Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of diet composition and mixture of selected food additives on the erythrocytic system and iron metabolism in peripheral blood of male rats.

BACKGROUND Metabolic processes of food additives which are "exogenous xenobiotics" are catalysed, primarily, by enzymes located in microsomes of hepatocytes affiliated to P-450 cytochrome superfamily, containing iron. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of diet composition and selected food additives on the erythrocyte system and iron metabolism in peripheral blood of male rats. MATERIAL AND METHODS The experiment was carried out on 30 male rats sorted into three equinumerous groups. For drinking animals received pure, settled tap water, animals from group III were receiving additionally an aqueous solution of sodium (nitrate), potassium nitrite, benzoic acid, sorbic acid and monosodium glutamate. RESULTS Ascertained a significant effect of changes in diet composition on the increase in hematocrit marker value and the count of red blood cells in blood of animals examined. Used food additives diminished hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit value and red blood cell count, diminishing also iron concentration in serum, the total iron binding capacity and transferrin saturation with iron. CONCLUSIONS Analysis of the results allowed ascertain adverse changes in values of the erythrocytic system markers, occurring under the influence of the applied mixture of food additives. Used food additives change the iron metabolism, most likely from the necessity of applied xenobiotics biotransformation by heme-containing monoxygenases of P-450 cytochrome.
Mesenchymal–epithelial cell interactions and proteoglycan matrix composition in the presumptive stem cell niche of the rabbit corneal limbus

Purpose To investigate whether mesenchymal–epithelial cell interactions, similar to those described in the limbal stem cell niche in transplant-expired human eye bank corneas, exist in freshly enucleated rabbit eyes and to identify matrix molecules in the anterior limbal stroma that might have the potential to help maintain the stem cell niche. Methods Fresh limbal corneal tissue from adult Japanese white rabbits was obtained and examined in semithin resin sections with light microscopy, in ultrathin sections with transmission electron microscopy, and in three-dimensional (3D) reconstructions from data sets of up to 1,000 serial images from serial block face scanning electron microscopy. Immunofluorescence microscopy with five monoclonal antibodies was used to detect specific sulfation motifs on chondroitin sulfate glycosaminoglycans, previously identified in association with progenitor cells and their matrix in cartilage tissue. Results In the rabbit limbal cornea, while no palisades of Vogt were present, the basal epithelial cells stained differentially with Toluidine blue, and extended lobed protrusions proximally into the stoma, which were associated with interruptions of the basal lamina. Elongate processes of the mesenchymal cells in the superficial vascularized stroma formed direct contact with the basal lamina and basal epithelial cells. From a panel of antibodies that recognize native, sulfated chondroitin sulfate structures, one (6-C-3) gave a positive signal restricted to the region of the mesenchymal–epithelial cell associations. Conclusions This study showed interactions between basal epithelial cells and subjacent mesenchymal cells in the rabbit corneal limbus, similar to those that have been observed in the human stem cell niche. A native sulfation epitope in chondroitin sulfate glycosaminoglycans exhibits a distribution specific to the connective tissue matrix of this putative stem/progenitor cell niche.
Research on VRP using advanced probability learning based evolutionary algorithm

Vehicle routing optimization problem with time constraint is researched in this paper and a hybrid optimization algorithm-PBIL combined with ant algorithm is proposed and applied to VRP. The objective function is to minimize the cost and reduce the loss caused by customers' time restriction. The probability matrix of PBIL algorithm is modified with the positive feedback and information disappearing mechanisms of ant algorithm. Also, the probability statistics for the road traffic status distributed is considered in decision-making for the vehicles' routing. The hybrid intelligent evolutionary algorithm is tested on Jingyuanda Logistics Company and the good validity, accuracy, and stability performance are fully proved.
Finite Element Modelling (FEM) of Green Electronics in Aeronautical and Military Communication Systems (GEAMCOS)

As part of the European LIFE project GEAMCOS, this paper presents the simulation evaluation of lead-free electronic assemblies submitted to harsh environments encountered in aeronautical and military communication applications. It addresses the following questions: (1) the determination of an optimal accelerated test condition in the temperature range of -40degC/100degC for assemblies with SnAgCu alloy, (2) the evaluation of the life-time of five assemblies with SnAgCu and SnPb, (3) a sensitivity analysis on design and serigraphy parameter variations, (4) the determination of a test protocol in vibration environments. All the results give relevant life-time predictions. The CSP and PQFP components should have longer time-to- failure with SnAgCu solder joints than with SnPb joints. The contrary is expected for 1st and 2nd level interconnects of large BGA packages. In any case, the factor is found to remain less than about 2. The PCB thermal expansion coefficient has the highest impact, followed by the solder joint height. The first level interconnect reliability is not impacted by any of the parameter changes. Simulation work in GEAMCOS project shall go on in 2007-2008 with an experimental validation of the thermo- mechanical simulations. This will require to identify a new constitutive material model for SnAgCu and to calibrate the simulations with experimental test results.
Making School Math Messy: Deepening Mathematical Appreciation in Gifted High School Students

Abstract The literature and our experiences suggest that gifted students believe doing mathematics is fi nding the right answer and learning mathematics involves memorizing isolated procedures. These beliefs are asynchronous with reform efforts predicated by a socio-cultural view of the teaching of mathematics and with the discipline of mathematics described within the philosophy of mathematics literature. We developed a philosophy of mathematics unit based on a notion of ’messiness’ and implemented it with gifted high school students during a philosophy course. Messiness highlights the uncertain, social, and contextual aspects of school mathematics. Preliminary analyses suggest that while most students did not engage with alternative visions of mathematics, some did, and their appreciation of mathematics seemed to grow. We conclude that high school math for all gifted students, not just those taking philosophy, should be infused with messiness.
ff ects of Localized Distribution of Terminals and Mobility on Performance Improvement by Direct Communication

We investigated performance improvement in a cellular system by introducing direct communication between terminals. Previous research has indicated that direct communication efficiently uses channels; however, this is not always so. We studied two factors that affect how much efficiency improves. One is the distribution of terminals. We defined some typical distributions with localization of terminals and analyzed how the difference between the distributions affected the performance improvement by direct communication. Another factor is the mobility of terminals, because mobility shortens the length of time during which terminals are directly connected. We analyzed how mobility affected performance improvement by direct communication. For the analyses, we used some theoretical techniques. key words: cellular system, direct communication, localized distribution of terminals, mobility
Non-Realistic Haptic Feedback for Virtual Sculpture

The sense of feeling can effectively be used to enforce virtual artistic activities like virtual sculpting or modeling. In this paper, we describe how a virtual sculpture system has been extended with haptical feedback. In practice, we use the scalar field defining the implicit surface being modeled to efficiently compute several type of force feedback. We present a method for combining these forces differently depending whether the user is just touching his artwork or editing it by adding virtual matter. This technique enforces the interactivity of the task and leads to an enhanced non-tactorealistic feedback that increases the usability of the sculpture tool. The well-known problem of stability of the haptic feedback is also addressed in the particular case of implicit surface, in a new, simple and efficient manner.
A Constructive Connectionist Approach TowardsContinual Robot

This work presents an approach for combining reinforcement learning, learning by imitation, and incremental hierarchical development. The approach is used in a realistic simulated mobile robot that learns to perform a navigation task by imitating the movements of a teacher and then continues to learn by receiving reinforcement. The behaviours of the robot are represented as sensation-action rules in a constructive high-order neural network. Preliminary experiments are reported which show that incremental, hierarchical development, bootstrapped by imitative learning, allows the robot to adapt to changes in its environment during its entire lifetime very eeciently, even if only delayed reinforcements are given. The experimental results indicate that default hierarchies of sensation-action rules can be constructed solely by connectionist learning.
System-Level Design of NoC-Based Dependable Embedded Systems

Technology scaling into subnanometer range will have impact on the manufacturing yield and quality. At the same time, complexity and communication requirements of systems-on-chip (SoC) are increasing, thus making a SoC designer goal to design a fault-free system a very difficult task. Network-on-chip (NoC) has been proposed as one of the alternatives to solve some of the on-chip communication problems and to address dependability at various levels of abstraction. This chapter concentrates on system-level design issues of NoC-based systems. It describes various methods proposed for NoC architecture analysis and optimization, and gives an overview of different system-level fault tolerance methods. Finally, the chapter presents a system-level design framework for performing design space exploration for dependable NoC-based systems.
Time Series Forecasting of Cloud Data Center Workloads for Dynamic Resource Provisioning

Cloud computing offers on-demand, elastic resource provisioning that allows an enterprise to provide services to their customers at an acceptable quality while consuming only the requisite computing resources as a utility. Since cloud computing resources scale elastically, utilizing cloud computing reduces the risk of over-provisioning, wasting resources during non-peak hours, and reduces the risk of under-provisioning, missing potential customers. By using an automated resource scaling algorithm, a system implemented using cloud services can fully exploit the benefits of on-demand elasticity. A simple reactive scaling algorithm, resource scaling is triggered after some monitored metric has crossed a threshold, suffers from the fact that cloud computing workloads can varying widely over time and a scalable application needs time to perform the triggered scaling action. Instead, resources can be proactively requested by forecasting future resource demand values based on demand history. Obtaining accurate prediction results is crucial to the efficient operation of an automated resource scaling algorithm. In this work, several forecasting models are evaluated for their applicability in forecasting cloud computing workloads. These forecasting methods were compared for their ability to forecast real cloud computing workloads including Google cluster data and Intel Netbatch logs. Two tests are performed to evaluate the accuracy of each forecasting model: out-of-sample forecasting and rolling forecast origin cross-validation.
Trustful Data Forwarding in Social Opportunistic Networks

More and more people are using smartphones to gain access to the Internet. Cell phone providers are forced to expand their existing networks or slow down the Internet connection of their customers to counteract with problems concerning network congestion, which emerge from the increasing data traffic. In this paper we present an approach to cope with the described problem by forming a social opportunistic network based on smartphone devices. We developed a protocol to provide trustful data forwarding making use of movement patterns and physical social networks of humans carrying their mobile devices. We evaluated the performance of our protocol by using The ONE simulator and compared the results with Epidemic Routing, Prophet and Spray and Wait. The simulations show that our approach causes low network congestion. In comparison to other protocols, our approach handles network resources efficiently while also providing data forwarding in a trustful manner.
CKD in the United States: Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP) and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004.

BACKGROUND The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasing in the United States, caused in part by older age and increasing prevalences of hypertension and type 2 diabetes. CKD is silent and undetected until advanced stages. The study of populations with earlier stages of kidney disease may improve outcomes of CKD. METHODS The Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP), a National Kidney Foundation program, is a targeted community-based health-screening program enrolling individuals 18 years and older with diabetes, hypertension, or family history of kidney disease, diabetes, or hypertension. Participants who had received transplants or were on regular dialysis treatment were excluded from this analysis. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004 was a nationally representative cross-sectional survey; participants were interviewed in their homes and/or received standardized medical examinations in mobile examination centers. RESULTS Of the 61,675 KEEP participants, 16,689 (27.1%) were found to have CKD. In the NHANES sample of 14,632 participants, 2,734 (15.3%) had CKD. Older age, smoking, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease were associated significantly with CKD in both KEEP and NHANES (P < 0.05 for all). Of note, the likelihood for CKD in African Americans differed between KEEP (odds ratio, 0.81; P < 0.001) and NHANES (odds ratio, 1.10; P = 0.2). CONCLUSION A greater prevalence of CKD was detected in the KEEP screening than in the NHANES data. KEEP has the limitations common to population-screening studies and conclusions for population-attributable risk may be limited. The targeted nature of the KEEP screening program and the large sample size with clinical characteristics comparable to NHANES validates KEEP as a valuable cohort to explore health associations for the CKD and at-risk-for-CKD populations in the United States.
Robust Process Control by Dynamic Stochastic Programming

Unnecessarily conservative behavior of standard process control techniques can be avoided by stochastic programming models when the distribution of random disturbances is known. In an earlier study we have investigated such an approach for tank level constraints of a distillation process. Here we address techniques that have accelerated the numerical solution of the large and expensive stochastic programs by a factor of six, and then present a refined optimization model for the same application. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Combat Effectiveness and Sleep Patterns in US Marines

The Habitability Assessment Test (HAT) was designed to evaluate whether Marines exposed to waterborne motion in an amphibious vehicle experience reductions in combat effectiveness. A total of 61 active duty Unites States Marines participated in a within-subjects, repeated measures, quasi-experimental design with counterbalancing to control for order of exposure to waterborne motion of one, two, or three hours. Dependent variables included wrist-worn actigraphy, Stanford Sleepiness Scale scores, marksmanship scores, obstacle course performance, and the switching task from the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric (ANAM) battery. Results showed no statistically significant associations between sleep metrics and the mean radius of impact in the marksmanship test. In contrast, short sleep duration and elevated sleepiness were associated with worse (higher) completion times in the obstacle course. Elevated sleepiness was also associated with lower cognitive throughput, i.e., the number of correct responses per minute, as measured by the ANAM Switching Task. Increased sleep duration was associated with increased throughput, however the trend was not statistically significant. These results suggest that sleep-deprived Marines experienced poorer executive decision making as measured using the ANAM. In addition to showing decrements in combat effectiveness that are associated with their sleep patterns, the current study may provide an early indication of circadian scarring in these young Marines.
Disruption of the expression of the proprotein convertase PC7 reduces BDNF production and affects learning and memory in mice

Significance The 7-membered proprotein convertase (PC) family of basic amino acid-specific proteases is implicated in the cleavage-activation of secretory precursor proteins. Although the in vivo functions of most members have been well studied, those of the seventh member PC7 are largely unknown. Herein, we find that PC7 participates in the generation of mature BDNF both in cells and in specific brain areas such as hippocampus and amygdala. Indeed, PC7 exerts a critical role in the brain: The results of various behavioral tests in normal mice compared with those lacking PC7 expression support an in vivo role for PC7 in the regulation of certain types of cognitive performance, such as emotional memories, in part via BDNF activation. PC7 belongs to the proprotein convertase family, whose members are implicated in the cleavage of secretory precursors. The in vivo function of PC7 is unknown. Herein, we find that the precursor proBDNF is processed into mature BDNF in COS-1 cells coexpressing proBDNF with either PC7 or Furin. Conversely, the processing of proBDNF into BDNF is markedly reduced in the absence of either Furin or PC7 in mouse primary hepatocytes. In vivo we observe that BDNF and PC7 mRNAs are colocalized in mouse hippocampus and amygdala and that mature BDNF protein levels are reduced in these brain areas in PC7 KO mice but not in the hippocampus of PC1/3 KO mice. Various behavioral tests reveal that in PC7 KO mice spatial memory is intact and plasticity of responding is mildly abnormal. Episodic and emotional memories are severely impaired, but both are rescued with the tyrosine receptor kinase B agonist 7,8-dihydroxyflavone. Altogether, these results support an in vivo role for PC7 in the regulation of certain types of cognitive performance, in part via proBDNF processing. Because polymorphic variants of human PC7 are being characterized, it will be important in future studies to determine their effects on additional physiological and behavioral processes.
Explicitly recursive grammar combinators - The implementation of some grammar algorithms - Technical report

In a companion paper, we have presented an alternative representation of grammars in Haskell, explicitizing the grammar’s recursion, decoupling the grammar from its semantic actions and making semantic actions independent of matching order. In this technical report, we present the implementation of some interesting grammar algorithms in order to provide evidence for the increased power and declarative style of our novel grammar representation. The presented code is a simplification of parts of our freely available Haskell library grammar-combinators. Explicitly Recursive Grammar Combinators The Implementation of some Grammar Algorithms Technical report Dominique Devriese and Frank Piessens K.U. Leuven {dominique.devriese,frank.piessens}@cs.kuleuven. be Abstract. In a companion paper [1], we have presented an alternative representation of grammars in Haskell, explicitizing the grammar’s recursion, decoupling the grammar from its semantic actions and making semantic actions independent of matching order. In this technical report, we present the implementation of some interesting grammar algorithms in order to provide evidence for the increased power and declarative style of our novel grammar representation. The presented code is a simplification of parts of our freely available Haskell library grammar-combinators. In a companion paper [1], we have presented an alternative representation of grammars in Haskell, explicitizing the grammar’s recursion, decoupling the grammar from its semantic actions and making semantic actions independent of matching order. In this technical report, we present the implementation of some interesting grammar algorithms in order to provide evidence for the increased power and declarative style of our novel grammar representation. The presented code is a simplification of parts of our freely available Haskell library grammar-combinators.
Disc Turbulence and Viscosity

Three-dimensional simulations of hydromagnetic ows in accretion discs provide strong evidence that the turbulence in discs is driven by a magnetic instability. Some basic results of those simulations are reviewed, current shortcomings discussed, and open questions and important issues are highlighted. The main motivation behind those simulations was simply to show that turbulence is self-sustained. However, an important quantitative outcome has been the determination of the magnitude of the Shakura-Sunyaev viscosity parameter SS. It is emphasized that SS cannot be considered a constant, as it does in fact depend on a number of factors: the magnetic eld strength, the height above the midplane, and the magnitude of the velocity shear { to mention just a few. Given the availability of detailed simulations, it is now possible to address speciic questions, for example what are the rates of Joule and viscous heating, where is the energy deposited, what are the values of turbulent Prandtl numbers, and how eeciently does the ow disperse and mix particles? Finally, the disc simulations have signiicantly aaected and enhanced research in dynamo theory in diierent elds of astrophysics, because some of the ideas (dynamo-generated turbulence) may also apply to stars and galaxies.