Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transfer of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 by an oncolytic adenovirus induces potential antitumor activities in hepatocellular carcinoma

The constitutive activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) participates in carcinogenesis through up‐regulation of genes encoding apoptosis inhibitors and cell cycle regulators, such as Bcl‐xL, cyclins D1 and D2, and c‐myc. Suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) is one of the negative regulators of cytokine signaling and is frequently silenced in diverse cancers. In this study, we explored whether restoration of SOCS3 by oncolytic adenoviral vectors could inhibit the constitutive activation of the Janus kinase/STAT pathway and suppress tumor growth. Our data showed that SOCS3 was down‐expressed in all liver tumor cell lines. The incorporation of SOCS3 or SOCS3 fused with cell‐penetrating peptides (cpp‐SOCS3) did not alter adenoviral replication selectively in liver tumor cells. The infection of cells with adenovirus CN305 (AdCN305)–SOCS3 and AdCN305‐cpp‐SOCS3 resulted in dramatic cytotoxicity in liver tumor cells. However, no cytotoxic effect was observed in normal cells infected with these vectors. Infection of liver tumor cells with AdCN305‐SOCS3 and AdCN305‐cpp‐SOCS3 resulted in nearly complete inhibition of STAT3 phosphorylation and down‐regulation of cyclin D1 and Bcl‐xL. Treatment of the established tumor by AdCN305‐SOCS3 and AdCN305‐cpp‐SOCS3 caused significant suppression of tumor growth. The suppression of tumor growth was due to the inhibition of STAT3 phosphorylation and induction of tumor cell death. Conclusion: This study suggests that transfer of SOCS3 by an oncolytic adenovirus represents a potent approach for cancer therapy. (HEPATOLOGY 2007.)
Study of Scheduling Problems with Machine Availability Constraint

In real world scheduling applications, machines might not be available during certain time periods due to deterministic or stochastic causes. In this article, the machine scheduling with availability constraints for both deterministic and stochastic cases with different environments, constraints and performance measures will be discussed. The existing body of research work in the literature will be completely reviewed and the NP-complete models will be identified.
Analysis of the Relation between Green Logistics Management Practices and Export Intensity for Thai Food and Drinks SMEs

This paper aimed to examine the relationship between green logistics management (GLM) practices and export intensity of Thai SMEs in food and drinks manufacturing. The research involved carrying out in-depth interviews with ten experts to shed light on factors of GLM practices. The authors used a questionnaire to survey the data amongst 89 SME exporters through purposive sampling with valid 52 responses. The managerial issues related to export intensity, GLM practices, with regards to whether firms followed ISO 14001 and whether they had an employee(s) responsible for environmental management. The findings suggest that greater GLM practices being applied lead to higher export intensity in SME. The results indicate that most SMEs apply GLM practices in all dimensions to gain the benefits from the export market. It also emerged that those following ISO 14001 and/or having an employee(s) were associated with having higher export intensity than those who did not engage in these practices.
Glottal Opening and Strategies of Production of Fricatives

This work investigates the influence of the gradual opening of the glottis along its length during the production of fricatives in intervocalic contexts. Acoustic simulations reveal the existence of a transient zone in the articulatory space where the frica-tion noise level is very sensitive to small perturbations of the glottal opening. This corresponds to the configurations where both frication noise and voiced contributions are present in the speech signal. To avoid this unstability, speakers may adopt different strategies to ensure the voiced/voiceless contrast of frica-tives. This is evidenced by experimental data of simultaneous glottal opening measurements, performed with ePGG, and audio recordings of vowel-fricative-vowel pseudowords. Voice-less fricatives are usually longer, in order to maximize the number of voiceless time frames over voiced frames due to the crossing of the transient regime. For voiced fricatives, the speaker may avoid the unstable regime by keeping low frication noise level, and thus by favoring the voicing characteristic, or by doing very short crossings into the unstable regime. It is also shown that when speakers are asked to sustain voiced fricatives longer than in natural speech, they adopt the strategy of keeping low frication noise level to avoid the unstable regime.
Synthesis of [18F]BODIPY: bifunctional reporter for hybrid optical/positron emission tomography imaging.

Fluorescence-based intravital imaging approaches have been essential for studying the function and distribution of biologically active small molecules and their molecular targets in vivo. [1] While optical imaging enables visualization over a broad scope of spatial resolution ranging from subcellular to whole body anatomical imaging, its application is constrained by the optical transparency of tissues. Optical imaging modalities are thus better suited for small animal imaging rather than for translational applications. [2] In contrast, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is used routinely for clinical applications but its use is limited primarily to macroscopic spatial and temporal imaging. A strategy that would enable seamless switching between fluorescence and PET imaging would thus be highly desirable for several reasons. First, the ability to visualize PET probes at the microscopic level would allow more rapid validation of the former in vivo and consequently expedite the development of novel PET probes. Second, for macroscopic hybrid imaging[3], it would be possible for optical and PET signals to be superimposed onto structural information derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT). Likewise, the ability to image in more than one or two channels would be useful for visualizing underlying physiological events. Third, hits from microscopic screens of small molecule fluorochrome-adducts could be more rapidly translated into clinically relevant applications.
Interaction capture in immersive virtual environments via an intelligent floor surface

We present techniques to enable users to interact on foot with simulated natural ground surfaces, such as soil or ice, in immersive virtual environments. Position and force estimates from in-floor force sensors are used to synthesize plausible auditory and vibrotactile feedback in response. Relevant rendering techniques are discussed in the context of walking on a virtual frozen pond.
Risk Factors Associated with Peritoneal Dialysis Catheter Survival: A 9-Year Single-Center Study in 315 Patients

Purpose To review the peritoneal dialysis (PD) catheter outcomes at our center and assess factors affecting catheter survival. Methods We carried out a retrospective study on 315 patients who had their first PD catheter placed between January 2001 and September 2009 at the UT Southwestern/DaVita Peritoneal Dialysis Clinic at Dallas, Texas. Medical records were reviewed for demographic and clinical information of the patients. The primary end point of the study was PD catheter failure, defined as removal of a dysfunctional PD catheter due to catheter-related complications. Catheter survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to identify factors that are independently associated with catheter survival. Results The mean age of the patients was 49.7 ± 29 yrs. The study population included 54.6% females, 42.5% African American, 27.9% Caucasian and 22.9% Hispanic patients. Diabetes was the primary etiology of end-stage renal disease in 43.2% of patients. More than 90% of patients had one or more co-morbidities, and 57.5% had previous abdominal surgery. The mean BMI for the group was 28.6 ± 13.8 kg/m2. Less than a quarter of the patients (24.1%) had non-infectious/mechanical catheter problems. Overall PD catheter survival rates over 12, 24 and 36 months were 92.9%, 91.9% and 91.1%, respectively. PD catheter-related non-infectious problem was the only independent variable that was significantly associated with catheter survival (hazard ratio 22.467; 95% CI 6.665–75.732). No significant association was observed between the PD catheter survival and other risk factors including age, body mass index (BMI), diabetic status, co-morbidities, previous abdominal surgeries or infections. Conclusions Our study shows an excellent 3-yr PD catheter survival (91.1%). Only PD catheter-related non-infectious problems are significantly associated with catheter failure. Other factors such as age, gender, race, BMI, diabetic status, co-morbidities, previous abdominal surgeries, peritoneal infections or exit site/tunnel infections were not found to affect the PD catheter survival and should not be considered barriers to PD initiation.
Hybridization a ff ects life-history traits and host speci fi city in Diorhabda spp

Hybridization is an influential evolutionary process that has been viewed alternatively as an evolutionary deadend or as an important creative evolutionary force. In colonizing species, such as introduced biological control agents, hybridization can offset losses in genetic variation due to population bottlenecks and genetic drift. Increased genetic variation associated with hybridization could benefit biological control programs, by increasing the chances of establishment success. However, hybridization also can lead to the emergence of transgressive phenotypes, potentially including changes in host use; an important consideration when assessing potential non-target impacts of planned agents. In a series of laboratory experiments, we investigated the effects of hybridization between three species of Diorhabda released to control invasive Tamarix (saltcedar), evaluating effects on development time, adult mass, and fecundity over two generations for all three cross types, and over a third generation for one cross. Depending on the cross, hybridization had either a positive or neutral impact on the measured traits. We evaluated preference for the target (saltcedar) relative to a non-target host Tamarix aphylla (athel), and found hybridization influenced preference in two of the three cross types, demonstrating the possibility for hybridization to shape host use. The overall effects of hybridization varied by cross, suggesting that the outcome of hybridization will be difficult to predict a priori.
Believing by Faith

Preface 1. Introduction: towards an acceptable fideism 2. The 'justifiability' of faith-beliefs: an ultimately moral issue 3. The epistemic justifiability of faith-beliefs: an ambiguity thesis 4. Responses to evidential ambiguity: isolationist and Reformed epistemologies 5. Faith as doxastic venture 6. Believing by faith: a Jamesian position 7. Integrationist values: limiting permissible doxastic venture 8. Arguments for supra-evidential fideism 9. Conclusion: a moral preference for modest fideism? Bibliography
Triterpene Esters: Natural Products from Dorstenia arifolia (Moraceae)

The phytochemical study of Dorstenia arifolia Lam. (Moraceae) has led to the identification of 18 triterpenes esterified by fatty acids, five triterpenes without esterification, 12 triterpenes esterified by acetic acid, together with a known furanocoumarin: α-amyrin (1), β-amyrin (2) α-amyrin acetate (3) β-amyrin acetate (4), α-amyrin octanoate (5), β-amyrin octanoate (6), α-amyrin decanoate (7), β-amyrin decanoate (8), α-amyrin dodecanoate (9), β-amyrin dodecanoate (10), α-amyrin tetradecanoate (11), β-amyrin tetradecanoate (12), α-amyrin hexadecanoate (13), β-amyrin hexadecanoate (14), glutinol (15), glutinyl acetate (16), 11-oxo-α-amyrin (17), 11-oxo-β-amyrin (18), 11-oxo-α-amyrin acetate (19), 11-oxo-β-amyrin acetate (20) 11-oxo-α-amyrin octanoate (21) 11-oxo-β-amyrin octanoate (22), 11-oxo-α-amyrin decanoate (23), 11-oxo-β-amyrin decanoate (24) 11-oxo-α-amyrin dodecanoate (25) 11-oxo-β-amyrin dodecanoate (26), ursa-9(11),12-dien-3-yl acetate (27), oleana-9(11),12-dien-3-yl acetate (28), ursa-9(11),12-dien-3-yl decanoate (29), oleana-9(11),12-dien-3-yl decanoate (30), 12,13-epoxyolean-3-yl acetate (31), 12,13-epoxyolean-9(11)en-3-yl acetate (32), taraxeryl acetate (33), lupenyl acetate (34), lanosta-8,24-dien-3-yl acetate (35) and psoralen (36). The identification of the triterpene compounds isolated as isomeric mixtures obtained from the hexane extract was based mainly in mass spectra and 13C-NMR data. The long-chain alkanoic acid esters of the triterpenes α- and β-amyrin; 11-oxo-α- and 11-oxo-β-amyrin; ursa- and olean-9(11),12-dien-3-yl; have not been reported before in the literature as constituents of the Dorstenia genus.
In vitro Metabolism of Sodium 9-dehydro-17-hydro-andrographolide-19-yl Sulfate in Rat Liver S9 by Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry Method

Background: Sodium 9-dehydro-17-hydro-andrographolide-19-yl sulfate (DHAS) is the active ingredient of Xiyanping injection, a traditional Chinese medicine in clinical use. However, there has been no report about the metabolic rate and metabolites of DHAS in vitro. Materials and Methods: In this article, DHAS was incubated with rat liver S9, and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) was used for the metabolism study. The residual concentrations of substrate were determined by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry method for the metabolic rate study of DHAS in liver S9. Metabolites were identified by the (UPLC-TOF-MSE) Ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry method. Results: The calibration curves of DHAS were linear over the concentration range from 0.75 μM to 75.22 μM with correlation coefficients >0.99. The lower limit of quantification was 0.150 μM for DHAS. The determination recoveries of DHAS were in the range of 84.9–90.6%. The t½and CLintof DHAS in rat liver S9 were 98.6 ± 2.1 min and 3.5 ± 0.1 mL/min/g, respectively. Five metabolites were preliminarily identified based on the high resolution mass spectrum data in comparison with related references. These metabolites were mainly the products of dehydration and hydrogenation of DHAS. Conclusion: The present in vitro metabolic study of DHAS provided valuable information about the metabolic rate and potential metabolites of DHAS, which are important for future in vivo metabolism studies of DHAS and the discovery of more active andrographolide derivatives. SUMMARY In this paper, sodium 9-dehydro-17-hydro-andrographolide-19-yl sulfate (DHAS) metabolism in vitro has been investigated with rat liver S9 using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The result of quantitative analysis showed that DHAS had a long t1/2, which indicated its high metabolic stability. Five metabolites of DHAS were identified in the incubation system based on the high resolution mass spectrum data in comparison with related references, particularly dehydrated and hydrogenated products. The results would provide certain references to screen out more active andrographolide derivative for pre-clinically. Abbreviations used: MRM: Multiple reaction monitoring, DHAS: Sodium 9-dehydro-17-hydro-andrographolide-19-yl sulfate, IS: Internal standard.
Day case management of sickle pain: 3 years experience in a UK sickle cell unit

A day centre was established to determine whether an alternative approach to the management of uncomplicated sickle pain would improve the quality of care and reduce hospital admissions in patients with sickle cell disease. Since the centre opened there has been a 43% decrease in hospital admissions and 49% decrease in occupied bed days. In the third year, 84% of patients treated for severe sickle pain were managed without the need for hospital admission. A centre offering day case management of painful crisis reduced unnecessary hospital admissions for uncomplicated pain. This approach is safe and cost‐effective.
Clinical Use of Heparin Fractions, Fragments, and Heparinoids

Heparin for clinical use is heterogeneous in terms of molecular weight and chemical structure, with molecules varying from 3000 to 40,000 daltons. These molecules have varying amounts of specific biologic potency, depending on either molecular size or chemical structure or both. 8 In general, the molecules either bind well to antithrombin III or they do not, depending primarily upon their structure. 5 ' 6 ' 20,23,29
Image sequence restoration on state space model identification

In this paper, the proposed method includes a conceptual frame of state space model (SSM) in order to achieve a general model for accurately estimating the high-resolution image sequence from its incomplete low-resolution observation sequence. Here the parameters of SSM are calculated by a statistic approach - maximum likelihood (ML) estimator. By using the most effective filter of SSM - Kalman filter to estimate, we find that the estimated image sequence is closer to the actual one than the bi-linear interpolation.
Colours Sometimes Count: Awareness and Bidirectionality in Grapheme–Colour Synaesthesia

Three experiments were conducted with 10 grapheme–colour synaesthetes and 10 matched controls to investigate (a) whether awareness of the inducer grapheme is necessary for synaesthetic colour induction and (b) whether grapheme–colour synaesthesia may be bidirectional in the sense that not only do graphemes induce colours, but that colours influence the processing of graphemes. Using attentional blink and Stroop paradigms with digit targets, we found that some synaesthetes did report “seeing” synaesthetic colours even when they were not able to report the inducing digit. Moreover, congruency effects (effects of matching the colour of digit presentation with the synaesthetic colour associated with that digit) suggested that grapheme–colour synaesthesia can be bidirectional, at least for some synaesthetes.
Photodegradation of Basic Dyes using Nanocomposite (Silver Zinc Oxide- Copper Oxide) and Kinetic Studies

In this paper, Ag/ZnO/CuO nanocomposite (AZCN) synthesized and its dye degradation ability in the presence of UV irradiation from colored wastewater was studied. The characteristics of AZCN were investigated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by photodegradation of Basic Red 18 (BR18) and Basic Violet 16 (BV16) as a model contaminant. The effects of AZCN dosage, initial dye concentration and salt on dye degradation were investigated. Kinetics analysis indicated that the dye degradation rates could be approximated at pseudo-first order model. The results indicated that AZCN as a photocatalyst could be used to degrade dyes from wastewater.
STCP: Simplified-Traditional Chinese Conversion and Proofreading

This paper aims to provide an effective tool for conversion between Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. We present STCP, a customizable system comprising statistical conversion model, and proofreading web interface. Experiments show that our system achieves comparable character-level conversion performance with the state-of-art systems. In addition, our proofreading interface can effectively support diagnostics and data annotation. STCP is available at http://lagos.lti. cs.cmu. edu:8002/
Volunteer Functions Inventory: A systematic review

Abstract The objective of this research study was to conduct a systematic review of the research on volunteers using Clary et al.'s VFI (1998). A total of 48 research studies including 67 independent samples met eligibility criteria. The total sample of the studies analyzed ranged from 20375 to 21988 participants, depending on the motivation analyzed. The results show that the Values factor obtained the highest mean score, both overall and in each type of volunteering, whereas the lowest scores were for the Career and Enhancement factors. Studies conducted with samples with a mean age under 40 years obtain higher scores on Career and Understanding scales when compared to studies in older samples. The group of studies with less than 50% women yield higher mean scores on the Social scale than studies with more than 50% women in the sample. All the scales show reliability coefficients between . 78 and . 84. Only eight of the articles provide data on the reliability of the scale with a mean value of . 90. Of the 26 studies that performed factor analysis, 18 confirmed the original structure of six factors. Resumen El inventario de funciones del voluntariado: una revisión sistemática. Antecedentes: las motivaciones son variables clave para comprender el comportamiento de los voluntarios. El objetivo de esta investigación es realizar una revisión sistemática de las investigaciones sobre voluntariado que hayan usado el VFI de Clary et al. (1998). Método: 48 investigaciones, con 67 muestras independientes, cumplían los criterios de elegibilidad. El total de la muestra de los estudios oscila entre 20.375 y 21.988 participantes, según el motivo analizado. Resultados: el factor Valores obtiene la mayor puntuación media en general y en cada tipo de voluntariado, las puntuaciones más bajas corresponden a los factores Mejora del Curriculum y Defensa del Yo. Los estudios realizados con muestras menores de 40 años de edad media obtienen puntuaciones mayores en las escalas de Mejora del Curriculum y Conocimiento. Los estudios con menos del 50 % de mujeres arrojan medias más altas en la escala Social que los estudios con más del 50 % de mujeres en la muestra. Todas las escalas muestran coeficientes de fiabilidad entre . 78 y . 84. Solo ocho artículos aportan datos sobre la fiabilidad de la escala total con una media de . 90. De los 26 estudios que realizaron un análisis factorial, 18 confirman la estructura de seis factores original.
The Use of Delphi method as a Tool to improve Tourism Strategy in Egypt

تعرض هذه الورقة نتائج دراسة استقصائیة لمنهجیة دلفی من ثلاث دورات أجریت عن طریق رأی الخبراء بشأن استراتیجیة السیاحة المصریة. ویتم ذلک عن طریق قیاس مدى فاعلیة الاستراتیجیة المتجددة للسیاحة 2013-2020 فی مصر. ولتحقیق هذا الغرض، استخدمت طریقة دلفی. ولقد أظهرت نتائج استطلاع الخبراء اتفاقا کبیرا على کفاءة هذه العناصر فی الاستراتیجیة المتجددة للسیاحة. ومع ذلک، أشاروا إلى نقص فی عروض الأسواق السیاحیة المتخصصة ، والمشاکل المتعلقة بالتنفیذ والإبتکار بالنسبة للمنتجات / الخدمات / التکنولوجیات المبتکرة، ونقص استراتیجیات تدریب العمالة وتنمیة المهارات. وبالإضافة إلى ذلک، حدد البحث تدابیر للتنفیذ کتبنی نظام تعلیمی یتوافق مع احتیاجات صناعة السیاحة، وتعزیز دعم السلطات المحلیة والإقلیمیة والدولیة، وتطویر البنیة الأساسیة، بما فی ذلک البنیة الأساسیة للنقل.
A 1.6GHz Downconverter Mixer in 0.25μm CMOS

This work shows the implementation of a CMOS double balanced mixer based in the Gilbert cell capable of providing high conversion gain and high linearity. The mixer includes a common mode feedback circuit to keep a fixed DC level at the output and to maintain the transistors in the saturation, since the triode operation reduces the conversion gain. It uses inductive source degeneration in the transconductance stage in order to provide impedance matching and to improve the linearity of the circuit. It also incorporates an active balun at the output to convert the differential, or balanced, signal to a single ended termination. The mixer was designed to work with an RF signal of 1.8GHz, an LO of 1.6GHz, thus producing an IF of 200MHz. The circuit presents a conversion gain of 22.5dB and an IIP3 of +2dBm. The single sided band noise figure is 10.9dB, input signal loss of just -35.5dB