Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NeuroGrid: using grid technology to advance neuroscience

Large-scale clinical studies in neuro-imaging are hampered by several factors including variances in acquisition techniques, quality assurance and access to remote datasets. The Neurogrid project will build on the experience of other UK e-science projects to assemble a grid infrastructure, and apply this to three exemplar areas: stroke, dementia and psychosis, to conduct collaborative neuroscience research.
The Mechanism for Prejunctional Enhancement of Neuromuscular Transmission by Ethanol in the Mouse

Ethanol has been shown to have both presynaptic and postsynaptic effects on synaptic transmission. However, the mechanisms by which ethanol affects evoked neurotransmitter release have not been studied at the mouse neuromuscular junction, a synapse at which binomial analysis of neurotransmitter release and measurements of prejunctional ionic currents can be made. Ethanol (400 mM) increased neurotransmitter release independently of both the cAMP and phorbol ester/Munc13 signaling pathways. Binomial analysis of neurotransmitter release revealed that ethanol increases the average probability of secretion without an effect on the immediately available store of the neurotransmitter. Application of ethanol also resulted in an inhibition of potassium currents in the motor nerve endings. These results suggest that the potentiating effects of ethanol on neurotransmitter release at the skeletal neuromuscular junction are mediated by an inhibition of the delayed rectifier potassium current, thus increasing both calcium entry into the nerve ending and the probability of neurotransmitter release. Identifying the mechanism through which ethanol enhances neurotransmitter release at the neuromuscular junction may be useful in determining the processes underlying the enhancement of neurotransmitter release at other synapses.
Automated Diagnosis of Glaucoma Using Empirical Wavelet Transform and Correntropy Features Extracted From Fundus Images

Glaucoma is an ocular disorder caused due to increased fluid pressure in the optic nerve. It damages the optic nerve and subsequently causes loss of vision. The available scanning methods are Heidelberg retinal tomography, scanning laser polarimetry, and optical coherence tomography. These methods are expensive and require experienced clinicians to use them. So, there is a need to diagnose glaucoma accurately with low cost. Hence, in this paper, we have presented a new methodology for an automated diagnosis of glaucoma using digital fundus images based on empirical wavelet transform (EWT). The EWT is used to decompose the image, and correntropy features are obtained from decomposed EWT components. These extracted features are ranked based on $t$ value feature selection algorithm. Then, these features are used for the classification of normal and glaucoma images using least-squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) classifier. The LS-SVM is employed for classification with radial basis function, Morlet wavelet, and Mexican-hat wavelet kernels. The classification accuracy of the proposed method is 98.33% and 96.67% using threefold and tenfold cross validation, respectively.
Chemical composition of small atmospheric ions near the ground

The chemical composition of small ions has been studied by means of formal chemical kinetics. The model for negative ions contains 474 ion-molecular reactions, 143 ions, and 106 neutral compounds, and the model for positive ions contains 1044 reactions, 198 ions, and 131 neutral compounds. Both the time variation of individual ion species and the abundances of ions in the steady state have been calculated. The authors have used an original method for solving large and stiff systems of differential equations. The results of calculations have been compared with the results obtained both by mass spectrometry and by mobility spectrometry. The ions of an age of about 1 ms are similar on the basis of both the measurements and the modeling. The same (with certain reservations) is true of the ions in the steady state. Certain discrepancies appear in the case of the ions with an age of about 1 s. A lack of data concerning several important reactions is still evident. A special study showed that the concentration of H2O, O3, NO, NO2, and HNO3 significantly influence the evolution of negative ions; NH3 has a strong effect on the evolution of positive ions.
A simple approach to predicting unsaturated hydraulic conductivity based on empirically scaled microscopic characteristic length

Abstract A simple and empirical scaling approach is proposed for predicting the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (Kus) based on the microscopic characteristic length (λ). The approach was tested on 19 different soils. The results showed that the proposed approach was useful for a wide range of soil water content, except at relatively high soil moisture. The predicted λ(θ) values were overestimated by 2%, which led to 5% overestimation in prediction of Kus(θ) at soil matric potentials of less than –0.1 MPa. However, the predictions of Kus(θ) were not satisfactory at soil matric potentials of greater than –0.1 MPa. The results also revealed that the proposed approach was accurate for predicting Kus(θ) in the dry range of soil water content. Future models should be developed based on the empirical and physical scaling approaches to improve prediction of soil hydraulic properties at high water contents. This means that new scaling factors need to incorporate more information about the pore geometry. Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor A. Carsteanu
Physiotherapy rehabilitation for whiplash associated disorder II: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Objective To evaluate effectiveness of physiotherapy management in patients experiencing whiplash associated disorder II, on clinically relevant outcomes in the short and longer term. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Two reviewers independently searched information sources, assessed studies for inclusion, evaluated risk of bias and extracted data. A third reviewer mediated disagreement. Assessment of risk of bias was tabulated across included trials. Quantitative synthesis was conducted on comparable outcomes across trials with similar interventions. Meta-analyses compared effect sizes, with random effects as primary analyses. Data sources Predefined terms were employed to search electronic databases. Additional studies were identified from key journals, reference lists, authors and experts. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published in English before 31 December 2010 evaluating physiotherapy management of patients (>16 years), experiencing whiplash associated disorder II. Any physiotherapy intervention was included, when compared with other types of management, placebo/sham, or no intervention. Measurements reported on ≥1 outcome from the domains within the international classification of function, disability and health, were included. Results 21 RCTs (2126 participants, 9 countries) were included. Interventions were categorised as active physiotherapy or a specific physiotherapy intervention. 20/21 trials were evaluated as high risk of bias and one as unclear. 1395 participants were incorporated in the meta-analyses on 12 trials. In evaluating short term outcome in the acute/sub-acute stage, there was some evidence that active physiotherapy intervention reduces pain and improves range of movement, and that a specific physiotherapy intervention may reduce pain. However, moderate/considerable heterogeneity suggested that treatments may differ in nature or effect in different trial patients. Differences between participants, interventions and trial designs limited potential meta-analyses. Conclusions Inconclusive evidence exists for the effectiveness of physiotherapy management for whiplash associated disorder II. There is potential benefit for improving range of movement and pain short term through active physiotherapy, and for improving pain through a specific physiotherapy intervention.
INTEGRATED WATERSHED MODELING AND CHARACTERIZATION USING FEM, GIS & REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES

ABSTRACT The digital revolution in the last few decades made possible the modeling of watershed by integration of different hydrologic processes occurring on the watershed. The recent advances in watershed modeling are the integrated use of numerical methods, remote sensing and GIS technologies. Numerical methods are used in the solution of the governing equations for the rainfall runoff simulation. Remote sensing technology solved the problem of data needs of watershed modeling. GIS made its usefulness in the processing of large quantities of data, which is essential in watershed modeling. In the present paper, characterization of watershed for the key parameters such as drainage, slope, Land Use (LU)/Land Cover (LC) by using Geographical information systems (GIS) and remotely sensed data has been discussed. Runoff estimation by Finite Element Method (FEM) based model by using inputs derived from the watershed characteristic maps has been presented. GIS has been used to prepare the finite element grid map and input files such as Manning's roughness and slope used in the model for the watershed. LU/LC of the watershed has been derived from remotely sensed data. FEM has been used to solve the diffusion wave equations for one dimensional surface runoff model which is coupled with Philip infiltration model. Watershed characterization and runoff estimation has been done for few rainfall events in Banha watershed, India. The methodology can be used in various watershed development schemes.
A comparative review on Ceph and Swift open source cloud storage platform

Cloud Storage is one of the hot research topic, now a day's many enterprises or even individuals have involved in cloud computing related technologies and the various organizations are developing cloud storage systems some of them are open source and freely available to the client for example: GlusterFS, Ceph, LVM, ZFS, Swift, Sheepdog, Kinetic etc. Many researchers have worked on these types of open source cloud storage platform. They have studied and analyzed the various features of these kinds of storage systems but not focused on latest features. In this paper our main focus is on ceph and Swift cloud storage platform. We have compared these two platforms in depth with respect to many criteria such as consistency, data placement method, read operation, write operation, security and other angles in detail.
Multitemporal monitoring of soil moisture with RADARSAT SAR during the 1997 Southern Great Plains hydrology experiment

Multitemporal RADARSAT Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery was evaluated for monitoring soil moisture during the Southern Great Plains 1997 Hydrology Experiment (SGP97). Over the 1-month experiment a total of 10 RADARSAT (C-band; 5.3GHz; HH polarized) acquisitions were obtained. After co-registration of the images, the dependence of the backscattering coefficient (σ) on incidence angle (θ) was evaluated. An angular correction scheme was applied to the data and the correlation of a values with volumetric soil moisture measurements was determined. A high positive correlation between the two was observed for wheat stubble fields, whereas no correlation could be observed for pasture fields. A change detection approach yielded a correlation of soil moisture changes to σ changes for wheat stubble fields, indicating the potential of this method for soil moisture monitoring.
Paleogeography and Tephras of the Kimotsuki Lowland, Southern Kyushu, Japan, in the Middle to Late Holocene

南九州大隅半島に位置する肝属平野において,砂州堆積物および泥炭層中に挾在するテフラと泥炭層基底のAMS14C年代にもとづき,完新世中期以降の低地の形成史を明らかにした. 低地表層に1m未満から5m弱の層厚で堆積する泥炭層中には,5枚のテフラ層が認定される. このうち4枚は層位・層相や岩石記載的特徴から,桜島高峠2(Sz-Tk2:4.5ka),霧島御池(Kr-M:4.2ka),開聞岳9c(Km9c:2ka),開聞岳12a(Km12a:A.D.874)に対比される. 最も内陸側の砂州(大塚砂州)は,砂州堆積物上限に堆積する池田降下軽石(Ik-P)の噴出年代から5. 5～5. 7kaに離水した. これに伴い潟湖の閉塞が完了し,潟湖は南端の潮流口によってのみ外海とっながっていた. その当時の相対的海面高度は+3～+5mである. それに引き続き,大塚砂州背後の潟湖は,泥炭層が堆積するような湿地環境に変化した. 泥炭層基底の14C年代値によると,湿地環境への変化は池田降下軽石堆積直後の5. 6kaから5kaにかけて生じた. その後は,泥炭層中のテフラの年代からみて,少なくとも約4,000年間にわたって泥炭の生成が継続した.
The influence of tourniquet use and operative time on the incidence of deep vein thrombosis in total knee arthroplasty

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between tourniquet and total operative time during total knee arthroplasty and the occurrence of deep vein thrombosis. METHODS: Seventy-eight consecutive patients from our institution underwent cemented total knee arthroplasty for degenerative knee disorders. The pneumatic tourniquet time and total operative time were recorded in minutes. Four categories were established for total tourniquet time: <60, 61 to 90, 91 to 120, and >120 minutes. Three categories were defined for operative time: <120, 121 to 150, and >150 minutes. Between 7 and 12 days after surgery, the patients underwent ascending venography to evaluate the presence of distal or proximal deep vein thrombosis. We evaluated the association between the tourniquet time and total operative time and the occurrence of deep vein thrombosis after total knee arthroplasty. RESULTS: In total, 33 cases (42.3%) were positive for deep vein thrombosis; 13 (16.7%) cases involved the proximal type. We found no statistically significant difference in tourniquet time or operative time between patients with or without deep vein thrombosis. We did observe a higher frequency of proximal deep vein thrombosis in patients who underwent surgery lasting longer than 120 minutes. The mean total operative time was also higher in patients with proximal deep vein thrombosis. The tourniquet time did not significantly differ in these patients. CONCLUSION: We concluded that surgery lasting longer than 120 minutes increases the risk of proximal deep vein thrombosis.
Effect of g protein-coupled receptor kinase 1 (Grk1) overexpression on rod photoreceptor cell viability.

PURPOSE Photoreceptor rhodopsin kinase (Rk, G protein-dependent receptor kinase 1 [Grk1]) phosphorylates light-activated opsins and channels them into an inactive complex with visual arrestins. Grk1 deficiency leads to human retinopathy and heightened susceptibility to light-induced photoreceptor cell death in the mouse. The goal of this study was to determine whether excess Grk1 activity is protective against photoreceptor cell death. METHODS Grk1-overexpressing transgenic mice (Grk1(+)) were generated by using a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) construct containing mouse Grk1, along with its flanking sequences. Quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, immunoblot analysis, immunostaining, and activity assays were combined with electrophysiology and morphometric analysis, to evaluate Grk1 overexpression and its effect on physiologic and morphologic retinal integrity. Morphometry and nucleosome release assays measured differences in resistance to photoreceptor cell loss between control and transgenic mice exposed to intense light. RESULTS Compared with control animals, the Grk1(+) transgenic line had approximately a threefold increase in Grk1 transcript and immunoreactive protein. Phosphorylated opsin immunochemical staining and in vitro phosphorylation assays confirmed proportionately higher Grk1 enzyme activity. Grk1(+) mice retained normal rod function, normal retinal appearance, and lacked evidence of spontaneous apoptosis when reared in cyclic light. In intense light, Grk1(+) mice showed photoreceptor damage, and their susceptibility was more pronounced than that of control mice with prolonged exposure times. CONCLUSIONS Enhancing visual pigment deactivation does not appear to protect against apoptosis; however, excess flow of opsin into the deactivation pathway may actually increase susceptibility to stress-induced cell death similar to some forms of retinal degeneration.
The autoregulatory translational control element of poly(A)-binding protein mRNA forms a heteromeric ribonucleoprotein complex

Repression of poly(A)-binding protein (PABP) mRNA translation involves the binding of PABP to the adenine-rich autoregulatory sequence (ARS) in the 5′-untranslated region of its own mRNA. In this report, we show that the ARS forms a complex in vitro with PABP, and two additional polypeptides of 63 and 105 kDa. The 63 and 105 kDa polypeptides were identified, as IMP1, an ortholog of chicken zip-code binding polypeptide, and UNR, a PABP binding polypeptide, respectively, by mass spectrometry of the ARS RNA affinity purified samples. Using a modified ribonucleoprotein (RNP) immunoprecipitation procedure we further show that indeed, both IMP1 and UNR bind to the ARS containing reporter RNA in vivo. Although both IMP1 and UNR could bind independently to the ARS RNA in vitro, their RNA-binding ability was stimulated by PABP. Mutational analyses of the ARS show that the presence of four of the six oligo(A) regions of the ARS was sufficient to repress translation and the length of the conserved pyrimidine spacers between the oligo(A) sequences was important for ARS function. The ability of mutant ARS RNAs to form the PABP, IMP1 and UNR containing RNP complex correlates well with the translational repressor activity of the ARS. There is also a direct relationship between the length of the poly(A) RNAs and their ability to form a trimeric complex with PABP, and to repress mRNA translation. UV crosslinking studies suggest that the ARS is less efficient than a poly(A) RNA of similar length, to bind to PABP. We show here that the ARS cannot efficiently form a trimeric complex with PABP; therefore, additional interactions with IMP1 and UNR to form a heteromeric RNP complex may be required for maximal repression of PABP mRNA translation under physiological conditions.
Face Verification Using Template Matching

Human faces are similar in structure with minor differences from person to person. These minor differences may average out while trying to synthesize the face image of a given person, or while building a model of face image in automatic face recognition. In this paper, we propose a template-matching approach for face verification, which neither synthesizes the face image nor builds a model of the face image. Template matching is performed using an edginess-based representation of the face image. The edginess-based representation of face images is computed using 1-D processing of images. An approach is proposed based on autoassociative neural network models to verify the identity of a person. The issues of pose and illumination in face verification are addressed.
Anti-Inflammatory Effects of α-Galactosylceramide Analogs in Activated Microglia: Involvement of the p38 MAPK Signaling Pathway

Microglial activation plays a pivotal role in the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Thus, anti-inflammatory agents that control microglial activation can serve as potential therapeutic agents for neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we designed and synthesized α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) analogs to exert anti-inflammatory effects in activated microglia. We performed biological evaluations of 25 α-GalCer analogs and observed an interesting preliminary structure-activity relationship in their inhibitory influence on NO release and TNF-α production in LPS-stimulated BV2 microglial cells. After identification of 4d and 4e as hit compounds, we further investigated the underlying mechanism of their anti-inflammatory effects using RT-PCR analysis. We confirmed that 4d and 4e regulate the expression of iNOS, COX-2, IL-1β, and IL-6 at the mRNA level and the expression of TNF-α at the post-transcriptional level. In addition, both 4d and 4e inhibited LPS-induced DNA binding activities of NF-κB and AP-1 and phosphorylation of p38 MAPK without affecting other MAP kinases. When we examined the anti-inflammatory effect of a p38 MAPK-specific inhibitor, SB203580, on microglial activation, we observed an identical inhibitory pattern as that of 4d and 4e, not only on NO and TNF-α production but also on the DNA binding activities of NF-κB and AP-1. Taken together, these results suggest that p38 MAPK plays an important role in the anti-inflammatory effects of 4d and 4e via the modulation of NF-κB and AP-1 activities.
Detecting Macro-patterns in the European Mediasphere

The analysis of the contents of news outlets has been the focus of social scientists for a long time. However, content analysis is often performed on hand-coded documents, which limits the size of the data accessible to the investigation and consequently limits the possibility of detecting macro-trends. The use of text categorisation, clustering and statistical machine translation (SMT) enables us to operate automatically on vast amounts of news items, and consequently to analyse patterns in the content of outlets in different languages, over long time periods. We report on experiments involving hundreds of European media in 22 different languages, demonstrating how it is possible to detect similarities and differences between outlets, and between countries, based on the contents of their articles.
Towards a framework for business process re‐engineering in small and medium‐sized enterprises

Business process re‐engineering (BPR) is the vogue, although somewhat discredited, change management method. It is as an information technology (IT)‐based and customer‐driven approach to organizational change, undertaken to enable superior performance, such as cost reduction, shorter cycle time, higher product quality and increased customer satisfaction. Although the literature on re‐engineering principles and prospects is large, there is little empirical research evaluating the success or failure of BPR initiatives. This is especially so in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in which the potential for BPR benefits may differ significantly from that in their larger counterparts. SMEs are the fastest growing segment of most economies and are perceived to be more flexible and adaptable in terms of structure and speed of response than larger organizations. The literature speculates that SMEs have as good a chance of re‐engineering successfully as their larger counterparts, although this is untested. Yet, with limited resources, such as IT and BPR expertise, and financial constraints, SMEs may find it difficult to re‐engineer. This paper addresses the role of BPR in SMEs and develops a framework to assess its implementation potential. Factors that facilitate and inhibit BPR performance are identified and analysed as the basis for empirical testing. A set of propositions is developed that allows operationalization of the framework. The ultimate goal is to develop a process and tool set to assist SMEs wishing to undertake business process re‐engineering.
CYP 3 A 4 Inhibitors Isolated from Licorice

tabolism of a wide range of endogeneous compounds and xenobiotics, e.g. drug molecules, pollutants, and environmental compounds. Among members of the CYP enzyme family, CYP3A4 is the most abundant enzyme in human liver microsomes and intestinal epithelium; approximately 30% of the total CYP was suggested to be CYP3A4, and more than 50% of clinically used drugs are oxidized by CYP3A4. It is well known that concomitant oral administration of several foods and herbs affects drug metabolism in humans by inhibiting CYP3A4 activity. In the course of our study on CYP inhibitors from foods, we have reported the isolation and structure elucidation of CYP inhibitors from grapefruit (Citrus paradisii) juice, white pepper, Piper nigrum, strawberry fruit, Fragaria ananassa, and the commercially available black cohosh, Cimicifuga racemosa. Licorice is prescribed in many Chinese traditional medicines and has been reported to contain flavonoids and triterpenoids. Recently, we found that the extract of licorice (Glycyrrhiza uralensis FISHER, Leguminosae) showed potent CYP3A4 inhibitory activity with the IC50 value of 0.022 mg/ml. This paper reports the isolation, structure identification, and CYP inhibitory activity of the constituents of licorice.