Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acute and Sub-Chronic Toxicity Studies of Aqueous Extract of Root Bark of Cassia Sieberiana D.C. in Rodents

Article history: Received on: 28/02/2014 Revised on: 02/04/2014 Accepted on: 22/04/2014 Available online: 28/04/2014 Acute and sub-chronic toxicity studies of the aqueous extract of the root bark of C. sieberiana (Caesalpiniaceae), a plant used locally in Ghana for the treatment of pain, was carried out in rodents. In the acute study, a single oral dose (5000 mg/kg) of the aqueous extract of C. sieberiana (NPK) was administered to six rats and six mice, and observed for 14 days for signs of acute toxicity. In the sub-chronic study, rats were administered with NPK (15750 mg/kg) daily for three months. Urinalysis, haematological and biochemical analyses were carried out on urine, blood and serum samples collected at the end of the three-month treatment. Histological analyses of the liver, heart, kidney and lung tissues were also done. The results showed that administration of 5000 mg/kg of NPK to animals did not result in death. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) between control and test animals in the haematological assay. The albumin, alkaline phosphatase and total bilirubin were higher (p<0.05) in test animals compared to the controls. Liver micrographs showed centrilobular necrosis at the dose of 750 mg/kg. The findings, therefore, show that the oral toxicity of NPK in rodents is low (oral LD50 > 5000 mg/kg). However, the extract may have deleterious effects on the liver at high doses on prolonged administration.
Prospective Comprehensive Genomic Profiling of Primary and Metastatic Prostate Tumors

PURPOSE Comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) is increasingly used for routine clinical management of prostate cancer. To inform targeted treatment strategies, 3,476 clinically advanced prostate tumors were analyzed by CGP for genomic alterations (GAs) and signatures of genomic instability. METHODS Prostate cancer samples (1,660 primary site and 1,816 metastatic site tumors from unmatched patients) were prospectively analyzed by CGP (FoundationOne Assay; Foundation Medicine, Cambridge, MA) for GAs and genomic signatures (genome-wide loss of heterozygosity [gLOH], microsatellite instability [MSI] status, tumor mutational burden [TMB]). RESULTS Frequently altered genes were TP53 (44%), PTEN (32%), TMPRSS2-ERG (31%), and AR (23%). Potentially targetable GAs were frequently identified in DNA repair, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, and RAS/RAF/MEK pathways. DNA repair pathway GAs included homologous recombination repair (23%), Fanconi anemia (5%), CDK12 (6%), and mismatch repair (4%) GAs. BRCA1/2, ATR, and FANCA GAs were associated with high gLOH, whereas CDK12-altered tumors were infrequently gLOH high. Median TMB was low (2.6 mutations/Mb). A subset of cases (3%) had high TMB, of which 71% also had high MSI. Metastatic site tumors were enriched for the 11q13 amplicon (CCND1/FGF19/FGF4/FGF3) and GAs in AR, LYN, MYC, NCOR1, PIK3CB, and RB1 compared with primary tumors. CONCLUSION Routine clinical CGP in the real-world setting identified GAs that are investigational biomarkers for targeted therapies in 57% of cases. gLOH and MSI/TMB signatures could further inform selection of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors and immunotherapies, respectively. Correlation of DNA repair GAs with gLOH identified genes associated with homologous recombination repair deficiency. GAs enriched in metastatic site tumors suggest therapeutic strategies for metastatic prostate cancer. Lack of clinical outcome correlation was a limitation of this study.
The Causal Role of IL-4 and IL-13 in Schistosoma mansoni Pulmonary Hypertension.

RATIONALE The etiology of schistosomiasis-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a major cause of PAH worldwide, is poorly understood. Schistosoma mansoni exposure results in prototypical type-2 inflammation. Furthermore, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β signaling is required for experimental pulmonary hypertension (PH) caused by Schistosoma exposure. OBJECTIVES We hypothesized type-2 inflammation driven by IL-4 and IL-13 is necessary for Schistosoma-induced TGF-β-dependent vascular remodeling. METHODS Wild-type, IL-4(-/-), IL-13(-/-), and IL-4(-/-)IL-13(-/-) mice (C57BL6/J background) were intraperitoneally sensitized and intravenously challenged with S. mansoni eggs to induce experimental PH. Right ventricular catheterization was then performed, followed by quantitative analysis of the lung tissue. Lung tissue from patients with schistosomiasis-associated and connective tissue disease-associated PAH was also systematically analyzed. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Mice with experimental Schistosoma-induced PH had evidence of increased IL-4 and IL-13 signaling. IL-4(-/-)IL-13(-/-) mice, but not single knockout IL-4(-/-) or IL-13(-/-) mice, were protected from Schistosoma-induced PH, with decreased right ventricular pressures, pulmonary vascular remodeling, and right ventricular hypertrophy. IL-4(-/-)IL-13(-/-) mice had less pulmonary vascular phospho-signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6) and phospho-Smad2/3 activity, potentially caused by decreased TGF-β activation by macrophages. In vivo treatment with a STAT6 inhibitor and IL-4(-/-)IL-13(-/-) bone marrow transplantation also protected against Schistosoma-PH. Lung tissue from patients with schistosomiasis-associated and connective tissue disease-associated PAH had evidence of type-2 inflammation. CONCLUSIONS Combined IL-4 and IL-13 deficiency is required for protection against TGF-β-induced pulmonary vascular disease after Schistosoma exposure, and targeted inhibition of this pathway is a potential novel therapeutic approach for patients with schistosomiasis-associated PAH.
Families Differ ? The Value of Resident Choice During Daily Care : Do Staff and

Allowing long-term care (LTC) residents to make choices about their daily life activities is a central tenet of resident-centered care. This study examined whether staff and family rated care episodes involving choice differently from care episodes not involving choice. Seventeen nurse aide and 15 family participants were shown paired video vignettes of care interactions. Participants were asked to rate their preferred care vignette using a standardized forced-choice questionnaire. Focus groups were held separately for staff and family members following this rating task to determine reasons for their preferences. Both staff and family rated the vignettes depicting choice as “strongly” preferred to the vignettes without choice. Reasons provided for the preference ratings during the focus group discussions related to resident well-being, sense of control, and respondents’ own personal values. These findings have implications for LTC staff training related to resident-centered care to promote choice.
SECURITY RESEARCH AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT BASED ON SCALABLE NETWORK EMULATION

Subject review Security attacks are becoming a standard part of the Internet and their frequency is constantly increasing. Therefore, an efficient way to research and investigate attacks is needed. Studying attacks needs to be coupled with security evaluation of currently deployed systems that are affected by them. The security evaluation and research process needs to be completed quickly to counter the incoming attacks, but this is currently a complex and time-consuming procedure which includes a variety of systems and tools. Furthermore, as the attack frequency is increasing, new security specialists need to be trained in a comprehensible and standardized way. We propose a new approach to security evaluation and research that uses scalable network emulation based on lightweight virtualization implemented in IMUNES. This approach provides a unified testing environment that is efficient and straightforward to use. The emulated environment also couples as a portable and intuitive training tool. Through a series of implemented and evaluated scenarios we demonstrate several concepts that can be used for a novel approach in security evaluation and research.
Improving Security and Privacy Attribute Based Data Sharing in Cloud Computing

Data sharing is a convenient and economic service supplied by cloud computing. Data contents privacy also emerges from it since the data is outsourced to some cloud servers. To protect the valuable and sensitive information, various techniques are used to enhance access control on the shared data. In these techniques, Ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) can make it more convenient and secure. Traditional CP-ABE focuses on data confidentiality merely, while the user's personal privacy protection is an important issue at present. CP-ABE with hidden access policy ensures data confidentiality and guarantees that user's privacy is not revealed as well. However, most of the existing schemes are inefficient in communication overhead and computation cost. Moreover, most of those works take no consideration about authority verification or the problem of privacy leakage in authority verification phase. To tackle the problems mentioned above, a privacy preserving CP-ABE scheme with efficient authority verification is introduced in this paper. Additionally, the secret keys of it achieve constant size. Meanwhile, the proposed scheme achieves the selective security under the decisional $n$-BDHE problem and decisional linear assumption. The computational results confirm the merits of the presented scheme.
Technical Settings of Interaction : Regionalisation in the Digital World

Prior research has extended Giddens' (1984) structuration theory to incorporate material agency as part of a social-technical ensemble. Yet the ways in which physicaldigital spaces contextualise interactions and structure work practices is under explored. In our study, we extend concepts of locale and regionalisation from structuration theory to IS fields of research in digitally mediated communication, and define ‘technical settings of interaction’ constituted by human and material agencies. The case of gender segregated work in Saudi is used to illustrate the performativity of these digital spaces, and shows how workers use technical configurations in ICTs to create zones of interaction that can challenge existing cultural norms. Finally, we argue that attending to Giddens’ focus on time-space not only adds an additional level of analysis to studying technology use, but also shows the potential of structurational research in contributing to discussions on materiality.
Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) Encephalitis in an Immunocompetent Young Person and Diagnostic Reliability of HCMV DNA PCR Using Cerebrospinal Fluid of Nonimmunosuppressed Patients

ABSTRACT Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) encephalitis in adult nonimmunosuppressed patients has rarely been reported. We have diagnosed HCMV encephalitis in an anti-HCMV immunoglobulin G-negative, nonimmunosuppressed young woman by HCMV DNA PCR and virus isolation from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). At the same time, HCMV antigen and HCMV DNA could be demonstrated in peripheral blood leukocytes, and the virus was isolated in fibroblast cultures. After 22 days of acute illness, the virus disappeared from the CSF. Remarkably, the patient did not generate detectable anti-HCMV antibodies within 5 months after the beginning of illness. To investigate the significance of HCMV DNA detection in CSF, samples of CSF, blood cells, and serum from 35 nonimmunosuppressed patients with various neurological disorders (but no herpes simplex virus central nervous system [CNS] disease) were tested for HCMV DNA, antigen, and antibodies. Eleven of these patients were found to be positive for virus DNA and/or antigen in peripheral blood leukocytes. Additionally, HCMV DNA was detected in the CSF of two patients with noninflammatory CNS diseases. A causative role of HCMV in the CNS diseases of these two patients was not evident. In summary, HCMV DNA amplification from CSF samples is a very suitable method to verify HCMV-associated encephalitis, but it should be taken into consideration that there are few cases of positive PCR with DNA from CSF without any known clinical correlative.
Developing All-Skyrmion Spiking Neural Network

In this work, we have proposed a revolutionary neuromorphic computing methodology to implement All-Skyrmion Spiking Neural Network (AS-SNN). Such proposed methodology is based on our finding that skyrmion is a topological stable spin texture and its spatiotemporal motion along the magnetic nano-track intuitively interprets the pulse signal transmission between two interconnected neurons. In such design, spike train in SNN could be encoded as particle-like skyrmion train and further processed by the proposed skyrmion-synapse and skyrmion-neuron within the same magnetic nano-track to generate output skyrmion as post-spike. Then, both pre-neuron spikes and post-neuron spikes are encoded as particle-like skyrmions without conversion between charge and spin signals, which fundamentally differentiates our proposed design from other hybrid Spin-CMOS designs. The system level simulation shows 87.1% inference accuracy for handwritten digit recognition task, while the energy dissipation is ~1 fJ/per spike which is 3 orders smaller in comparison with CMOS based IBM TrueNorth system.
En-LDA: An Novel Approach to Automatic Bug Report Assignment with Entropy Optimized Latent Dirichlet Allocation

With the increasing number of bug reports coming into the open bug repository, it is impossible to triage bug reports manually by software managers. This paper proposes a novel approach called En-LDA (Entropy optimized Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA)) for automatic bug report assignment. Specifically, we propose entropy to optimize the number of topics of the LDA model and further use the entropy optimized LDA to capture the expertise and interest of developers in bug resolution. A developer’s interest in a topic is modeled by the number of the developer’s comments on bug reports of the topic divided by the number of all the developer’s comments. A developer’s expertise in a topic is modeled by the number of the developer’s comments on bug reports of the topic divided by the number of all developers’ comments on the topic. Given a new bug report, En-LDA recommends a ranked list of developers who are potentially adequate to resolve the new bug. Experiments on Eclipse JDT and Mozilla Firefox projects show that En-LDA can achieve high recall up to 84% and 58%, and precision up to 28% and 41%, respectively, which indicates promising aspects of the proposed approach.
Structure and orientation of the antibiotic peptide magainin in membranes by solid‐state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Magainin 2 is a 23‐residue peptide that forms an amphipathic α‐helix in membrane environments. It functions as an antibiotic and is known to disrupt the electrochemical gradients across the cell membranes of many bacteria, fungi, and some tumor cells, although it does not lyse red blood cells. One‐ and two‐dimensional solid‐state 15N NMR spectra of specifically 15N‐labeled magainin 2 in oriented bilayer samples show that the secondary structure of essentially the entire peptide is α‐helix, immobilized by its interactions with the phospholipids, and oriented parallel to the membrane surface.
Ambient air measurement of acrolein and other carbonyls at the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge toll plaza.

Interest in ambient concentrations of acrolein and other alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes and dicarbonyls (e.g., crotonaldehyde, methyl glyoxal, glyoxal, malonaldehyde (malondialdehyde)) is growing because either they exist at high levels in motor vehicle emissions or they arise from photooxidation of other hydrocarbons emitted from mobile sources. In addition, their mutagenic, genotoxic, or carcinogenic properties are well-established, and the results of a dispersion-modeling study regarding the health risks posed by the 188 hazardous air pollutants in California attributes the highest noncancer risk to exposure to acrolein. Such modeling studies, conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), also predict median ambient air concentrations of acrolein higher than 0.06 microg/m3, the chronic inhalation reference exposure level stipulated by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in counties surrounding the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge. We measured acrolein and other potentially toxic carbonyls in air sampled at the San Francisco Bay Bridge toll plaza during rush hour traffic, which may be considered a "worst case scenario" for outdoor airborne carbonyls. We identified 36 carbonyls in the sample extracts, including 14 saturated aliphatic carbonyls, six unsaturated carbonyls, four aromatic carbonyls, six dicarbonyls, and six hydroxy carbonyls. Structural information to support tentative identification of carbonyls and hydroxycarbonyls was obtained by using a method that involves O-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl)hydroxylamine (PFBHA) and PFBHA/bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA) derivatization in concert with gas chromatography/ion trap mass spectrometry. Most notably, we report for the first time the presence of malonaldehyde in the ambient atmospheric environment. A relatively linear relationship between retention time and the molecular weight of the derivatives was established to assist in obtaining structural information about chemicals for which authentic standards are not readily available. Levels of acrolein exceeded the California reference exposure level during morning rush hour traffic. The measured values, however, were significantly lower than estimates of county-wide average acrolein concentrations predicted by a U.S. EPA modeling study based on 1996 data. Successful regulatory efforts such as the introduction of reformulated gasoline, together with the advancement of new catalysts and fleet turnover throughout the 1990s, are likely to account for part of the gap between our determination and the 1996 levels.
Mass Rapid Transit System Passenger Traffic Forecast Using a Re-Sample Recurrent Neural Network

In this study, we developed a model re-sample Recurrent Neural Network (RRNN) to forecast passenger traffic on Mass Rapid Transit Systems (MRT). The Recurrent Neural Network was applied to build a model to perform passenger traffic prediction, where the forecast task was transformed into a classification task. However, in this process, the training dataset usually ended up being imbalanced. To address this dataset imbalance, our research proposes re-sample Recurrent Neural Network. A case study of the California Mass Rapid Transit System revealed that the model introduced in this work could timely and effectively predict passenger traffic of MRT. The measurements of passenger traffic themselves were also studied and showed that the new method provided a good understanding of the level of passenger traffic and was able to achieve prediction accuracy upwards of 90% higher than standard tests. The development of this model adds value to the methodology of traffic applications by employing these Recurrent Neural Networks.
Internet addiction assessment tools: dimensional structure and methodological status.

AIMS Excessive internet use is becoming a concern, and some have proposed that it may involve addiction. We evaluated the dimensions assessed by, and psychometric properties of, a range of questionnaires purporting to assess internet addiction. METHODS Fourteen questionnaires were identified purporting to assess internet addiction among adolescents and adults published between January 1993 and October 2011. Their reported dimensional structure, construct, discriminant and convergent validity and reliability were assessed, as well as the methods used to derive these. RESULTS Methods used to evaluate internet addiction questionnaires varied considerably. Three dimensions of addiction predominated: compulsive use (79%), negative outcomes (86%) and salience (71%). Less common were escapism (21%), withdrawal symptoms (36%) and other dimensions. Measures of validity and reliability were found to be within normally acceptable limits. CONCLUSIONS There is a broad convergence of questionnaires purporting to assess internet addiction suggesting that compulsive use, negative outcome and salience should be covered and the questionnaires show adequate psychometric properties. However, the methods used to evaluate the questionnaires vary widely and possible factors contributing to excessive use such as social motivation do not appear to be covered.
Environmental and health aspects of coal and biomass co-combustion ashes

Co-combustion is an important aspect of power generation from coal in the Netherlands and becomes increasingly important in the rest of Europe as well. To study these aspects several ashes have been sampled for many years under different firing conditions in test series, mostly at power plants. These ashes were analyzed and its properties assessed. Occupational health aspects discussed in this paper include respirable quartz, Cr(VI) and exposure to heavy metals and organics. The environmental aspects discussed in this paper include leaching, and composition with respect to PAH's, dioxins, other organics and heavy metals. Fly ash must be utilized in the Netherlands since landfill is prohibited. Fly ashes can be utilized as a building material for which insulation measures are to be applied. It is shown in this paper that co-combustion does not negatively influence occupational health and environmental aspects of fly ash. Coal and co-combustion ashes do not classify as hazardous waste according to the European Waste Catalogue. Ashes have been registered according to the newly introduced European REACH regulation as a substance without any hazard classification.
A realistic joint limit algorithm for kinematically redundant manipulators

There have been many researches on the joint limit algorithm exploiting kinematic redundancy in kinematically redundant manipulators. Existing joint limit algorithms tend to minimize the distance between the current joint angle and the middle angle of the given joint range. However, strictly speaking, these algorithms control the joint angle to come close to the middle angle, but sometimes this algorithm does not fully utilize the entire motion range of joints and consumes relatively large energy. Therefore, this paper proposes a new joint limit algorithm that not only prevents the joint limit violation, but also utilizes the wide motion range of joints. Two exemplary manipulator models having kinematic redundancy are employed to show the feasibility of the proposed algorithm.
Team‐Based Learning and Training Transfer: A Case Study of Training for the Implementation of Enterprise Resources Planning Software

While traditional models of training such as behavioral modeling (BMT) have been found to enhance training transfer, research suggests that more active learning strategies such as error management (EMT) and team-based learning (TBL) may be more effective. This paper analyzes BMT, EMT and TBL strategies to train employees on new enterprise resources planning (ERP) software and discusses which training leads to successful procedural and declarative knowledge transfer, knowledge retention and application, and tangible business outcomes. TBL was predicted to be the most effective training type, as it models several components needed to use ERP software in the actual job setting. Overall and procedural knowledge as well as knowledge application scores improved most for TBL participants, while declarative knowledge improved the most in the EMT condition. During training, all conditions showed significant improvement in knowledge application; however, the TBL condition showed the highest knowledge application gains. This paper discusses the elements of TBL that support its use as an effective strategy to increase knowledge transfer in an organizational context.