Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computational identification of potential multitarget treatments for ameliorating the adverse effects of amyloid-β on synaptic plasticity

The leading hypothesis on Alzheimer Disease (AD) is that it is caused by buildup of the peptide amyloid-β (Aβ), which initially causes dysregulation of synaptic plasticity and eventually causes destruction of synapses and neurons. Pharmacological efforts to limit Aβ buildup have proven ineffective, and this raises the twin challenges of understanding the adverse effects of Aβ on synapses and of suggesting pharmacological means to prevent them. The purpose of this paper is to initiate a computational approach to understanding the dysregulation by Aβ of synaptic plasticity and to offer suggestions whereby combinations of various chemical compounds could be arrayed against it. This data-driven approach confronts the complexity of synaptic plasticity by representing findings from the literature in a course-grained manner, and focuses on understanding the aggregate behavior of many molecular interactions. The same set of interactions is modeled by two different computer programs, each written using a different programming modality: one imperative, the other declarative. Both programs compute the same results over an extensive test battery, providing an essential crosscheck. Then the imperative program is used for the computationally intensive purpose of determining the effects on the model of every combination of ten different compounds, while the declarative program is used to analyze model behavior using temporal logic. Together these two model implementations offer new insights into the mechanisms by which Aβ dysregulates synaptic plasticity and suggest many drug combinations that potentially may reduce or prevent it.
MEDIA MASSA DAN KONSTRUKSI REALITAS (Analisis Framing Terhadap Pemberitaan SKB Menteri Tentang Ahmadiyah di Indonesia pada Suratkabar Harian Suara Pembaruan dan Republika)

Ahmadiyah issue in Indonesia drew an attention of mass media. The main problem was about question whether Ahmadiyah activity was part of the freedom of faith or blasphemy. This paper dealt with mass media construction about this case. Object of study was Suara Pembaruan and Republika daily newspaper. This study was conducted by framing analysis and by referring to the theory of social construction. Analytical technic used was introduced by Gerald Zongdang and Pan Kosicky. This study resulted that Suara Pembaruan regarded Ahmadiyah activity as part of faith freedom. Meanwhile, Republika regarded Ahmadiyah activity as a blasphemy to basic islamic principles. Suara Pembaruan urged government to be consistent to uphold constitution and guarantee all citizen to practice their own faith freely. Ministerial collective decree on Ahmadiyah was not solution. On the contrary, Republika recommended government to issue the decree as soon as possible . Persoalan eksistensi Jamaah Ahmadiyah Indonesia (JAI) sampai saat ini menarik perhatian media massa. Persoalan utamanya adalah apakah aktivitas Ahmadiyah bagian dari kebebasan beragama atau penodaan agama. Tulisan ini akan membahas tentang bagaimana sikap media massa ( Suara Pembaruan dan Republika ) terkait masalah Ahmadiyah yang dikonstruksi melalui framing. Dengan mengacu pada teori konstruksi realitas, penelitian ini dilakukan dengan cara melakukan analisis wacana dengan teknik analisis yang diperkenalkan oleh Gerald Zongdang dan Pan Kosicky. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa Suara Pembaruan memandang bahwa persoalan Ahmadiyah ini menyangkut persoalan HAM/kebebasan beragama. Republika justru memandang sebaliknya, aktivitas Ahmadiyah sebagai bentuk penistaan, pelecehan, penyimpangan, serta penodaan terhadap pokok-pokok ajaran Islam. Sikap yang harus diambil pemerintah menurut Suara Pembaruan adalah pemerintah konsisten menjaga konstitusi dan menjamin seluruh warga negara bebas menjalankan agama dan keyakinannya. SKB menteri bukanlah solusi. Republika justru secara tegas menyatakan pemerintah sebaiknya segera mengeluarkan SKB Ahmadiyah.
Wound Healing Effect of Ocimum sanctum Leaves Extract in Diabetic Rats

— Delayed wound healing in diabetes is primarily associated with hyperglycemia, over-expression of inflammatory marker, oxidative stress and delayed collagen synthesis. This unmanaged wound is producing high economic burden on the society. Thus research is required to develop new and effective treatment strategies to deal with this emerging issue. Our present study incorporates the evaluation of wound healing effects of 50% ethanol extract of Ocimum sanctum (OSE) in streptozotocin (45mg/kg)-induced diabetic rats with concurrent wound ulcer. The animals showing diabetes (Blood glucose level >140 and <250 mg/dL) will be selected for wound healing study using standard dead space wound model. Wounds were created by implanting two polypropylene tubes (0.5 x 2.5 cm 2 each), one on either side in the lumbar region on the dorsal surface of each rat. On the 10 th post-wounding day, the animals were sacrificed and granulation tissue formed on the implanted tubes was carefully dissected out and study the status of antioxidants (Superoxide dismutase, SOD and Glutathione, GSH) free radicals (Lipid peroxidation, LPO and nitric oxide, NO) acute inflammatory marker (myeloperoxidase, MPO) connective tissue determinants, hydroxyproline, hexosamine and hexuronic acid, which play a major role in wound healing and diabetes. Besides the anti-diabetic parameters (estimation of serum blood glucose, triglycerides and total cholesterol), the above parameters for wound healing were studied both in normal, untreated and OSE treated diabetic rats. The effects of extract on above parameters will be compared with known standard antioxidant (Vitamin E) and anti-diabetic (Glybenclamide) drugs. OSE 400 mg/kg substantiated by significantly decreased serum blood glucose, triglycerides and total cholesterol. OSE also decrease granulation tissue free radicals (LPO, 58.1% and NO, 52.7%) and myeloperoxidase (MPO, 63.3%), and enhanced antioxidants (GSH, and SOD, 201.1%) (cid:0) and connective tissue markers (hydroxyproline, 169.2%; hexuronic acid, 156.7% and hexosamine, 134.3%) with histological evidence. Ocimum sanctum seems to promote wound healing by enhancing connective tissue formation and antioxidants status with decrease in blood glucose level, free radicals and myeloperoxidase.
Value Co-Creation through Learning Styles Segmentation and Integrated Course Design.

This paper describes an innovative Principles of Marketing course design and delivery which matches learning and teaching styles, while reducing multi-section variation. Value cocreation is encouraged by instructors and students collaborating in the creation of customized learning experiences which facilitates both teaching style and learning style preferences. Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning theory guided the learning styles segmentation, and pedagogy effectiveness was assessed based on Biggs, Kember and Leung’s (2001) Study Process Questionnaire. Student comments and instructor assessment supplemented the survey data. Congruent with motivation theory our empirical results indicate that increased autonomy and value co-creation in learning enhances student motivation and attitudes which lead to the use of more meaningful study strategies and greater perceived learning. Learning styles segmentation allow educators to better understand their students and help meet the heterogeneous learning and teaching style preferences by deploying course designs that allow value co-creation by both instructors and students.
Identifying modules via concept analysis

Describes a general technique for identifying modules in legacy code. The method is based on concept analysis-a branch of lattice theory that can be used to identify similarities among a set of objects based on their attributes. We discuss how concept analysis can identify potential modules using both “positive” and “negative” information. We present an algorithmic framework to construct a lattice of concepts from a program, where each concept represents a potential module
No hay saber "universal", la colaboración intercultural es imprescindible

En algunos ambitos significativos –en los cuales se producen representaciones de la idea de "ciencia", se elaboran y aplican politicas de ciencia, o se realiza investigacion cientifica y se imparte formacion academica–nos encontramos con referencias explicitas o implicitas a la presunta existencia de dos clases de saber, uno de los cuales tendria validez "universal", mientras que el otro (diverso en su interior) no la tendria; tales alusiones son frecuentes y tienen efectos practicos sobre nuestro trabajo academico. Reconocer esta situacion demanda que, aunque autores tan significativos como Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault y Tomas Kuhn, entre otros, hayan criticado desde distintas perspectivas esas pretensiones universalistas, y aunque muchos de nosotros a partir de diferentes experiencias hayamos llegado a conclusiones convergentes al respecto, profundicemos los debates sobre el tema. El presente articulo responde a ese proposito y lo hace procurando integrar en la argumentacion ideas y propuestas formuladas por algunos destacados intelectuales que se autoidentifican como indigenas. Adicionalmente, explora algunos retos, posibilidades y dificultades de la colaboracion intercultural en la produccion de conocimiento
An ISO-based software process ontology pattern language and its application for harmonizing standards

Many efforts have been made for modeling and standardizing software processes. ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7, the ISO sub-committee responsible for software and systems engineering, is one of the most important groups devoted to this task. However, standards developed by this committee are frequently inconsistent and even contradictory. This led to the need for an ISO Study Group to investigate the creation of an ontological infrastructure to establish a common conceptualization for underpinning all SC7 standards. This ISO initiative is a work in progress, which has focused on the software process domain and, in particular, considering the ISO/IEC 24744 standard. In this paper, we advocate in favor of using an Ontology Pattern Language (OPL) as the main component of this ontological infrastructure. We present ISP-OPL (ISO-based Software Process OPL), an OPL that can be applied as a basis for harmonizing software process-related ISO standards, favoring reuse when building aligned specific software process ontologies for Software Engineering sub-domains. In order to evaluate its applicability, we conducted an experiment involving seven domain ontologies, developed using ISP-OPL.
Antibacterial activity of endophytic fungi from leaves of Indigofera suffruticosa Miller (Fabaceae)

Endophytic fungi were isolated from healthy leaves of Indigofera suffruticosa Miller, a medicinal plant found in Brazil which is used in folk medicine to treat various diseases. Among 65 endophytic fungi isolated, 18 fungi showed activity against at least one tested microorganism in preliminary screening, and the best results were obtained with Nigrospora sphaerica (URM-6060) and Pestalotiopsis maculans (URM-6061). After fermentation in liquid media and in semisolid media, only N. sphaerica demonstrated antibacterial activity (in Potato Dextrose Broth-PDB and in semisolid rice culture medium). In the next step, a methanolic extract from rice culture medium (NsME) and an ethyl acetate extract (NsEAE) from the supernatant of PDB were prepared and both exhibited antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The best result was observed against Staphylococcus aureus, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values of 1.56 mg/mL and 6.25 mg/mL, respectively, for NsME and MIC and MBC values of 0.39 mg/mL and 3.12 mg/mL, respectively, for NsEAE. This study is the first report about the antimicrobial activity of endophytic fungi residing in I. suffruticosa leaves, in which the fungus N. sphaerica demonstrated the ability to produce bioactive agents with pharmaceutical potential, and may provide a new lead in the pursuit of new biological sources of drug candidates.
Differing effects of attention in single-units and populations are well predicted by heterogeneous tuning and the normalization model of attention

Single-unit measurements have reported many different effects of attention on contrast-response (e.g., contrast-gain, response-gain, additive-offset dependent on visibility), while functional imaging measurements have more uniformly reported increases in response across all contrasts (additive-offset). The normalization model of attention elegantly predicts the diversity of effects of attention reported in single-units well-tuned to the stimulus, but what predictions does it make for more realistic populations of neurons with heterogeneous tuning? Are predictions in accordance with population-scale measurements? We used functional imaging data from humans to determine a realistic ratio of attention-field to stimulus-drive size (a key parameter for the model) and predicted effects of attention in a population of model neurons with heterogeneous tuning. We found that within the population, neurons well-tuned to the stimulus showed a response-gain effect, while less-well-tuned neurons showed a contrast-gain effect. Averaged across the population, these disparate effects of attention gave rise to additive-offsets in contrast-response, similar to reports in human functional imaging as well as population averages of single-units. Differences in predictions for single-units and populations were observed across a wide range of model parameters (ratios of attention-field to stimulus-drive size and the amount of baseline response modifiable by attention), offering an explanation for disparity in physiological reports. Thus, by accounting for heterogeneity in tuning of realistic neuronal populations, the normalization model of attention can not only predict responses of well-tuned neurons, but also the activity of large populations of neurons. More generally, computational models can unify physiological findings across different scales of measurement, and make links to behavior, but only if factors such as heterogeneous tuning within a population are properly accounted for.
Feature Selection using Associative Memory Paradigm and Parallel Computing

Performance of most pattern classifiers is improved when redundant or irrelevant features are removed. Nevertheless, this is mainly achieved by highly demanding computational methods or successive classifiers' construction. This paper shows how the associative memory paradigm and parallel computing can be used to perform Feature Selection tasks. This approach uses associative memories in order to get a mask value which represents a subset of features which clearly identifies irrelevant or redundant information for classification purposes. The performance of the proposed associative memory algorithm is validated by comparing classification accuracy of the suggested model against the performance achieved by other well-known algorithms. Experimental results show that associative memories can be implemented in parallel computing infrastructure, reducing the computational costs needed to find an optimal subset of features which maximizes classification performance.
Reactivity of Soluble Fibrin Assays with Plasmic Degradation Products of Fibrin and in Patients Receiving Fibrinolytic Therapy

Summary The ability to identify the products of thrombin and plasmin action on fibrinogen is important in patients with thrombotic and fibrinolytic disorders. New assays have been developed for “soluble fibrin” which represents soluble derivatives other than fibrinopeptides formed from fibrinogen by thrombin. These assays are either immunological, using antibodies for fibrin-specific neoepitopes, or functional and based on the cofactor activity of soluble fibrin in the tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA)-mediated conversion of plasminogen to plasmin. As plasmic derivations of fibrin share structural features with soluble fibrin, they may be reactive with assays for soluble fibrin. Therefore, we prepared plasmic digests of fibrin and determined the degree of reactivity with four soluble fibrin assays. Three assays used Mabs directed toward the fibrin-specific neoepitopes at α17-23 (A), γ312-324 (B) and α17-78 (D). A fourth (C) was based on t-PA co-factor activity. Tests A and C demonstrated marked crossreactivity with fibrin degradation products, and digests containing the largest derivatives showed greatest reactivity. Plasmic derivatives of crosslinked fibrin had greater reactivity than those of non-crosslinked fibrin. Tests B and D demonstrated minimal reactivity with plasmic derivatives of crosslinked or of non-crosslinked fibrin. Samples from patients with lower limb peripheral arterial occlusion were assayed for soluble fibrin, D-dimer and fibrinogen at presentation and eight hours after thrombolytic therapy. Variable results were seen at presentation with elevations in 13, 1, 0 and 4 of 19 patients using Tests A, B, C and D, respectively. After fibrinolytic therapy, marked increases in soluble fibrin levels were observed up to 600-fold above normal. A strong correlation between baseline levels was observed with Test B and Test D, which showed the least cross-reactivity with plasmic derivations. After thrombolytic therapy there were either weak or no correlations among the different assays. The results demonstrate that assays for soluble fibrin may react with plasmic derivatives of fibrin and this must be considered in interpreting clinical results.
Modular redundancy in a message passing system

Modular redundancy in the form of replicated computations in a concurrent programming model consisting of communicating sequential processes is investigated. Some conditions are given which must always be verified to ensure correctness in the presence of nondeterminism. Then some implementations which satisfy the given conditions are proposed. This approach permits redundant systems to be robust with respect to failures in redundant processors, and also permits the use of software fault tolerance techniques such as N-version programming. The concurrent programming model which has been chosen is based on a set of active entities, i.e. processes, each running in a local protected environment. The processes interact using message passing only.
MR imaging of carcinoma of the vulva.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to describe the MR imaging features of cancer of the vulva and to determine the accuracy of MR imaging in staging the disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS We reviewed the MR images of 22 patients (range, 21-85 years; median, 74 years) with cancer of the vulva who were treated at our institution between 1995 and 2000. Note was made of the primary tumor size, site, signal characteristics, enhancement, and local extension and of lymph node number, size, and position. The MR imaging features were correlated with surgical and pathologic findings. RESULTS The tumors were isointense to muscle on T1-weighted images and showed intermediate-to-high signal intensity on T2-weighted scans. After IV gadolinium was administered to four patients, tumor enhancement was seen in two (50%). MR imaging correctly staged the primary site in 14 (70%) of the 20 patients. If superficial inguinal nodes 10 mm or greater in short-axis diameter are considered abnormal, then the sensitivity for detection of malignant nodes was 40% and the specificity, 97%. If deep inguinal nodes 8 mm or greater in short-axis diameter are considered abnormal, then the sensitivity for detection of malignant nodes was 50% and the specificity, 100%. CONCLUSION MR imaging is highly specific for the detection of nodal involvement in patients with cancer of the vulva but correlates only moderately with clinicopathologic staging of the primary tumor.
Robust stability of polynomial fuzzy systems with time-delay

This paper investigates the problem of robust stability of polynomial fuzzy systems with time delay. This study is based on a polynomial Lyapunov-Krasovskii Functional and presents stability conditions of polynomial fuzzy models with uncertainties in terms of Sum Of Squares (SOS). The established results depend on the size of time delay which improve previous works and reduce the conservatism. The proposed SOS approach is more innovative and effective than the existing (LMI) linear matrix inequality based approaches. Designed stability conditions can be solved via SOSTOOLS toolbox and numerical examples are presented to illustrate the validity of the suggested approach.
A digitally trimmable low-noise low-power analog front-end for EEG signal acquisition

This paper presents a digitally trimmable low-noise low-power amplifier for EEG signal acquisition. The gain is 3-bit programmable from 54.2dB to 72.3dB and the high cutoff frequency can be adjusted using 3 bits from 152Hz to 360Hz. A T-network capacitor structure is proposed to reduce the capacitor area on chip. By increasing the size of the input transistors and operating MOS transistors in the subthreshold region, low noise and low power consumption can be achieved. Simulation shows the input referred noise of the system is 2.2 μVrms from 0.1Hz to 360Hz, and the current consumption of the amplifier is 700nA at 1.8V supply, and the NEF is 3.54. The amplifier is under fabrication using a TSMC 0. 18μm 1P6M CMOS process. It has been shown that this low-noise, low-power amplifier is suitable for a portable EEG acquisition device.
Who are the Players? Finding and Characterizing Stakeholders in Social Networks

Technological advances and the generalized use of the Internet provide the necessary conditions to exploit social networks. These inter-organizational systems involve several players, with different influences, roles and interests. To design social networks it is critical to identify its stakeholders. Neglecting their presence can hide network threats that can compromise its success, as well as the development or acceptance of its supporting information system. We present an approach for carrying out stakeholder identification considering the specific demands of social networks. We sought inspiration in stakeholder identification criteria for inter-organizational environments, in social network analysis, in business model theories, and in social theories. The result was an iterative approach that systematically helps refining the stakeholder set, their roles, and the social network context. We illustrate the use of our proposal through its application to Facebook.