Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antioxidant and modulatory effect of melatonin on hepatotoxicity and oxidative stress induced by Orange Yellow S in male rats.

Many azo dye derivatives are used as food colorants which cause cytotoxic effects. In recent years, a new trend to use antioxidants to neutralise the suspected effects of food additives has evolved. The present study investigated the possible modulatory effect of melatonin in reducing the cytotoxicity induced by the food colour additive Orange Yellow S (OYS) in male rats (Rattus norvegicus). The levels of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) in the plasma, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase in the blood and liver, the lipid profile and glucose concentration in serum and the histological appearance of the liver were also evaluated. Rats weighing 200-250 g were divided into four groups of five rats each; control, OYS-treated group, melatonintreated and melatonin-and OYS-treated group. The treated groups were repeatedly gavaged with either 2.5 mg/kg body weight (bw) of OYS, 10 mg/kg bw of melatonin or both for three weeks. The results revealed no significant changes in liver catalase activity and serum HDL. OYS produced cytotoxic effects, while oral melatonin administration was significantly reduced the cytotoxic effect induced by OYS. The results support the use of supplemental melatonin as a modulating antioxidant agent.
Multi-resolution contour-based fitting of macromolecular structures.

A novel contour-based matching criterion is presented for the quantitative docking of high-resolution structures of components into low-resolution maps of macromolecular complexes. The proposed Laplacian filter is combined with a six-dimensional search using fast Fourier transforms to rapidly scan the rigid-body degrees of freedom of a probe molecule relative to a fixed target density map. A comparison of the docking performance with the standard cross-correlation criterion demonstrates that contour matching with the Laplacian filter significantly extends the viable resolution range of correlation-based fitting to resolutions as low as 30 A. The gain in docking precision at medium to low resolution (15-30 A) is critical for image reconstructions from electron microscopy (EM). The new algorithm enables for the first time the reliable docking of smaller molecular components into EM densities of large biomolecular assemblies at such low resolutions. As an example of the practical effectiveness of contour-based fitting, a new pseudo-atomic model of a microtubule was constructed from a 20 A resolution EM map and from atomic structures of alpha and beta tubulin subunits.
Forecasting Share Prices of Banks of Colombo Stock Exchange

Scientific forecasting plays a vital role in financial markets for many decades. Forecasting methods of financial market were broadly classified into fundamental analysis and technical analysis. Fundamental analysis involves analyzing economic and firm specific factors while technical analysis is concerned with the price movements and trading volume in the market. Both approaches have been applied in forecasting share prices and stock returns. However, only a limited number of studies have been done on Sri Lankan share market. Existing forecasts made mainly based on Capital Asset Pricing Model has been proved unreliable in the Sri Lankan context. This study aimed to test the suitability of linear models, non-linear models and univariate causal models for forecasting share prices based on the data during 1994-2011 on randomly selected three banks listed in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). Findings suggest that univariate causal models were the most suitable in forecasting share prices of individual companies listed in CSE.
TSS BVHs: Tetrahedron Swept Sphere BVHs for Ray Tracing Subdivision Surfaces

We present a novel, compact bounding volume hierarchy, TSS BVH, for ray tracing subdivision surfaces computed by the Catmull‐Clark scheme. We use Tetrahedron Swept Sphere (TSS) as a bounding volume to tightly bound limit surfaces of such subdivision surfaces given a user tolerance. Geometric coordinates defining our TSS bounding volumes are implicitly computed from the subdivided mesh via a simple vertex ordering method, and each level of our TSS BVH is associated with a single distance bound, utilizing the Catmull‐Clark scheme. These features result in a linear space complexity as a function of the tree depth, while many prior BVHs have exponential space complexity. We have tested our method against different benchmarks with path tracing and photon mapping. We found that our method achieves up to two orders of magnitude of memory reduction with a high culling ratio over the prior AABB BVH methods, when we represent models with two to four subdivision levels. Overall, our method achieves three times performance improvement thanks to these results. These results are acquired by our theorem that rigorously computes our TSS bounding volumes.
Designing Lean Processes With Improved Service Quality: An Application in Financial Services

In this study, the authors focus on how service providers can meet rising customer value expectations through service process designs that are not only lean but also with high service quality. The authors consider two design approaches: one with separate (decoupled) front-office and back-office operations and one that integrates the front-office and back-office operations with a combined workforce. They develop a decision support framework to compare these two approaches in terms of both cost and service level. The integrated design approach, based on a constant staffing model, takes a systems perspective to designing the service delivery process, thereby creating opportunities to share employee resources between front-office and back-office activities due to their differing time sensitivities. Using data from a community bank case study, the authors find that the integrated design is both leaner and has a higher service level than the decoupled design. Simulation results over various scenarios confirm that the integrated design achieves better performance than the decoupled design over a wide range of parameters found in services with both front-office and back-office operations, although the decoupled design is better for some settings. This suggests that the authors' decision support tool can help service providers design lean service processes with improved service quality tailored to their own operating environments.
Comparison of cellular and nuclear flow cytometric techniques for discriminating apoptotic subpopulations.

We compared cellular flow cytometric methods employing carboxyfluorescein (CF), Höechst 33342, and Höechst 33258 with a nuclear method in their ability to discriminate apoptotic subpopulations in rat thymocyte cultures exposed to dexamethasone or tributyltin. In the nuclear technique, apoptotic cells appeared as a single population containing reduced DNA content, while in the cellular techniques, apoptotic cells appeared as two or more subpopulations exhibiting increased fluorescence. Of these subpopulations, early apoptotic cells [which excluded propidium iodide (PI), indicating maintenance of membrane integrity] exhibited higher fluorescence but the same level of axial light loss (i.e., size/refractive index) as viable cells; late apoptotic and dead cells (which incorporated PI) exhibited decreased axial light loss. However, while the Höechst dyes allowed discrimination of late apoptotic from dead cells, CF did not. In comparing sensitivity to staining conditions, Höechst 33258 fluorescence was the most stable over time, Höechst 33342 the least, and CF fluorescence not only varied with time, but with tri-n-butyltin methoxide concentration. Comparison of single-parameter analyses revealed that axial light loss was sensitive only to late apoptotic changes; nuclear fluorescence was a better indicator of apoptotic subpopulations, but still underestimated the total percentage of affected cells, and Höechst 33342 distinguished early apoptotic cells as those with elevated fluorescence. Early apoptotic cells stained with Höechst 33258 also exhibited increased fluorescence, but could not be distinguished from late apoptotic and dead cells without a second parameter. These findings indicate that of the methods investigated, the method of choice for detecting apoptosis depends on the goal of analysis: Höechst 33258 was best for discriminating apoptotic subpopulations, and CF was best for assessing alterations of membrane fluidity. For single-parameter analyses, Höechst 33258 was best for determining the total percentage of affected cells, while Höechst 33342 could be used to determine the percentage in early apoptosis.
FESSUD Finance and Well-being Survey: Report

The FESSUD Finance and Well-being Survey is part of the EU FP7 FESSUD project – Financialisation, Economy, Society and Sustainable Development. Taking the household as the main unit of analysis, the survey inquired about household sociodemographic characteristics, household income, household debt, household possessions of financial assets, perceived impact of household financial engagements, welfare provision, and perceived impact of the financial crisis and subjective well-being. It consisted of telephone interviews carried out in November and December 2014 with nationally random samples of households in five countries - Germany, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the UK - selected to be representative of different types of financial system and welfare regime in the EU. For each household, the questionnaire was applied to the individual within the household who declared he or she knew about and was coresponsible for making decisions about the finances of the household. The sample size in the countries ranged from 1300 for Portugal and 1501 for Poland and Sweden, with a total sample of 7009. The survey results indicate that financialisation amplifies extant inequality. In all the countries, household debt and financial assets are concentrated in higher-income households and tend to be a means through which this socioeconomic stratum strengthens its relative advantage. Countries with lower levels of socioeconomic development that have followed such unequal financialisation paths, such as Portugal and Poland, have become more exposed to financial and economic crises, with more detrimental and widespread effects on individual and household well-being.
Identification of the hydrophobic amino acid residues required for heme assembly in the rhizobial oxygen sensor protein FixL.

Rhizobial FixL is a novel heme protein, which senses environmental oxygen tension and directs signal transduction via protein phosphotransfer. To identify the essential residues for heme assembly in Rhizobium meliloti FixL, we individually replaced the 18 invariant hydrophobic amino acid residues (F, I, L, and V) in the heme-containing domain with alanine and histidine. Spectroscopic measurements of the soluble fractions from fixL recombinant Escherichia coli revealed that V152, F162, F170, I172, L185, F226, L230, and F243 as well as the proximal ligand H194 were indispensable for heme assembly. Autoxidation rates of purified I209H, I210A, and I210H were 65-fold, 15-fold, and 15-fold, respectively, faster than that of the wild type, although they retained heme in the protein. The absorption peak in the Soret region of the ferric I209H or I210H was red-shifted, suggesting that the ferric heme is a hexa-coordinate form in these mutants.
Pathogenic orphan transduction created by a nonreference LINE‐1 retrotransposon

Long INterspersed Element‐1 (LINE‐1) retrotransposons comprise 17% of the human genome, and move by a potentially mutagenic “copy and paste” mechanism via an RNA intermediate. Recently, the retrotransposition‐mediated insertion of a new transcript was described as a novel cause of genetic disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, in a Japanese male. The inserted sequence was presumed to derive from a single‐copy, noncoding RNA transcribed from chromosome 11q22.3 that retrotransposed into the dystrophin gene. Here, we demonstrate that a nonreference full‐length LINE‐1 is situated in the proband and maternal genome at chromosome 11q22.3, directly upstream of the sequence, whose copy was inserted into the dystrophin gene. This LINE‐1 is highly active in a cell culture assay. LINE‐1 insertions are often associated with 3′ transduction of adjacent genomic sequences. Thus, the likely explanation for the mutagenic insertion is a LINE‐1‐mediated 3′ transduction with severe 5′ truncation. This is the first example of LINE‐1‐induced human disease caused by an “orphan” 3′ transduction. Hum Mutat 33:369–371, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
BaitBuster : Destined to Save You Some Clicks Md Main

The use of tempting headlines (clickbait) to allure readers has become a growing practice nowadays. The widespread use of clickbait risks the reader’s trust in media. According to a study performed by Facebook, 80% users “preferred headlines that helped them decide if they wanted to read the full article before they had to click through”. In this paper, we present a clickbait detection model which uses distributed subword embeddings and achieves an accuracy of 98.3%. Powered with the model, we build BaitBuster, a solution framework (social bot+browser extension), which not only detects clickbaits floating on the web but also provides brief explanation behind its action. Moreover, we study 1.67 million contents created by 153 media organizations and discover the relation between clickbait usage and media reliability. ACM Reference format: Md Main Uddin Rony §, Naeemul Hassan §, Mohammad Yousuf *. 2017. BaitBuster: Destined to Save You Some Clicks. In Proceedings of Computation+Journalism Symposium, Illinois, USA, October 2017 (Computation+Journalism),
An analysis of the criteria used to diagnose children with Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD)

Based on a review of the literature, the diagnostic criteria used for children with nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) were identified as follows: (a) low visuospatial intelligence; (b) discrepancy between verbal and visuospatial intelligence; (c) visuoconstructive and fine-motor coordination skills; (d) visuospatial memory tasks; (e) reading better than mathematical achievement; and (f) socioemotional skills. An analysis of the effect size was used to investigate the strength of criteria for diagnosing NLD considering 35 empirical studies published from January 1980 to February 2011. Overall, our results showed that the most important criteria for distinguishing children with NLD from controls were as follows: a low visuospatial intelligence with a relatively good verbal intelligence, visuoconstructive and fine-motor coordination impairments, good reading decoding together with low math performance. Deficits in visuospatial memory and social skills were also present. A preliminary set of criteria for diagnosing NLD was developed on these grounds. It was concluded, however, that—although some consensus is emerging—further research is needed to definitively establish shared diagnostic criteria for children with NLD.
Outward FDI from Southeast Asia: The Malaysian Experience

This paper analyses the trends, patterns and determinants of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by Malaysian companies. It shows that Malaysian OFDI ha d taken a quantum leap since 19 93 and the number of Malaysian TNCs investing abroad since the 1990s has increased significantly. The OFDI is focused mainly in services ( finance , banking, insurance and tourism) and natural resources (oil and gas) with manufacturing a distant third. This also includes the emergence of off shore financial centres and developed countries as the most important host region for trans - border activity although investment s in developing countries especially within ASEAN have shown tremendous growth. The key drivers of OFDI have been to increase efficiency, to access resources and to access markets.
IT Service Management In The Academic Curriculum: Comparing An Australian And German Experience

Universities have a responsibility to equip graduates with the knowledge and skills to be productive in their work environment. Recently, the discipline of IT Service Management (ITSM) has become globally recognized as critical to organizations. Academia appears to be lagging industry in providing education in this field. This paper describes the motivation, implementation, outcomes and challenges experienced by two universities, one in Australia and the other in Germany, in designing and offering an ITSM course. Both universities included the curriculum for industry certification for Foundation level examinations and facilitated student access to these examinations. Using a narrative inquiry method, the authors share their experiences and compare these two courses. The feedback from students clearly indicates that the students value the opportunity to achieve industry certification in ITSM. A list of lessons learnt is formulated to assist other universities undertaking similar endeavours. The outcomes of the analysis highlight the need for professional development and industry certification of Lecturers, the importance of networking with local industry practitioners, and the importance of maintaining course materials to keep current with frameworks used in the ICT industry.
Geometric versus topological clustering: An insight into conformation mapping

Clustering molecular conformations into “families” is a common procedure in conformational analysis of molecular systems. An implicit assumption which often underlies this clustering approach is that the resulting geometric families reflect the energetic structure of the system's potential energy surface. In a broader context we address the question whether structural similarity is correlated with energy basins, i.e., whether conformations that belong to the same energy basin are also geometrically similar. “Topological mapping” and principal coordinate projections are used here to address this question and to assess the quality of the “family clustering” procedure. Applying the analysis to a small tetrapeptide it was found that the general correlation that exists between energy basins and structural similarity is not absolute. Clusters generated by the geometric “family clustering” procedure do not always reflect the underlying energy basins. In particular it was found that the “family tree” that is generated by the “family clustering” procedure is completely inconsistent with its real topological counterpart, the “disconnectivity” graph of this system. It is also demonstrated that principal coordinate analysis is a powerful visualization technique which, at least for this system, works better when distances are measured in dihedral angle space rather than in cartesian space. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Transcriptional silencing of homeotic genes in drosophila

Homeotic genes are subject to transcriptional silencing, which prevents their expression in inappropriate body regions. Here, we shall focus on Drosophila, as little is known about this process in other organisms. Evidence is accumulating that silencing of Drosophila homeotic genes is conferred by two types of cis‐regulatory sequences: initiation (SIL‐I) and maintenance (SIL‐M) elements. The former contain target sites for transient repressors with a highly localised distribution in the early embryo and the latter for constitutive repressors that are likely to be present in all cells. We discuss how SIL‐I elements may cooperate with SIL‐M elements to promote formation of a silencing complex. We propose that this complex consists of specific non‐histone proteins, the so‐called Polycomb group proteins, and that it is anchored at SIL‐M elements and at the promoter.
The Effect of Competition and Nutrient Availability on the Growth and Reproduction of Ipomoea Hederacea in an Abandoned Old Field

(1) Ipomoea hederacea, a common weed in cultivated fields of eastern North America, disappears quickly following abandonment of farming. (2) The effects of competition and nitrogen addition on the growth and reproduction of I. hederacea were studied during the first year of abandonment. (3) Competition and fertilization had significant absolute effects on almost all biomass variables measured and few affects on the same variables when they were expressed as percentages of total biomass. (4) Plants in a fertilized and cleared plot were larger and produced more seed than plants from two other treatment plots and the control plot. Plants in an unfertilized and cleared plot were similar to plants in a fertilized plot which had not been cleared. Plants in a plot which was neither fertilized nor cleared were smaller and produced very few seeds compared with plants in the three treated plots. (5) The results suggest that I. hederacea is eliminated during succession because it is a poor competitor for nitrogen, and that the main result of the competition is a reduction in below-ground biomass.
An error-trapping decoder for nonbinary cyclic codes

The error-trapping decoder is the simplest way of decoding cyclic codes satisfying R , where t is the maximum number of errors to be corrected and R is the code rate. These codes have low rates and/or correct only a few errors. Kasami has used the concept of covering polynomials to demonstrate modified error-trapping decoders for several binary cyclic codes not satisfying R . In this paper Kasami's decoder is modified further for correcting multiple symbol errors on nonbinary cyclic codes satisfying R . The Berlekamp decoder for these codes requires Galois field multiplication and division of two variables which are difficult to implement. Our decoder does not require these multiplications and divisions. Further, for all double-error-correcting codes, and triple-error-correcting codes with rate R , an algorithm is presented for finding a minimum set of covering monomials.
Business Process Development: Integrating Best Practices

This article explores the process of incorporating the best practices embodied in different ICT management frameworks such as ITIL and COBIT into the development of business processes and their successful management. Business processes development and their management need to be regarded as the integration of various practices and components that interact with one another directly and indirectly to ensure that they achieve the organisational objectives. This research followed a qualitative research process. Unstructured interviews were used to collect data and the research revealed that there is a need for effective, well developed and managed business processes in organisations (especially in the current competitive business environment). Business processes create harmony and ensure control of different actions and activities of different stakeholders, either internal or external to the organisation to ensure quality products and services are delivered to customers. The study also found that effective business processes can be developed only if the organisations apply tried and tested best practices and principles and consider different environmental components that interplay during the development and management of these business processes. This includes a better understanding and mastering of factors such as the vision, mission, objectives, and the organisation’s stakeholders. The selection of proper practices and the adaptation of proper management tools and experiences from different frameworks is another Business Process Development 199 point considered as important. It is also prudent to establish proper measurement units (such as KPAs or KPIs) to assess the performance of business processes and proactively develop strategies to deal with challenges such as requirements.