Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Radical-Scavenging Activity of a Sunscreen Enriched by Antioxidants Providing Protection in the Whole Solar Spectral Range

Background/Aim: The main reason for extrinsic skin aging is the negative action of free radicals. The formation of free radicals in the skin has been associated with ultraviolet (UV) exposure and also to visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) irradiations. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of a sunscreen in the whole solar range. Methods: The radical-scavenging activity of a sunscreen in the UV, VIS, and NIR ranges was evaluated using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Ex vivo penetration profiles were determined using confocal Raman microscopy on porcine ear skin at different time points after application. Results: Compared to the untreated skin, the sunscreen decreased the skin radical formation in the UV and VIS regions. Additional protection in the VIS and NIR ranges was observed for the sunscreen containing antioxidants (AO). The penetration depth of the cream was less than 11.2 ± 3.0 µm for all time points. Conclusion: A sunscreen containing AO improved the photoprotection in the VIS and NIR ranges. The sunscreen was retained in the stratum corneum. Therefore, these results show the possibility of the development of effective and safer sunscreen products.
Clinical Characteristics of Pulmonary Hypertension in Patients With Heart Failure and Preserved Ejection Fraction

Background— Pulmonary vascular disease associated with left-side heart failure and preserved ejection fraction (PH-HFpEF) is an increasingly common cause of pulmonary hypertension. The distinction between PH-HFpEF and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is important because therapies indicated for PAH can be detrimental in HFpEF. The characteristic features of PH-HFpEF are understudied. Methods and Results— In a cross-sectional study, we compared the clinical, echocardiographic, and hemodynamic features of PH-HFpEF (n=100), with PAH (n=522), and HFpEF without pulmonary vascular disease (n=45). We determined the clinical characteristics that best differentiated PH-HFpEF from PAH. Compared with patients with PAH, patients with PH-HFpEF were older; had a higher prevalence of cardiovascular comorbidities; had worse exercise capacity and renal function; more frequently had left atrial enlargement; and less frequently had right atrial enlargement. PH was less severe in PH-HFpEF patients than in PAH patients (pulmonary vascular resistance 4.8 [interquartile range 3 to 8.4] versus 10.9 [interquartile range 7.4 to 15.7] Wood units; P<0.001). Old age, the presence of hypertension and coronary artery disease, the absence of right atrial enlargement, higher aortic systolic pressure, higher mean right atrial pressure, and higher cardiac output best differentiated PH-HFpEF from PAH (area under the receiver operating characteristics curve; curve 0.97). Compared with HFpEF patients without pulmonary hypertension, PH-HFpEF patients were often female and more symptomatic, more often had right ventricular hypertrophy and right atrial enlargement, and had higher right atrial pressure. Conclusions— These data should help better identify PH-HFpEF, an entity that has become increasingly recognized and difficult to treat.
sti35, a stress-responsive gene in Fusarium spp

A stress-induced mRNA was identified in the phytopathogenic fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum. Treatment of the fungus with ethanol resulted in the induction of a major mRNA species encoding a protein of approximate Mr 37,000. A full-length cDNA clone of the induced message was obtained. RNA blot analysis indicated that the mRNA was induced by various other stresses, including treatment with copper(II) chloride and heat (37 degrees C). However, it was not greatly induced by treatment with phaseollinisoflavan, an antifungal isoflavonoid produced by Phaseolus vulgaris (French bean). In contrast, phaseollinisoflavan induced the homologous mRNA in the related bean pathogen Fusarium solani f. sp. phaseoli. A genomic clone of the F. solani f. sp. phaseoli gene was obtained, and both this and the cDNA clone from F. oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum were sequenced. The latter indicated an open reading frame of 320 codons encoding a 34,556-dalton polypeptide. The corresponding reading frame in F. solani f. sp. phaseoli was 324 codons, 89% identical to the F. oxysporum f. sp. cucumerium sequence, and was interrupted by a short intron. The gene was designated sti35 (stress-inducible mRNA). Although computer homology searches were negative, the cloned gene was observed to cross-hybridize to DNAs of other filamentous fungi, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and soybean. Thus, sti35 appears to be a common gene among a variety of eucaryotes.
OSKI: A library of automatically tuned sparse matrix kernels

The Optimized Sparse Kernel Interface (OSKI) is a collection of low-level primitives that provide automatically tuned computational kernels on sparse matrices, for use by solver libraries and applications. These kernels include sparse matrix-vector multiply and sparse triangular solve, among others. The primary aim of this interface is to hide the complex decisionmaking process needed to tune the performance of a kernel implementation for a particular user's sparse matrix and machine, while also exposing the steps and potentially non-trivial costs of tuning at run-time. This paper provides an overview of OSKI, which is based on our research on automatically tuned sparse kernels for modern cache-based superscalar machines.
The role of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in ocular surface disease pathogenesis after chemical burn in the murine eye

Purpose To evaluate the role of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in the wound healing process following severe chemical burns to the ocular surface. Methods Chemical burning of the ocular surface was induced in mice (C57BL/6) via the application of 0.1 M NaOH. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) mRNA expression in the ocular surface and lacrimal gland was evaluated via real-time reverse transcription PCR on days 2, 7, and 30 after induction of the chemical burn. The expression of MIF protein in the ocular surface and lacrimal gland was evaluated via western blot analysis. Immunohistochemical staining was conducted to detect MIF and vasculoendothelial growth factor in the cornea during the wound healing process. The angiogenic role of MIF was further evaluated using an 8–0 polyglactin suture technique to induce corneal neovascularization. Results MIF, TNF-α, and IL-1β mRNA expression were elevated significantly in the ocular surface up to day 30 after chemical burn induction. TNF-α alone was elevated in the lacrimal gland. MIF protein elevation was confirmed via western blot analysis, and the spatial similarity of MIF and VEGF expression in the cornea was noted during the wound healing process. 8–0 polyglactin sutures soaked in MIF induced significantly higher numbers of new vessels on the mouse cornea after 7 days (p=0.003, Mann–Whitney test). Conclusions These findings indicate that MIF performs a crucial role in wound healing on the ocular surface after the induction of chemical burns.
Changing Attitudes Taward Disabled Individuals: The Effect of One Disabled Person

The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which attitudes toward disabled persons could be changed by equal status, close personal contact with one physically disabled person. Subjects included 41 undergraduate students from a university setting who participated in an instructional racquetball class. Analysis of data from the Attitude Toward Disabled Persons Scale and a surVey questionnaire revealed significant differences (p < .05) between the experimental and control group on two variables which related to the degree of integration among disabled and nondisabled individuals in recreational and competitive sports settings.
Making intra-domain routing robust to changing and uncertain traffic demands: understanding fundamental tradeoffs

Intra-domain traffic engineering can significantly enhance the performance of large IP backbone networks. Two important components of traffic engineering are understanding the traffic demandsand configuring the routing protocols. These two components are inter-linked, as it is widely believed that an accurate view of traffic is important for optimizing the configuration of routing protocols and through that, the utilization of the network.This basic premise, however, never seems to have been quantified --How important is accurate knowledge of traffic demands for obtaining good utilization of the network? Since traffic demand values are dynamic and illusive, is it possible to obtain a routing that is "robust" to variations in demands? Armed with enhanced recent algorithmic tools we explore these questions on a diverse collection of ISP networks. We arrive at a surprising conclusion: it is possible to obtain a robust routing that guarantees a nearly optimal utilization with a fairly limited knowledge of the applicable traffic demands.
The Effect of Disruptions on Vigilance

The goal habituation model of vigilance proposed by Ariga and Lleras (2011) posits that it is possible to attenuate the vigilance decrement (the decline in performance that occurs with time-on-task) through dis-habituation of a vigilance task's goal. The goal in a vigilance task is to detect critical signals. Hence, a switch away from this goal should dishabituate the task goal. When a person resumes the vigilance task, the person's performance should improve. Follow up studies to the Ariga and Lleras study have not found supporting evidence (Helton & Russell, 2011; 2012). The methods in these follow up studies differed from those of Ariga and Lleras in a number of ways. The present study attempts to replicate the original Ariga and Lleras (2011) work using methods that more closely follow the original study. The present research sought to uncover confounds in the original article through replicating the original task and manipulating variables in line with hypotheses made by attentional resource theory. Overall, the results of this research present a challenge to the goal habituation model. Rest breaks, not goal switching; lessened the magnitude of the decline in sensitivity with time on task, while task switching resulted in a temporary re-correction of increasingly conservative responding that occurred with greater time on task. We also found support for the context dependent relationship of task-unrelated thought, (TUT) and task demand. Given that the vigil was determined to impose relatively low workload, pre-task TUT was associated with average performance rather than post-task TUT. Finally, we discuss the dangers of over compliance with signal detection theory (SDT) measures. We explain that SDT sensitivity and bias measures are not independent given responding floor and ceiling effects during low demanding tasks such as the present. It is argued that this may have distorted the original conclusion arrived at by Ariga and Lleras (2011). (4) Mean hit rates per period by condition and the continuous vs.
SMT Versus AI Redux: How Semantic Frames Evaluate MT More Accurately

We argue for an alternative paradigm in evaluating machine translation quality that is strongly empirical but more accurately reflects the utility of translations, by returning to a representational foundation based on AI oriented lexical semantics, rather than the superficial flat n-gram and string representations recently dominating the field. Driven by such metrics as BLEU and WER, current SMT frequently produces unusable translations where the semantic event structure is mistranslated: who did what to whom, when, where, why, and how? We argue that it is time for a new generation of more intelligent automatic and semi-automatic metrics, based clearly on getting the structure right at the lexical semantics level. We show empirically that it is possible to use simple PropBank style semantic frame representations to surpass all currently widespread metrics' correlation to human adequacy judgments, including even HTER. We also show that replacing human annotators with automatic semantic role labeling still yields much of the advantage of the approach. We combine the best of both worlds: from an SMT perspective, we provide superior yet low-cost quantitative objective functions for translation quality; and yet from an AI perspective, we regain the representational transparency and clear reflection of semantic utility of structural frame-based knowledge representations.
Changes in biomass and chemical composition of spider crab (Hyas araneus) larvae reared in the laboratory

Larval and early post-larval growth has been investigated in H. araneus L. (Majidae) reared in the laboratory. Growth was measured as dry weight (DW), ash-free dry weight (AFDW), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), hydrogen (H), gross biochemical constituents (protein, lipid, carbohydrate, chitin, ash) and energy (calculated separately from carbon and biochemical composition). During larval development, i.e. from freshly hatched zoea-I to late megalopa, all these criteria of biomass increase by factors ranging between 5 and 14; carbohydrate shows the lowest, chitin the highest increment. There are indications of loss in organic body weight during the latest period preceding metamorphosis to the crab stage. When no food is offered during this time, megalopae lose significantly more biomass than control larvae. This suggests that food is still required, but feeding activity is reduced to a level below maintenance ingestion rate. Following metamorphosis, the juvenile crab accumulates biomass at a far higher absolute rate (expressed as µg/d) than all larval stages.
Assessment of Pancreatic β-Cell Function: Review of Methods and Clinical Applications

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is characterized by a progressive failure of pancreatic β-cell function (BCF) with insulin resistance. Once insulin over-secretion can no longer compensate for the degree of insulin resistance, hyperglycemia becomes clinically significant and deterioration of residual β-cell reserve accelerates. This pathophysiology has important therapeutic implications. Ideally, therapy should address the underlying pathology and should be started early along the spectrum of decreasing glucose tolerance in order to prevent or slow β-cell failure and reverse insulin resistance. The development of an optimal treatment strategy for each patient requires accurate diagnostic tools for evaluating the underlying state of glucose tolerance. This review focuses on the most widely used methods for measuring BCF within the context of insulin resistance and includes examples of their use in prediabetes and T2DM, with an emphasis on the most recent therapeutic options (dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists). Methods of BCF measurement include the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA); oral glucose tolerance tests, intravenous glucose tolerance tests (IVGTT), and meal tolerance tests; and the hyperglycemic clamp procedure. To provide a meaningful evaluation of BCF, it is necessary to interpret all observations within the context of insulin resistance. Therefore, this review also discusses methods utilized to quantitate insulin-dependent glucose metabolism, such as the IVGTT and the euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp procedures. In addition, an example is presented of a mathematical modeling approach that can use data from BCF measurements to develop a better understanding of BCF behavior and the overall status of glucose tolerance.
A Formal Model for Compensable Transactions

Different from traditional transactions, a compensable transaction relies on compensations to amend partial execution whenever an error occurs. The compensation is preserved on successful completion of its forward transaction for possibly later use. In this paper, we pay attention to the compositional structure of compensable transactions. Except for sequential and parallel compositions, other useful compositional constructs, such as speculative choice, exception handling, alternative forwarding and programmable compensation, are also investigated. All these constructs are not only devised to describe distinct business flow but also used to enhance the capability for dealing with errors, t-calculus is such a transactional language that involves a variety of primitives for composing compensable transactions in a wise way. We present a clear operational semantics for this language and the corresponding concept of bisimulation is defined, which is used to derive equational laws for compensable transactions.
Lensing-induced Structure of Submillimeter Sources: Implications for the Microwave Background

We consider the effect of lensing by galaxy clusters on the angular distribution of submillimeter wavelength objects. While lensing does not change the total flux and number counts of submillimeter sources, it can affect the number counts and fluxes of flux-limited samples. Therefore, imposing a flux cut on point sources not only reduces the overall Poisson noise, but imprints the correlations between lensing clusters on the unresolved flux distribution. Using a simple model, we quantify the lensing anisotropy induced in flux-limited samples and compare this to Poisson noise. We find that while the level of induced anisotropies on the scale of the cluster angular correlation length is comparable to Poisson noise for a slowly evolving cluster model, it is negligible for more realistic models of cluster evolution. Thus the removal of point sources is not expected to induce measurable structure in the microwave or far-infrared backgrounds.
Cultural Diversity and Individual Assessment for Behavior Disorders

The assessment of children for behavior disorders is complicated by a tangle of questions and issues. The problem is further confounded when cultural diversity must be considered. This article describes the nature of the problem, proposes a solution that focuses on modifying current practices, and provides specific recommendations for a functional approach to assessment. Three major caveats must be considered at the outset. First, school-relilted factors are emphasized, that is, variables that are alterable and are found to affect student learning directly (e.g., amounts of academic engagement, appropriateness of studentcurriculum fit, effectiveness of instructional practices). This is not to ignore child factors such as biological makeup or physical attributes or familial variables; however, other authors have addressed these factors (see, Brantlinger & Guskin, 1985; Chinn & McCormick, 1986; Cummins, 1984; Hilliard, 1980; Hoover & Collier, 1985). Second, emphasis is placed on assessment and evaluation efforts that are linked directly to the improvement of instruction, not on eligibility, diagnostic classifications, and placement decisions. Finally, although this discussion focuses on culturally diverse students and behavior disorders, the recommendations can be applied to all students being considered for special placements.
Quality indicators for all dimensions of infertility care quality: consensus between professionals and patients.

STUDY QUESTION What is the relative importance of the six dimensions of quality of care according to different stakeholders and can a quality indicator set address all six quality dimensions and incorporate the views from professionals working in different disciplines and from patients? SUMMARY ANSWER Safety, effectiveness and patient centeredness were the most important quality dimensions. All six quality dimensions can be assessed with a set of 24 quality indicators, which is face valid and acceptable according to both professionals from different disciplines and patients. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY To our knowledge, no study has weighted the relative importance of all quality dimensions to infertility care. Additionally, there are very few infertility care-specific quality indicators and no quality indicator set covers all six quality dimensions and incorporated the views of professionals and patients. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE AND DURATION A three-round iterative Delphi survey including patients and professionals from four different fields, conducted in two European countries over the course of 2011 and 2012. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTINGS AND METHODS Dutch and Belgian gynaecologists, embryologists, counsellors, nurses/midwifes and patients took part (n = 43 in round 1 and finally 30 in round 3). Respondents ranked the six quality dimensions twice for importance and their agreement was evaluated. Furthermore, in round 1, respondents gave suggestions, which were subsequently uniformly formulated as quality indicators. In rounds 2 and 3, respondents rated the quality indicators for preparedness to measure and for importance (relation to quality and prioritization for benchmarking). Providing feedback allowed selecting indicators based on consensus between stakeholder groups. Measurable indicators, important to all stakeholder groups, were selected for each quality dimension. MAIN RESULTS All stakeholder groups and most individuals agreed that safety, effectiveness and patient centeredness were the most important quality dimensions. A total of 498 suggestions led to the development of 298 indicators. Professionals were sufficiently prepared to measure 204 of these indicators. Based on importance, 52 (7-15 per dimension; round 2) and finally 24 (4 per dimension; round 3) quality indicators were selected. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION The final quality indicator set does not cover the entire care process, but rather takes a 'sample' of each quality dimension. Although the quality indicators are face valid and acceptable, their psychometric characteristics need to be tested by further research. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS Quality management should focus on safety, effectiveness and patient centeredness of care. Clinics can use the quality indicator set to assess all quality dimensions of their care.
Random walk based co-occurrence prediction in location-based social networks

In this paper, we propose a new version of the LBRW (Learning based Random Walk), LBRW-Co, for predicting users co-occurrence based on mobility homophily and social links. More precisely, we analyze and mine jointly spatio-temporal and social features with the aim to predict and rank users co-occurrences. Experiments are performed on the Foursquare LBSN with accurate and refined measurements. Experimental results demonstrate that our LBRW-Co model have substantial advantages over baseline approaches in predicting and ranking co-occurrence interactions.
Hospital power automation system using live gesture recognition

The power automation system, which can control almost everything that is powered by electricity in hospitals using live gesture recognition. In this proposed model the system uses a camera feed to detect the motion of hand, or any object. This movement of the object matched with the stored gestures to find the closest match and perform the corresponding actions associated with the gesture. This is a initiative for helping the physically disabled patients. This paper aims at providing an easy way for patients to control the equipment in hospitals, where they are unable to control it through switches or other medium because of physical disability.
Real-Time Rendering of Japanese Lacquerware

Japanese lacquerware has been used from long ago in Japanese daily life. Makie is a famous surface decoration technique using metallic powders, color pigments, and lacquer. We propose a method for real-time rendering of Makie. The optical properties of the Makie surface is represented using Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF). Sphere environment maps are generated for the real-time visualization of BRDFs. A photo of Makie designed on a flat surface is taken with a digital camera. Masking textures with alpha channels are made from the photo for blending sphere maps. Multipass texture blending is used for real-time visualization of Makie decoration on general PCs. Technical Area: Computer Graphics