Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of UV-Treatment on Properties of Biodegradable Film From Rice Starch

Photo-crosslinked rice starch-based biodegradable films were prepared by casting film-solution on leveled trays and ultra violet (UV) irradiation was applied for 10 minute. The effect of the content (3%, 6% and 9 wt. %)of photosensitiser (sodium benzoate) on mechanical properties, water vapor permeability (WVP) and structural properties of rice starch films were investigated. The tensile strength increased while elongation at break and water resistance properties of rice starch films decreased with addition and increasing content of photosensitiser. The % crystallinity of rice starch films were decreased when the content of photosensitiser increased and UV were applied. The results showed that the carboxylate group band of sodium benzoate was found in the FTIR spectrum of rice starch films and found that incorporation of 6% of photosensitiser into the films showed a higher absorption band of resulted films. This result pointed out the highest interaction between starch molecules was occurred. Keywords—Biodegradable film, Rice starch, UV treatment, Photosensitiser, Photo-crosslink
Estimating Method of Heat Distribution Using 3-D Resistance Matrix for Zone-Control Induction Heating Systems

This paper focuses on the analysis and control of the heat distribution in zone-control induction heating (ZCIH) systems, which consist of two or more split working coils and inverter units. This paper carries out theoretical analysis of the generated heat in the workpiece and reveals a relationship between the coil currents and the heat distribution. As a result, it is determined that the heat distribution can be estimated by a simple calculation using a 3-D resistance matrix. The experimental results which use a six-zone ZCIH laboratory setup, verify the validity of the developed theory.
Direct and distinguishable inhibitory roles for SUMO isoforms in the control of transcriptional synergy

Functional interactions between factors bound at multiple sites on DNA often lead to a synergistic or more-than-additive transcriptional response. We previously defined a class of peptide sequences termed synergy control motifs (SC motifs) that function in multiple regulators by selectively inhibiting synergistic activity driven from multiple but not single response elements. By studying the prototypic SC motifs of the glucocorticoid receptor, we show that SC motifs inhibit transcription per se both in cis and in trans, and that a requirement for multiple contacts with DNA renders them selective for compound response elements. Notably, SC motifs are sites for SUMOylation, and the degree of modification correlates strongly with the extent of synergy control. Recruiting SUMO to the promoter either independently or as a fusion to the glucocorticoid receptor is sufficient to recapitulate the in trans and in cis inhibition by SC motifs without apparent changes in subcellular localization. Moreover, we find that the core ubiquitin fold domain of SUMO is sufficient for inhibition and that, independently of their potential for polySUMO chain formation, SUMO-2 and SUMO-3 are more effective inhibitors than SUMO-1.
Prevention of Postlaminectomy Epidural Fibrosis Using Bioelastic Materials

Study Design. The use of elastic protein-based polymers for the prevention of epidural fibrosis following lumbar spine laminectomy was investigated in a rabbit model. Objectives. To determine the safety and efficacy of two bioelastic polymers in matrix and gel forms as interpositional materials in preventing postlaminectomy epidural fibrosis. Summary of Background Data. Postlaminectomy epidural fibrosis complicates revision spine surgery and is implicated in cases of “failed back syndrome. ” Materials employed as mechanical barriers to limit tethering of neural elements by the fibrosis tissue have met with little success. A recent family of protein-based polymers, previously reported to prevent postoperative scarring and adhesions, may hold promise in treating this condition. Methods. Sixteen female New Zealand White rabbits underwent laminectomy at L4 and L6. Two polymer compositions, each in membrane and gel forms, were implanted at a randomly assigned level in four rabbits each, with the remaining level serving as an internal control. The animals were killed at 8 weeks, and qualitative and quantitative histology and gross pathologic examination were performed for both the control and the experimental sites to assess the polymers’ efficacy in preventing dorsal epidural fibrosis. Results. The use of the polymers caused no adverse effects. Compared to the control sites, both polymers in either gel or membrane form significantly reduced the formation of epidural fibrosis and its area of contact with the dura postlaminectomy. However, no significant difference in efficacy was detected between either the polymers or their respective forms in preventing epidural fibrosis. Conclusions. The selected compositions of biosynthetic, bioelastic polymers were safe and effective in the limiting the direct contact and consequent tethering of the underlying neural elements by the postlaminectomy epidural fibrosis in rabbits.
Effect of green alga Planktochlorella nurekis on selected bacteria revealed antibacterial activity in vitro.

The green alga Planktochlorella nurekis (Chlorellaceae, Chlorophyta) is considered a producer of antibacterial mixture of long-chain fatty acids, which has possibly similar composition and mode of action as chlorellin produced by another green alga, Chlorella vulgaris. Although the antibacterial properties of C. vulgaris have been reported, the interactions of P. nurekis with bacteria have not been determined yet. The aim of this study was to elucidate the effect of P. nurekis water suspension on growth of selected gastrointestinal bacteria in vitro so that it could be used as a suitable feed supplement in animal farming. Unknown bacterial populations occurring in the algal suspension were identified using 16S rRNA sequencing assay. Selected strains were cultivated with lyophilized P. nurekis and the antibacterial effect was monitored. The composition of fatty acids and heat sensitivity of antibacterial substances were also examined. Sequencing analysis of 71 bacterial 16S rRNA genes in xenic algal suspension identified common environmental microbiota, one strain belonging to the class Alphaproteobacteria, 17 to Betaproteobacteria, 44 to Gammaproteobacteria (dominated by Pseudomonas putida strains), and nine to Sphingobacteria. The antimicrobial activity of P. nurekis suspension was tested at a concentration range of 0.75–6 mg/ml. The highest inhibitory effect was observed on bifidobacteria. Statistically significant reductions in bacterial counts were also observed for Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica var. Enteritidis, S. enterica var. Infantis, Campylobacter jejuni, and Arcobacter butzleri. The growth of Lactobacillus johnsonii was significantly stimulated. The relative proportions of C14–C22 fatty acids in P. nurekis were found as follows: saturated 54.28%, monounsaturated 30.40%, and polyunsaturated 7.16%. The antibacterial compounds present in P. nurekis suspension exhibited thermostability. The results indicate that P. nurekis can inhibit some pathogenic gastrointestinal bacteria and seems to be a promising essential nutrients source in animal nutrition.
Color and Local Maximum Edge Patterns Histogram for Content Based Image Retrieval

In this paper, HSV color local maximum edge binary patterns (LMEBP) histogram and LMEBP joint histogram are integrated for content based image retrieval (CBIR). The local HSV region of image is represented by LMEBP, which are evaluated by taking into consideration the magnitude of local difference between the center pixel and its neighbors. This LMEBP differs from the existing LBP in a manner that it extracts the information based on distribution of edges in an image. Further the joint histogram is constructed between uniform two rotational invariant first three LMEBP patterns. The color feature is extracted by calculating the histogram on Hue (H), Saturation (S) and LMEBP histogram on Value (V) spaces. The feature vector of the system is constructed by integrating HSV LMEBP histograms and LMEBP joint histograms. The experimentation has been carried out for proving the worth of our algorithm. It is further mentioned that the databases considered for experiment are Corel-1K and Corel-5K. The results after being investigated show a significant improvement in terms of their evaluation measures as compared to previously available spatial and transform domain methods on their respective databases.
Effects of different sterilization methods on the physico-chemical and bioresponsive properties of plasma-treated polycaprolactone films

For most tissue engineering applications, surface modification and sterilization of polymers are critical aspects determining the implant success. The first part of this study is thus dedicated to modifying polycaprolactone (PCL) surfaces via plasma treatment using a medium pressure dielectric barrier discharge, while the second part focuses on the sterilization of plasma-modified PCL. Chemical and physical surface changes are examined making use of water contact angle goniometry (WCA), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. Bioresponsive properties are evaluated by performing cell culture tests. The results show that air and argon plasmas decrease the WCA significantly due to the incorporation of oxygen-containing functionalities onto the PCL surface, without modifying its morphology. Extended treatment times lead to PCL degradation, especially in the case of air plasma. In addition to surface modification, the plasma potential to sterilize PCL is studied with appropriate treatment times, but sterility has not been achieved so far. Therefore, plasma-modified films are subjected to UV, H2O2 plasma (HP) and ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilizations. UV exposure of 3 h does not alter the PCL physico-chemical properties. A decreased wettability is observed after EtO sterilization, attributable to the modification of PCL chain ends reacting with EtO molecules. HP sterilization increases the WCA of the plasma-treated samples, presumably due to the scission of the hydrophilic bonds generated during the prior plasma treatments. Moreover, HP modifies the PCL surface morphology. For all the sterilizations, an improved cell adhesion and proliferation is observed on plasma-treated films compared to untreated ones. EtO shows the lowest proliferation rate compared to HP and UV. Overall, of the three sterilizations, UV is the most effective, since the physical alterations provoked by HP might interfere with the structural integrity when it comes to 3D scaffolds, and the chemical modifications caused by EtO, in addition to its toxicity, interfere with PCL bioactivity.
Functional tolerance of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 envelope signal peptide to mutations in the amino-terminal and hydrophobic regions

We demonstrated that the leader sequence of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 envelope functions as signal peptide (SP) despite low scoring in a prediction program. As expected for SP, the hydrophobic core (HC) is essential, and no other sequence could compensate for HC deletion. Contrary to other SPs, major substitutions in the HC, such as introduction of basic, polar, or alpha-helix-breaking residues, still allowed efficient translocation and glycosylation. Also, extensive deletions or substitutions of the charged residues at the N terminus had little if any inhibitory effect. This report, which is the first study of human immunodeficiency virus SP, describes the exceptional tolerance of this peptide to mutations.
Pension Regulation and Investment Performance: Rule-Based vs. Risk-Based

We investigate the relationship between rule-based versus risk-based regulatory choices in different countries and the real investment performance of their pension funds. Pension systems in countries with more mature risk-based regulatory regimes tend to demonstrate superior investment performance. The benefit of implementing risk-based regulation is more pronounced in countries with low regulatory quality. The core of rule-based regulations, i.e., quantitative investment limits, has no significant impact on the Sharpe ratio of pension investment returns.
Plants used by the tribes for the treatment of digestive system disorders in Wayanad district, Kerala

The tribes of Wayanad depend basically on different plants for their treatment. The field work documented about thirty two plant species used against digestive disorders. The plants used for the treatment with their botanical names, local name, mode of administration, status of plants and the tribes associated are listed in the form of table. Five different tribes, the kurichia, kuruma, kattunaika, paniya and adiya of Wayand district of Kerala state, India were interviewed. The interviewed tribal groups use plant parts either single or in combined form to treat digestive disorders like piles, ulcers, abdominal pain, diarrhea, dysentery, pinworm, vomiting, acidity, chest burning, jaundice and stomach pain. The tribal groups do not want to share their ancient traditional knowledge with other people. Moreover, the existing knowledge on traditional uses of medicinal plants are declining fast because of the lack of interest of young people to learn the traditional knowledge from the old tribal medical practitioner. So the documentation and conservation of the knowledge is essential.
Overcoming Challenges to Initiating Cell Therapy Clinical Trials in Rapidly Developing Countries: India as a Model

Increasingly, a number of rapidly developing countries, including India, China, Brazil, and others, are becoming global hot spots for the development of regenerative medicine applications, including stem cell‐based therapies. Identifying and overcoming regulatory and translational research challenges and promoting scientific and ethical clinical trials with cells will help curb the growth of stem cell tourism for unproven therapies. It will also enable academic investigators, local regulators, and national and international biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies to accelerate stem cell‐based clinical research that could lead to effective innovative treatments in these regions. Using India as a model system and obtaining input from regulators, clinicians, academics, and industry representatives across the stem cell field in India, we reviewed the role of key agencies and processes involved in this field. We have identified areas that need attention and here provide solutions from other established and functioning models in the world to streamline and unify the regulatory and ethics approval processes for cell‐based therapies. We also make recommendations to check the growth and functioning of clinics offering unproven treatments. Addressing these issues will remove considerable hurdles to both local and international investigators, accelerate the pace of research and development, and create a quality environment for reliable products to emerge. By doing so, these countries would have taken one important step to move to the forefront of stem cell‐based therapeutics.
Multilingualism and diversity of religions in Indonesia: linguistic landscape of places of worship in Surabaya

This thesis examines about linguistic landscape and multilingualism at six places of worship in Surabaya representing each religion in Indonesia including Mosque of Al Akbar, Church of Greja Kristen Jawi Wetan Jemaat Ngagel, Catholic Church of Hati Kudus Yesus, Buddhist Monastery of Buddha Maitreya, Hindustan Temple of Jagat Karana and Chinese Temple of Mbah Ratu. The researcher mainly employs Landry and Bourhis’ theory to analyze the linguistic landscape, in which this theory provides what is the definition of linguistic landscape and anything that is categorized as linguistic landscape. Gorter’s theory is also employed to analyze the multilingualism which appears in each place of worship chosen in which this theory provides any factor which make multilingualism exist. By combining quantitative method and qualitative method, this research has applied on how to analyse linguistic landscape and multilingualism at places of worship. Moreover, the researcher roles as a human instrument who has observed each selected place of worship and interviewed the officers of each selected place of worship in order to get the data. Sorting, counting, transcribing, and classifying are the process of the data analysis. The applied method has helped reach the objectives of the study by gaining 469 pictures of signs which consist of monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual signs. Also, some information related to the languages on the signs according to the officers of the analyzed places of worship has been gained. Thus, the research report finds out that each selected place of worship has at least three languages on their signs. There are nine languages found among those places of worship. Those languages are Indonesian, English, Chinese, Arabic, Latin, Hindi, Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese. They are used on the signs for a reason. Showing the identity, presenting the value, the symbol of the diversity are the reasons why those languages are displayed on the signs.
Selected elements of Poison Pax Paxillus involutus

Concentrations of Ag, Al, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cu, Cr, Cs, Fe, Ga, Hg, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, Pb, Rb, Se, Sb, Sr, V, Tl and Zn have been determined in the whole fruiting bodies as well as separately in caps and stalks of Poison Pax collected from three geographically distant sites across Poland. The elements were determined using ICP-MS, ICP-OES, HG-AAS and CV-AAS, respectively. Based on arithmetic mean and median values for Poison Pax specimens from the Leźno site the elements such as Ag, Co, Cr, Cs, Mn, Mo, K, Pb, Rb, Sb, Se, V and Tl occur at similar concentration both in the caps and stalks, while for Cd, Cu, Hg, Mg and Zn around two-fold greater concentrations were noted in caps than stalks (cap/stalk concentration quotient > 1). Cs, Cd, Ni and Rb occurred at much greater concentration in specimens collected from the K≪odzka Hollow in the Sudety Mountains when compared to the lowland site (Mann–Whitney U-test), and slightly greater values were noted also for Cr, Mo and Rb, while for Ca, Co, Mg and Mn were smaller The results provide useful environmental and biological baseline level of information for metallic elements of Poison Pax.
Phosphatase‐mediated crosstalk between MAPK signaling pathways in the regulation of cell survival

Mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways constitute a large modular network that regulates a variety of physiological processes, such as cell growth, differentiation, and apoptotic cell death. The function of the ERK pathway has been depicted as survival‐promoting, in essence by opposing the proapoptotic activity of the stress‐activated c‐Jun NH2‐terminal kinase (JNK)/p38 MAPK pathways. However, recently published work suggests that extracellular regulated kinase (ERK) pathway activity is suppressed by JNK/p38 kinases during apoptosis induction. In this review, we will summarize the current knowledge about JNK/p38‐mediated mechanisms that negatively regulate the ERK pathway. In particular, we will focus on phosphatases (PP2A, MKPs) as inhibitors of ERK pathway activity in regulating apoptosis. A model proposed in this review places the negative regulation of the ERK pathway in a central position for the cellular decision‐making process that determines whether cells will live or die in response to apoptosis‐promoting signals. In addition, we will discuss the potential functional relevance of negative regulation of ERK pathway activity, for physiological and pathological conditions (e.g., cellular transformation). ‐ Junttila, M.R. , Li, S. ‐P., Westermarck, J. Phosphatase‐mediated crosstalk between MAPK signaling pathways in the regulation of cell survival. FASEB J. 22, 954–965 (2008)
Cyclophosphamide Enhances the CTL Precursor Frequency in Mice Imrnunized with MUC1‐Mannan Fusion Protein (M‐FP)

We have previously described the induction of murinc CD8+ major his-tocompatibility complex class I restricted cytotoxic T cells to the 20 amino acid repeat region of human Mucinl (MUC1) variable number of tandem repeats regiona mucin greatly increased in expression in breast cancer and proposed as a target for immu-notherapy. Mannan-MUCl immunization protocol induces a high cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) frequency, and some protection of mice against a tumor challenge. The CTL frequency can be substantially increased using cyclophosphamide (Cy), from 1/84,900 without Cy to 1/8,100 with Cy. Furthermore, in the presence of Cy, established tumors are rapidly eradicated, which does not happen in its absence. Cy clearly gives a major increase in the frequency of CTL precursors (CTLp) to MUC1 and could be of therapeutic value in patients.
Efficient virtual network embedding algorithm based on restrictive selection and optimization theory approach

Network virtualization (NV) is widely considered as a key component of the future network and promises to allow multiple virtual networks (VNs) with different protocols to coexist on a shared substrate network (SN). One main challenge in NV is virtual network embedding (VNE). VNE is a NP-hard problem. Previous VNE algorithms in the literature are mostly heuristic, while the remaining algorithms are exact. Heuristic algorithms aim to find a feasible embedding of each VN, not optimal or sub-optimal, in polynomial time. Though presenting the optimal or sub-optimal embedding per VN, exact algorithms are too time-consuming in small-scaled networks, not to mention moderately sized networks. To make a trade-off between the heuristic and the exact, this paper presents an effective algorithm, labeled as VNE-RSOT (Restrictive Selection and Optimization Theory), to solve the VNE problem. The VNE-RSOT can embed virtual nodes and links per VN simultaneously. The restrictive selection contributes to selecting candidate substrate nodes and paths and largely cuts down on the number of integer variables, used in the following optimization theory approach. The VNE-RSOT fights to minimize substrate resource consumption and accommodates more VNs. To highlight the efficiency of VNE-RSOT, a simulation against typical and state-of-art heuristic algorithms and a pure exact algorithm is made. Numerical results reveal that virtual network request (VNR) acceptance ratio of VNE-RSOT is, at least, 10% higher than the best-behaved heuristic. Other metrics, such as the execution time, are also plotted to emphasize and highlight the efficiency of VNE-RSOT.
Employee Relations in Foreign-Owned Subsidiaries: German Multinational Companies in the UK

Institutional Environments and Employee Relations in Germany Overview of Employee Relations in Germany and the UK Employee Relations in Multinational Corporations Firm Performance and Employee Relations Voice in Employee Relations Systems Data and Methodology The Characteristics of Voice Mechanisms in German Subsidiaries Voice Mechanisms and Performance Conclusions, and Policy Implications