather than limited number of administrators. Hence, large number of User Generated Content (UGC) has driven the explosion of content in the Web. Thanks to UGC, the pattern of Web usage has evolved from download dominated way to a hybrid one with both information download and upload. Large number of UGC has unveiled great capacity of information that is unavailable for researchers before, such as individual preferences, social connections, and etc. In this paper, we propose a novel model which studies the UGC in micro-blogging Web sites, the largest and fastest information diffusion media online, and evaluate the social influence for an arbitrary individual. Experimental results show that our model outperforms state-of-the-art techniques in social influence evaluation in both the running time and accuracy.
Adverse Impact of Sleep Restriction and Circadian Misalignment on Autonomic Function in Healthy Young Adults

Insufficient sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances have been each associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes in epidemiological studies, but experimental evidence for a causal link is scarce. The present study compares the impact of circadian misalignment (CM) to circadian alignment (CA) on human autonomic function using a nonrandomized parallel group design to achieve the same total sleep time in both conditions. After baseline assessments (3 days with 10-hour bedtimes), 26 healthy young adults were assigned to sleep restriction (SR; eight 5-hour bedtimes) with either fixed nocturnal bedtimes (CA; n=13) or bedtimes delayed by 8.5 hours on 4 of the 8 days (CM; n=13). Daytime ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate (HR; CA, n=11; CM, n=10) and 24-hour urinary norepinephrine levels (CA, n=13; CM, n=13) were assessed at baseline and the end of SR. Nocturnal HR and HR variability were analyzed during sleep at baseline and during the fourth and seventh nights of SR (CA, n=8; CM, n=12). SR resulted in a significant increase in daytime HR in both groups, without changes in blood pressure. SR increased 24-hour urinary norepinephrine in the CM group (30±4 versus 21±2 &mgr;g), but not in the circadian alignment group (group×condition, P=0.005). In contrast to the lack of detectable impact of CM on daytime autonomic function, SR with CM elicited greater increases in nocturnal HR, as well as greater reductions in vagal indices of HR variability, than SR without CM (group×condition, P<0.05). In conclusion, SR and CM both result in impaired autonomic function that could lead, under chronic conditions, to enhanced cardiovascular risk.
Designing for Therapeutic Care Farms

Designing for Therapeutic Care Farms Tamara Freeman University of Guelph, 2019 Advisor: Dr. Karen Landman Care farming is the therapeutic use of farming practices to provide health, social or educational care services for a range of groups of vulnerable people. This includes but is not limited to those with mental health problems, people suffering with substance abuse, adults and children with learning disabilities and disaffected youth. Literature on the process of designing for care farms is limited. This research sought to develop carefarm design guidelines for landscape architects. The study identifies and analyzes design-related themes from the academic literature relating to care farms, building on therapeutic landscape literature. The design guidelines are created based on key informant interviews that took place in Ontario in 2019. The final design guidelines can support landscape architects with necessary information to design care farms.
Initial optimization of graphene coated fabrics for ECG sensors

Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals provide vital information about heart activity and diagnostics. Here, a dry ECG electrode based on reduced Graphene Oxide (rGOx) coated fabrics is presented. Graphene Oxide (GOx) affinity towards recoating of already coated GOx fabrics is relied upon to reduce fabric resistance. The facile fabrication process is presented with an emphasis on GOx recoating. Two nylon samples are fabricated and characterized with the first coated once and the latter coated six times (five recoatings). The six coat rGO fabric showed significant reduction in fabric resistance. After, the six coat fabric is used as an Electrocardiogram (ECG) electrode to sense ECG biosignals from the human neck and a cross comparison is done against the standard clinical Ag/AgCl electrodes. The dry six coat fabric electrode shows some merits in comparison with Ag/AgCl in terms of ECG signal amplitude with comparable isoelectric noise performance. Further optimization of the electrode fabri-cation process and implementation offers chances for dry ECG electrodes and possible additional biomedical applications.
CD48‐deficient T‐lymphocytes from DMBA‐treated rats have de novo mutations in the endogenous Pig‐a gene

A major question concerning the scientific and regulatory acceptance of the rodent red blood cell‐based Pig‐a gene mutation assay is the extent to which mutants identified by their phenotype in the assay are caused by mutations in the Pig‐a gene. In this study, we identified T‐lymphocytes deficient for the glycosylphosphatidylinositol‐anchored surface marker, CD48, in control and 7,12‐dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)‐treated rats using a flow cytometric assay and determined the spectra of mutations in the endogenous Pig‐a gene in these cells. CD48‐deficient T‐cells were seeded by sorting at one cell per well into 96‐well plates, expanded into clones, and exons of their genomic Pig‐a were sequenced. The majority (78%) of CD48‐deficient T‐cell clones from DMBA‐treated rats had mutations in the Pig‐a gene. The spectrum of DMBA‐induced Pig‐a mutations was dominated by mutations at A:T, with the mutated A being on the nontranscribed strand and A→T transversion being the most frequent change. The spectrum of Pig‐a mutations in DMBA‐treated rats was different from the spectrum of Pig‐a mutations in N‐ethyl‐N‐nitrosourea (ENU)‐treated rats, but similar to the spectrum of DMBA mutations for another endogenous X‐linked gene, Hprt. Only 15% of CD48‐deficient mutants from control animals contained Pig‐a mutations; T‐cell biology may be responsible for a relatively large fraction of false Pig‐a mutant lymphocytes in control animals. Among the verified mutants from control rats, the most common were frameshifts and deletions. The differences in the spectra of spontaneous, DMBA‐, and ENU‐induced Pig‐a mutations suggest that the flow cytometric Pig‐a assay detects de novo mutation in the endogenous Pig‐a gene. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 56:674–683, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Does online shopping make consumers feel better? Exploring online retail therapy effects on consumers’ attitudes towards online shopping malls

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between online retail therapy and consumers’ attitudes towards online fashion shopping malls (ATO) based on the stimulus–organism–response model. Design/methodology/approach This study examined how online retail therapy factors (e.g. the aesthetics of web design and attractiveness of the models) affect consumers’ ATO. In particular, the authors examined the mediation of positive mood reinforcement (PMR) and negative mood reduction (NMR). Findings The results indicated that aesthetics has a significant and direct effect on ATO. However, model attractiveness has an indirect effect on ATO through PMR and NMR. In addition, the direct effect of aesthetics on ATO is greater than the indirect effect of model attractiveness. Therefore, online fashion shopping malls need to concentrate on improving the aesthetics of the shopping malls. For fashion shopping malls that do not have the capacity to improve the aesthetics, it is possible to improve ATO by using highly attractive models. Originality/value This study applied the concept of retail therapy to the online environment and verified the effect. This study expanded the scope of the study of retail therapy by examining the effect of mood improvement on ATO as well. Further, this study examined the structure of two online retail therapy factors, aesthetics and model attractiveness, that affect ATO through PMR and NMR, and suggested managerial implications for online shopping malls.
The Ran GTPase System in Fission Yeast Affects Microtubules and Cytokinesis in Cells That Are Competent for Nucleocytoplasmic Protein Transport

ABSTRACT Misregulation of the evolutionarily conserved GTPase Ran in fission yeast results in defects in several cellular processes in cells that are competent for nucleocytoplasmic protein transport. These results suggest that transport is neither the only nor the primary Ran-dependent process in living cells. The ability of Ran to independently regulate multiple cellular processes in vivo is demonstrated by showing that (i) eight different transport-competent RanGEF (guanine nucleotide exchange factor) mutants have defects in mitotic spindle formation; (ii) the RanGEF temperature-sensitive mutant pim1-d1 has abnormal actin ring structures at the septum. Overexpression of Imp2p, which specifically destabilizes these structures, restores viability. (iii) Ran-dependent processes differ in their requirements for active Ran in vivo. Microtubule function, cytokinesis, and nuclear envelope structure are the Ran-dependent processes most sensitive to the amount of Ran protein in the cell, whereas nucleocytoplasmic protein transport is the most robust. Therefore, the ability of Ran from Schizosaccharomyces pombe to independently regulate multiple cellular processes may reflect differences in its interactions with the binding proteins that mediate these functions and explain the complex phenotypic consequences of its misregulation in vivo.
Linking precursors of interpersonal trust to human-automation trust: An expanded typology and exploratory experiment

ABSTRACT This study provides an initial experimental investigation of the extent to which well-known precursors of interpersonal trust (ability, benevolence, integrity, or ABI) will manifest when assessing trust between a human and a non-human referent (e.g. an automated aid). An additional motivation was the meta-analytic finding that the ABI model only explains about half of the variation in interpersonal trust. Based on a review of interpersonal and automation trust literatures, two additional precursors to trust – transparency and humanness – were identified and studied as exogenous variables (with A, B, and I analysed as explanatory mediators of their relationships to trust). In our experimental task, users interacted with an automated aid in decision-making scenarios to identify suspected insurgents. Results indicated that perceived humanness of the aid significantly correlated with trust in that aid (r = .364). This relationship was explained in part by perceptions of both ability and benevolence/integrity (unit-weighted average) of the aid; the latter finding suggesting that human-like intentionality attributed to the aid was a factor in automation trust. Perceived transparency also significantly correlated with trust (r = .464) although much of this relationship was explained by ability rather than benevolence/integrity. Aid reliability was also varied across the experiment. Interestingly, the explanatory power of benevolence/integrity increased when the aid’s reliability was lower, again suggesting human-like intentionality matters in automation trust models. Research and design considerations from these findings are noted.
[Role of phospholipid transfer protein in cigarette smoke-induced apoptosis of RLE-6TN cells].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the role of phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP) in cigarette smoke extract (CSE)-induced apoptosis of rat alveolar type II cells (RLE-6TN) in vitro. METHODS Rat alveolar epithelial cell line RLE-6TN were transfected with a small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting PLTP prior to exposure to different concentrations of CSE for 24 or 48 h. The morphological changes of the apoptotic cells were observed by fluorescence microscopy with Hochest staining, and the cell apoptosis rate was measured with flow cytometry. The expression level of PLTP and caspase-3 activity in the cells were examined with Western blotting. RESULTS Exposure to CSE significantly increased the cell apoptosis rate from (1.68∓0.098)% to (18.663∓0.964)% (P<0.001). Hoechst staining revealed distinct apoptotic changes in CSE-treated cells, which showed increased PLTP expression and caspase-3 activity. PLTP knockdown with the specific siRNA partly suppressed the SCE-induced enhancement of caspase-3 activity in the cells. CONCLUSION PLTP may play a role in CSE-induced apoptosis of rat alveolar cells in vitro.
Stixel based scene understanding for autonomous vehicles

We propose a stereo vision based obstacle detection and scene segmentation algorithm appropriate for autonomous vehicles. Our algorithm is based on an innovative extension of the Stixel world, which neglects computing a disparity map. Ground plane and stixel distance estimation is improved by exploiting an online learned color model. Furthermore, the stixel height estimation is leveraged by an innovative joined membership scheme based on color and disparity information. Stixels are then used as an input for the semantic scene segmentation providing scene understanding, which can be further used as a comprehensive middle level representation for high-level object detectors.
Passive RFID system for 2D indoor positioning

This paper presents the results of creating a 2D positioning system based on the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. We showed and discussed the development of a 16-channel passive RFID system for the 5 m × 5 m indoor facility. For object localization we implemented the modified method of positioning zones and achieved the mean localization error of around 0.31 m.
MACROSCOPICAL, ANATOMICAL AND PHYSICO- CHEMICAL STUDIES OF EUPHORBIA HIRTA LINN. GROWING WIDELY ON EASTERN UTTAR PRADESH REGION OF INDIA

Traditional knowledge and ethno-botanical use of plants have been widely acknowledged all over the world. Certain people of India, using whole plant of Euphorbia hirta L . as an effective remedy for varities of diseasese. The documentation of traditional knowledge from eastern Uttar pardesh area reveals that it is highly widely used in Ayurveda . Pharmacological and physico- chemical details of E.hirta not available in authentic litrature including API (Ayurvedic Pharmacopea of India) So the validation and standardisation of whole plant of Euphorbia hirta . was carried out to establish its macro- and microscopical standards, physicochemical parameters, preliminary phytochemical investigation and TLC profiles to evaluate the characters of the plant. Macroscopic characters of E. hirta leaves shows composition of leaf is simple with dark green color about 2-6cm. long in size, T.S. of the leaf revealed the presence of stomata, upper and lower epidermis, vascular bundle. Powder characteristics revealed the presence of starch gran-ules, covering trichomes. The various diagnostic characteristic of leaf powder was coarse, dark green, which revealed the presence of lignified xylem vessel,anomocytic type of sto-mata, Physicochemical parameters were also evaluated. Preliminary phytochemical analysis indicated a high percentage of quercetine and flavonoids and this may be one of the reasons behind the anti diabatic and hepatoprotective activity of this plant. The above parameters, which are being reported for the first time in this plant, are significant towards establishing the pharmacognostic standards for future identification and authentication of genuine plant material used Ayurveda for various diaeases in eastern UP.
A bi-directional large-stroke electrothermal MEMS mirror with minimal thermal and temporal drift

This paper reports a novel bi-directional electrothermal MEMS mirror with its mirror plate's position insensitive to ambient temperature and stable over time. In contrast, the electrothermal MEMS mirrors demonstrated previously are unidirectional and the position of the mirror plate changes significantly with ambient temperature and drifts over time. The new MEMS mirror design has been fabricated and characterized. The bi-direction piston scan range reaches ±177 μm. The position of the released MEMS mirror plate is only 0.2 μm above the substrate surface, and changes merely 0.5 μm for a large ambient temperature change of 0–100°C. The temporal drift is just 0.7 μm over 600 hours. Both the thermal and temporal drift are reduced by nearly two orders of magnitude compared to previous unidirectional thermal bimorph MEMS mirrors.
Confidentiality for Android apps: Specification and verification

Abstract The functionality of modern smartphones can easily be enriched by a huge number of available apps. Studies have shown that many of these apps leak private information of their users to third parties. In this article, we demonstrate how a user can ensure that the apps he installs keep his private information confidential. By means of a concrete example, we show how an informal confidentiality requirement can be formalized in the specification language RIFL and how this requirement can be verified in the app store Cassandra using the RSCP security analyser. In particular, we demonstrate how Cassandra integrates the information-flow analysis by the RSCP security analyser into the installation process of an app from the perspective of a user.
Elevations in serum and urinary calcium with parathyroid hormone (1-84) with and without alendronate for osteoporosis.

CONTEXT The effect of PTH therapy on serum and urinary calcium levels and the risk of hypercalcemia or hypercalciuria has not been formally evaluated. OBJECTIVE The objective was to examine changes in serum and urinary calcium associated with PTH(1-84) therapy in the PaTH trial and the extent to which a defined algorithm resolved the elevated values. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, AND INTERVENTION A total of 178 postmenopausal women were randomized to PTH(1-84) either alone or in combination with alendronate during the first year of the PaTH study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) The main outcome measures were fasting serum calcium at baseline and 1, 3, and 12 months and 24-h urinary calcium at baseline and 3 months. RESULTS In 14% of participants, serum calcium more than 10.5 mg/dl (>2.6 mmol/liter) developed. Following the defined algorithm, 58% of elevated measurements were normal on repeat testing; 38% required discontinuation of calcium and vitamin D supplementation, and one necessitated a decrease in PTH injection frequency to normalize serum calcium. One participant developed transient hypercalcemia between study visits and required hospitalization; the episode resolved with iv hydration and PTH discontinuation. Baseline characteristics associated with the development of hypercalcemia were serum calcium [relative hazards = 1.9 per 0.5 mg/dl (0.12 mmol/liter); 95% confidence interval = 1.1-3.2] and serum 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [relative hazard = 1.9 per 10 pg/ml (26 pmol/liter); 95% confidence interval = 1.2-3.1]. Fifteen women (8%) developed hypercalciuria [urinary calcium > 400 mg (100 mmol)/24 h or calcium/creatinine ratio > 0.4]; 80% of cases resolved after discontinuing calcium and vitamin D, 13% without intervention, and one after PTH injection frequency was decreased. Higher baseline urinary calcium excretion was associated with development of hypercalciuria [relative hazard = 1.5 per 50 mg/d (12.5 mmol/d); 95% confidence interval = 1.2-4.0]. Proportions of patients with elevated serum and urinary calcium were similar on single and combination therapy. CONCLUSIONS The frequency of episodic hypercalcemia or hypercalciuria in the PaTH trial was 21%. Episodes were generally mild, and nearly all cases resolved spontaneously or with discontinuation of calcium and vitamin D. The algorithms used to address hypercalcemia and hypercalciuria in the PaTH trial proved effective in safely resolving clinical episodes of increased urinary or serum calcium and might therefore be helpful to clinicians caring for patients on PTH.
Resistance to Rabies Virus Infection Conferred by the PMLIV Isoform

ABSTRACT Various reports implicate PML and PML nuclear bodies (NBs) in an intrinsic antiviral response targeting diverse cytoplasmic replicating RNA viruses. PML conjugation to the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) is required for its localization within NBs. PML displays antiviral effects in vivo, as PML deficiency renders mice more susceptible to infection with the rhabdovirus vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). Cells derived from these mice are also more sensitive to infection with rabies virus, another member of the rhabdovirus family. Alternative splicing from a single gene results in the synthesis of several PML isoforms, and these are classified into seven groups, designated PMLI to -VII. We report here that expression of PMLIV or PMLIVa, which is missing exon 5, inhibited viral mRNA and protein synthesis, leading to a reduction in viral replication. However, the expression of other nuclear isoforms (PMLI to -VI) and cytoplasmic PMLVIIb failed to impair viral production. This antiviral effect required PMLIV SUMOylation, as it was not observed with PMLIV 3KR, in which the lysines involved in SUMO conjugation were mutated. Thus, PMLIV and PMLIVa may exert this isoform-specific function through interaction with specific NB protein partners via their common C-terminal region.