Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of sulphurous mineral water in haematological and biochemical markers of muscle damage after an endurance exercise in well-trained athletes

Abstract To investigate the effects of sulphurous mineral water (SMW) after a hydroponic treatment on muscle damage, antioxidant activity and peripheral blood changes induced by submaximal exercise. Thirty well-trained male triathletes were supplemented with SMW or placebo: 3 weeks of placebo, 30 days of wash out and 3 weeks of SMW. After both periods, participants ran for 2 h at 70% maximal aerobic speed. Antioxidant enzymes, lipid peroxidation, antioxidant capacity and blood cell markers were compared between placebo and SMW at pre-exercise (T0), immediately post-exercise (T1), 24 h post-exercise (T2) and 48 h post-exercise (T3). Total thiols decreased until T3 vs. T0 for both placebo and SMW; transient red blood cells, haemoglobin and haematocrit increased were shown at T1 vs. T0 and for leucocytes until T2 vs. T0, only for placebo group. Total thiols increased significantly in SMW vs. placebo at T0; Thiobarbituric acid reactive species was significantly higher at T0, T1, T2 and T3; catalase increased significantly at T1; creatine phosphokinase decreased significantly at T1, T2 and T3, although no significant differences were found at T0. Furthermore, red blood cells, haemoglobin and haematocrit were significantly higher and leucocytes were significantly lower at T0 and T1 in SMW group vs. placebo group. This study suggests that three weeks of SMW supplementation may protect from exercise-induced muscle damage.
An efficient and light asymmetric cryptography to secure communication in smart grid

The population growth influences the need for electric power. But the existing power grid is not fully qualified to resolve this need. For providing a suitable power grid that is match with today's needs, smart grid has been proposed. Smart grid includes advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), communication network, etc. alongside traditional power grid to deliver the electric power to the customers. One of the most important parts of smart grid is the communication link between smart meters and the control center. Since smart grid's performance relies on real time data communication, reliable and secure communications for transporting the real time data is crucial. Smart grid communication network consists of HAN (home area network), BAN (building area network), NAN (neighbor area network) and WAN (Wide area network). This paper proposes an efficient and secure infrastructure for communication in a smart grid focusing on two networks, HAN and NAN. Using Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) a key agreement scheme is built up that contains two phases, pre-deployment and key agreement. The proposed scheme is cost efficient in using operators and transmitting messages for agreement on a session key for safe data transmission.
Phenolic Extracts from Clerodendrum volubile Leaves Inhibit Cholinergic and Monoaminergic Enzymes Relevant to the Management of Some Neurodegenerative Diseases

ABSTRACT This study investigated the inhibitory effects of phenolic-rich extracts from Clerodendrum volubile leaves on cholinergic [acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE)] and monoaminergic [monoamine oxidase (MAO)] enzymes' activities and pro-oxidants [Fe2+ and quinolinic acid-(QA)] induced lipid peroxidation in rats brain homogenates in vitro. Free phenolic extracts (FPE) and bound phenolic extracts (BPE) were obtained via solvent extraction, and the total phenol and flavonoid contents were evaluated. The phenolic constituents of the extracts were also determined using high performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). Our findings revealed that FPE had higher AChE (2.06 μg/mL), BChE (2.79 μg/mL), and MAO (2.81 μg/mL) inhibitory effects than BPE [AChE, 2.80 μg/mL; BChE, 3.40 μg/mL; MAO, 3.39 μg/mL]. Furthermore, FPE also had significantly (P < 0.05) higher inhibitory effects on Fe2+ and QA-induced lipid peroxidation compared to BPE. FPE (162.61 mg GAE/g) had higher total phenol content than BPE. However, BPE (18.65 mg QE/g) had significantly higher total flavonoid content than FPE (13.32 mg QE/g). Phenolic acids (such as gallic acid, catechin, chlorogenic, caffeic, ellagic, p-Coumaric acids) and flavonoids (catechins, rutin and quercetin) were present in both extracts. This study revealed that the enzymes' inhibitory activities and antioxidant potentials of phenolic-rich extracts from C. volubile could be part of the mechanism of actions behind its use for memory/cognitive function as obtained in folklore. However, FPE exhibited significantly higher enzymes, inhibitory and antioxidant potentials than BPE.
Intravitreal invading cells contribute to vitreal cytokine milieu in proliferative vitreoretinopathy

AIM To examine the contribution of infiltrating cells in the local production of cytokines within the vitreous of patients with proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). METHODS The presence of mRNA coding for IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, IL-1α, TNFα, IFNγ, IL-12, and HPRT was investigated in 25 vitreous samples from patients with PVR, 11 vitreous samples from patients with retinal detachment (RD) not complicated by PVR, and 10 vitreous samples from patients with macular hole (MH). A quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using an internal competitor was used to investigate these samples. From these samples, 15 PVR, 8 RD, and 8 MH were analysed for the protein levels of the same cytokines using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Spearman correlation was used to test any association between mRNA and cytokine protein levels, as an indicator of the contribution these cells make to the intravitreal cytokine milieu. RESULTS A strong correlation was found between mRNA and their respective cytokine levels (protein products) for IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, IL-1α, TNFα, IFNγ (Spearman r = 0.83, 0.73, 0.67, 0.91, 0.73, and 0.73 respectively), but not for IL-12. The median levels of IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, and IFNγ mRNA and their respective cytokines were significantly higher (p <0.05) in patients with PVR than in those with macular hole. There was no statistically significant difference in the median levels of IL-1α mRNA between PVR and MH but the cytokine IL-1α was detected at a significantly higher level in PVR compared with MH patients. Between PVR and RD patients, there was no statistically significant difference in mRNA levels for all the investigated cytokines (p >0.05) except for IL-6 where there was a statistical significance (p= 0.038). In contrast, the median levels of IL-6, IL-8, and IL-1β cytokines were significantly higher (p <0.05) in patients with PVR than in those with RD, whereas for IL-1α and IFNγ no significant statistical difference was detected between PVR and RD patients (p >0.05). When results of RD and MH patients were compared, a statistical difference was only detected in mRNA levels of INFγ (p = 0.008). However, no difference was detected for INFγ (protein product) or for any of the other cytokines between RD and MH patients. CONCLUSION Levels of both protein and mRNA encoding IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, and IFNγ is significantly increased in vitreous samples from patients with PVR. The strong correlation between ELISA detectable cytokines (protein products) and their respective mRNA levels suggest that intravitreal, invasive cells are the major source of these cytokines, with the exception of IL-12. Cells invading the vitreous do not appear to locally produce IL-12 mRNA. This would appear to implicate cells peripheral to the vitreal mass as the major source of this cytokine.
2-Amino-4,6-dimethylpyrimidinium dihydrogenphosphate

In the crystal structure of the title compound, C6H10N3 +·H2PO4 −, the cations and anions are linked by intermolecular O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming a two-dimensional network. Additional stabilization is provided by weak intermolecular C—H⋯O interactions. N—H⋯N interactions are also present.
Involvement of Microtubules in the Regulation of Bcl2 Phosphorylation and Apoptosis through Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinase

ABSTRACT The Bcl2 family of proteins plays a significant role in regulation of apoptosis. In this study, the microtubule-damaging drugs paclitaxel, vincristine, and vinblastine induced Bcl2 hyperphosphorylation and apoptosis in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells and reduced Bcl2-Bax dimerization. Paclitaxel or vincristine induced increased expression of Bax, while overexpression of Bcl2 in these cell lines counteracted the effects of low doses of these drugs. In addition, paclitaxel- and vincristine-induced activation of cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase (protein kinase A [PKA]) induced Bcl2 hyperphosphorylation and apoptosis, which were blocked by the PKA inhibitor Rp diastereomers of cAMP (Rp-cAMP). This finding suggests that activation of PKA due to microtubule damage is an important event in Bcl2 hyperphosphorylation and induction of apoptosis. These microtubule-damaging drugs caused growth arrest in G2-M phase of the cell cycle and had no effect on p53 induction, suggesting that hyperphosphorylation mediated inactivation of Bcl2 and apoptosis without the involvement of p53. By comparison, the DNA-damaging drugs methotrexate and doxorubicin had no effect on Bcl2 hyperphosphorylation but induced p53 expression. Interestingly, paclitaxel or vincristine induced activation of caspase 3 and cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase downstream of Bcl2 hyperphosphorylation. These data suggest that there may be a signaling cascade induced by agents that disrupt or damage the cytoskeleton that is distinct from (i.e., p53 independent), but perhaps related to (i.e., involves kinase activation and leads to apoptosis), the cellular response to DNA damage.
Summary of aromatase inhibitor clinical trials in postmenopausal women with early breast cancer

Five years of adjuvant therapy with tamoxifen was considered the gold‐standard treatment for postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor‐positive breast cancer for many years. Data from a core group of clinical trials investigating the safety and efficacy of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) have challenged this perception. These studies were designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of AIs in the following clinical settings: 1) as initial adjuvant therapy (the Arimidex, Tamoxifen, Alone or in Combination trial, Breast International Group Trial 1‐98), 2) in a “switched setting” after 2 to 3 years of treatment with tamoxifen (Arimidex‐Nolvadex 95, the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group 8 [ABCSG 8] trial, the Italian Tamoxifen Anastrozole study, the Intergroup Exemestane Study), and 3) in extended settings (National Cancer Institute of Canada Trial MA.17, ABCSG 6a, National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project 33). The efficacy data from these studies suggested that AIs have added substantial benefit in terms of disease outcome. AIs were tolerated well, and patients who received them experienced fewer thrombolic events and less endometrial cancer, hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal bleeding compared with patients who receive tamoxifen. However, patients who received tamoxifen had less skeletal events and accelerated bone resorption compared with women who received AIs. AIs should be considered when planning a patient's endocrine therapy, taking into account the differences in tolerability and end‐organ effects of the classes of endocrine therapy. Outstanding issues to optimize AI therapy include identifying the optimal duration, agent, and patients for these therapies. Cancer 2008. © 2007 American Cancer Society.
Firm innovation benefits from regional triple-helix networks

ABSTRACT This study investigates the value of constructed regional triple-helix networks for participating firms. Although participation in such networks is encouraged, the documentation of firm benefits is limited. The results from this longitudinal case study and survey study indicate that the primary benefits from network participation are increased access to knowledge and improved ability to meet challenges. Important characteristics of well-functioning networks are having a committed manager and common activities that build relationships. Lack of resources dedicated to networking limit a firm’s outcome, while participating in joint projects enhances it. The study contributes to the literature on network benefits and regional innovation policies.
Tourist relative importance of factors influencing tourism development in J&K

National tourism policy of 2002 has identified seven key factors which plays a vital role in tourism development. Few researchers have confirmed the underlying factor structure of 7 key factors in determining the tourism development. Still this literature demands the support of results of relative importance in finding the contribution a particular factor makes in combination with other factors. So, the present study is an extension to the existing literature. An empirical study has been conducting in order to find out the perception of the tourists visiting Jammu & Kashmir by examining the relative importance of 7 key factors influencing the tourism development. The paper also highlights the key statements responsible for the tourism development and suggests measures to prioritize the influencing factors accordingly.
Fault location method of complex software based on community mining

The explosion by amount of codes as well as the swelling logic complexity have stifled the performance of the traditional fault-location methods since the resource adopted during this process is unacceptable. Under such a situation, a scheme to locate the faults in complex software more effectively has been proposed in this paper based on networks community theory. First, on the base of establishing the dependency network of every module in software, dependency relationships between various community blocks can be obtained by applying clustering algorithms to mine the community structure. Second, with status reports generated by monitoring-codes planted into the center node of every community, we can distinguish whether communities work in a normal way, thus the fault searching area can be shrunk smaller by repeating the steps above. Third, once the searching area has been shrunk to several modules, the traditional methods like Tarantula is eligible for finding the fault since the number of suspected codes has been compressed to an acceptable level. At last, the experiment by applying the method we come up has been conducted and the statistic has been collected as well as analyzed to compare with the main-trend solutions, during which the speed superiorities and acceptable accuracy of our method have been confirmed.
Increased Procoagulant Function of Microparticles in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Role in Increased Thrombin Generation

Objectives: Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have a higher risk for venous thromboembolism compared with non-IBD subjects. The pathogenic mechanisms of the thrombotic events are not fully understood. We investigated levels of circulating microparticles and their influence on thrombin generation in pediatric patients with IBD during active and quiescent disease compared with healthy controls. Methods: Plasma samples were collected from 33 pediatric patients with Crohn disease (CD), 20 pediatric patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), and 60 healthy controls. Microparticles’ procoagulant activity was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the dependency of thrombin generation on microparticles-derived tissue factor was determined by means of calibrated automated thrombography. Results: The procoagulant function of microparticles was significantly increased in patients with active and inactive CD, and active UC compared with controls. Endogenous thrombin potential was significantly higher in patients with CD and UC compared with controls. A minor influence of microparticles on thrombin generation was only observed for patients with active UC. Conclusions: Our study shows increased procoagulant function of microparticles in pediatric patients with active and quiescent CD and active UC compared with controls, but demonstrates that they are not a major cause for the higher thrombin generation in pediatric patients with IBD.
An EDGE/GSM Quad-Band CMOS Power Amplifier

A linear power amplifier (PA) is proposed for EDGE application in cellular and PCS bands, using a standard 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The linear PA is adaptively biased according to its power level to efficiently enhance AM-AM characteristics. Nonlinear gate-drain capacitance (C gd) of power transistors, which is one of the major sources of AM-PM nonlinearity, is effectively linearized by adding an additional capacitor in series. The prototype CMOS PA achieves power added efficiencies of 22% and 23% at output powers of 28.5 dBm and 27.5 dBm, at 870 MHz and 1.8 GHz, respectively. The proposed PA meets the class E2 power requirement satisfying error vector magnitude (EVM) and adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) specifications with EDGE modulated signals.
Fast quantification of immunohistochemistry tissue microarrays in lung carcinoma

Tissue microarrays (TMAs) are an effective tool for high-throughput molecular analysis of tissues to help identify new diagnostic and prognostic markers and targets in human cancers. We have developed a fully automated method for rapid, continuous and quantitative analysis of TMAs based on immunohistochemistry. The method deals with complex and varying tissue architectures, segments tumour cells from normal cells, conducts cell compartmentalisation, identifies nuclei and cytoplasm and produces three different continuous measurements of marker expression levels within tumour cell nuclei, tumour cell cytoplasm and total tumour cell protein expression. We have demonstrated this method using three independent protein markers (BAK, BAX and a novel biomarker, named KS) over 7 TMAs, involving 2 BAK stained TMAs with 229 tumour tissue cores, 2 BAX stained TMAs with 229 tumour tissue cores and 3 KS stained TMAs with 373 tumour cores of lung carcinomas. We validated the automated method, showing that the automated scoring is significantly correlated with the pathologist-based scoring.
Application Research of Ideological and Political Education Assessment Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process

In the increasingly fierce competition of the colleges and universities, how to improve the teaching quality and enhance the competitiveness has become an important issue to every colleges and universities. Universities are trying to build scientific and perfect ideological and political classroom teaching quality evaluation system. AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) is based on the combination of quantitative and qualitative scheme, and peoples subjective judgment is expressed in the form of number to minimize the disadvantages brought by the personal subjective making the evaluation results more credible. We determine the index weight, and use multi-level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to evaluate the quality of ideological and political teaching. The ideological and political classroom teaching quality evaluation index system is established and evaluation system is realized based on network. After the analysis of the testing results, we can see that the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation system can meet the basic requirement of teaching quality evaluation system and improve the management efficiency of teaching quality evaluation.
An Experiment in Graduate Medical Education

As an experiment in graduate medical education, a 5-year curriculum in pediatrics, psychiatry, and child and adolescent psychiatry was developed and evaluated over a 10-year period. The evaluation results suggested that the program’s goal to create a cadre of specialists was achieved in terms of recruitment, performance during training, fostering of clinical reasoning ability, board certification rates, and postgraduate activities. As a result, the American Boards of Pediatrics and of Psychiatry and Neurology decided to make the combined training track permanent, and the numbers of training sites and residents have since been expanded.
A genomic analysis of chronological longevity factors in budding yeast

Chronological life span (CLS) has been studied as an aging paradigm in yeast. A few conserved aging genes have been identified that modulate both chronological and replicative longevity in yeast as well as longevity in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans; however, a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between genetic control of chronological longevity and aging in other model systems has yet to be reported. To address this question, we performed a functional genomic analysis of chronological longevity for 550 single-gene deletion strains, which accounts for approximately 12% of the viable homozygous diploid deletion strains in the yeast ORF deletion collection. This study identified 33 previously unknown determinants of CLS. We found no significant enrichment for enhanced CLS among deletions corresponding to yeast orthologs of worm aging genes or among replicatively long-lived deletion strains, although a trend toward overlap was noted. In contrast, a subset of gene deletions identified from a screen for reduced acidification of culture media during growth to stationary phase was enriched for increased CLS. These results suggest that genetic control of CLS under the most commonly utilized assay conditions does not strongly overlap with longevity determinants in C. elegans, with the existing confined to a small number of genetic pathways. These data also further support the model that acidification of the culture medium plays an important role in survival during chronological aging in synthetic medium, and suggest that chronological aging studies using alternate medium conditions may be more informative with regard to aging of multicellular eukaryotes.
Chinese and U.S. internists adhere to different ethical standards

AbstractOBJECTIVE: To determine whether internists in the United States and China have different ideas and behaviors regarding informing patients of terminal diagnoses and HIV/AIDS, the role of the family in end-of-life decision making, and assisted suicide. DESIGN: Structured questionnaire of clinical vignettes followed by multiple choice questions. SETTING: University and community hospitals in San Francisco and Beijing, China. SUBJECTS: Forty practicing internists were interviewed, 20 in China and 20 in the United States. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Of the internists surveyed, 95% of the U.S. internists and none of the Chinese internists would inform a patient with cancer of her diagnosis. However, 100% of U.S. and 90% of Chinese internists would tell a terminally ill patient who had AIDS, rather than advanced cancer, about his diagnosis. When family members’ wishes conflicted with a patient’s preferences regarding chemotherapy of advanced cancer, Chinese internists were more likely to follow the family’s preferences rather than the patient’s preferences (65%) than were the U.S. internists (5%). Thirty percent of U.S. internists and 15% of Chinese internists agreed with a terminally ill patient’s request for sufficient narcotics to end her life. CONCLUSIONS: We found significant differences in clinical ethical beliefs between internists in the United States and China, most evident in informing patients of a cancer diagnosis. In general, the Chinese physicians appeared to give far greater weight to family preferences in medical decision making than did the U.S. physicians.