Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
INTERSPECIES DIFFERENCES IN PHARMACOKINETICS AND METABOLISM OF S-3-(4-ACETYLAMINO-PHENOXY)-2-HYDROXY-2-METHYL-N-(4-NITRO-3-TRIFLUOROMETHYLPHENYL)-PROPIONAMIDE: THE ROLE OF N-ACETYLTRANSFERASE

N-Acetyltransferase (NAT) is one of the major phase II enzymes involved in drug metabolism. Both species differences and polymorphism are observed in NAT expression. During the preclinical development of a novel selective androgen receptor modulator, S-3-(4-acetylamino-phenoxy)-2-hydroxy-2-methyl-N-(4-nitro-3-trifluoromethyl-phenyl)-propionamide (S4), we also observed species differences in S4 metabolism due to the interaction between the deacetylation metabolite M1 and NAT, which converted M1 back to S4 both in vitro and in vivo. During incubation with human liver cytosol or rat liver S9 fraction in the presence of acetyl-CoA, more than 50% of M1 (2 μM) was converted back to S4, but this conversion was not observed in the incubation with dog liver S9 fraction or human liver microsome. In vivo pharmacokinetic experiments showed that M1 could be rapidly converted back to S4 in rats, but a similar conversion was not observed in dogs. When S4 was administered, the formation of M1 was only observed in dogs due to the absence of NAT expression. Simultaneous fitting of the concentration-time profiles of both S4 and M1 showed that more than 50% of S4 was deacetylated to M1 in dogs after i.v. administration of S4, whereas more than 80% of M1 was converted to S4 in rats after i.v. administration of M1. Considering the polymorphism in NAT expression, the interaction between M1 and NAT may raise concerns for drug-drug interactions during clinical applications of S4. The observed species differences suggested that interspecies scaling might not be applicable for predicting the metabolism and disposition of S4 in humans.
Temporal Data Management

A wide range of database applications manage time-varying information. Existing database technology currently provides little support for managing such data. The research area of temporal databases has made important contributions in characterizing the semantics of such information and in providing expressive and efficient means to model, store, and query temporal data. This paper introduces the reader to temporal data management, surveys stale-of-the-art solutions to challenging aspects of temporal data management, and points to research directions.
Fast Lifted MAP Inference via Partitioning

Recently, there has been growing interest in lifting MAP inference algorithms for Markov logic networks (MLNs). A key advantage of these lifted algorithms is that they have much smaller computational complexity than propositional algorithms when symmetries are present in the MLN and these symmetries can be detected using lifted inference rules. Unfortunately, lifted inference rules are sound but not complete and can often miss many symmetries. This is problematic because when symmetries cannot be exploited, lifted inference algorithms ground the MLN, and search for solutions in the much larger propositional space. In this paper, we present a novel approach, which cleverly introduces new symmetries at the time of grounding. Our main idea is to partition the ground atoms and force the inference algorithm to treat all atoms in each part as indistinguishable. We show that by systematically and carefully refining (and growing) the partitions, we can build advanced any-time and any-space MAP inference algorithms. Our experiments on several real-world datasets clearly show that our new algorithm is superior to previous approaches and often finds useful symmetries in the search space that existing lifted inference rules are unable to detect.
Smooth interpolation of rotational motions

The authors consider an object is undergoing rotational motions, with orientation known at given times, and wish to interpolate the orientation between those times. If the orientations are represented as unit quaternions, this is equivalent to interpolating among a sequence of points on the three-sphere in four-space. They present an algorithm for doing this smoothly. If the object possesses rotational symmetry, then its orientation is given by its axis, and can be represented as a point on the unit sphere in three-space. The problem of interpolating on the sphere is of interest in its own right, and has other applications. The authors have implemented an algorithm for this, and present graphical results. <<ETX>>
Development of array-type prompt gamma measurement system for in vivo range verification in proton therapy.

PURPOSE In vivo range verification is one of the most important parts of proton therapy to fully utilize its benefits delivering high radiation dose to tumor, while sparing the normal tissue with the so-called Bragg peak. Currently, however, range verification method is not used in clinics. The purpose of the present study is to optimize and evaluate the configuration of an array-type prompt gamma measurement system on determining distal dose edge for in vivo range verification of proton therapy. METHODS To effectively measure the prompt gammas against the background gammas, the Monte Carlo simulations with the MCNPX code were employed in optimizing the configuration of the measurement system, and the Monte Carlo method was also used to understand the effect of the background gammas, mainly neutron capture gammas, in the measured gamma distribution. To reduce the effect of the background gammas, the optimized energy window of 4-10 MeV in measuring the prompt gammas was employed. A parameterized source was used to maximize computation speed in the optimization study. A simplified test measurement system, using only one detector moving from one measurement location to the next, was constructed and applied to therapeutic proton beams of 80-220 MeV. For accurate determination of the distal dose edge, the sigmoidal curve-fitting method was applied to the measured distributions of the prompt gammas, and then, the location of the half-value between the maximum and minimum value in the curve-fitting was determined as the distal dose edge and compared with the beam range assessed by the proton dose distribution. RESULTS The parameterized source term employed in optimization process improved the calculation speed by up to ∼300 times. The optimization study indicates that an array-type measurement system with 3, 2, 2, and 150 mm for scintillator thickness, slit width, septal thickness, and slit length, respectively, can effectively measure the prompt gamma distributions minimizing the contribution of background gammas. The present results show that a few hundred counts of prompt gammas can be easily obtained by measuring 10 s at each measurement location for proton beams of ∼4 nA. The distal dose edges determined by the prompt gamma distribution are 5.45, 14.73, and 27.74 cm for proton beams of 5.17 (80 MeV), 14.99 (150 MeV), and 27.38 (220 MeV) cm, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The results show that the array-type measurement system can measure prompt gamma distributions from a therapeutic proton beam within a short measurement time, and that the distal dose edge can be determined within a few millimeters of error without using any sophisticated analysis.
HEMOGLOBIN AND PLASMA VITAMIN C LEVELS IN PATIENTS ON PERITONEAL DIALYSIS

♦ Objective: To determine the contribution of vitamin C (Vit C) status in relation to hemoglobin (Hb) levels in patients on long-term peritoneal dialysis (PD). ♦ Methods: 56 stable PD patients were evaluated in a cross-sectional survey. Plasma samples were collected for Vit C (analyzed by HPLC with electrochemical detection) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) determinations. Clinical records were reviewed for Hb, transferrin saturation (TSAT), ferritin, erythropoietin (EPO) dose, and other clinical parameters. Dietary Vit C intake was evaluated by patient survey and from patient records. Total Vit C removed during PD treatment was measured in 24-hour dialysate collections. ♦ Results: Patients showed a highly skewed distribution of plasma Vit C levels, with 40% of patients below normal plasma Vit C levels (<30 μmol/L) and 9% at higher than normal levels (>80 μmol/L). Higher plasma Vit C levels were associated with higher Hb levels (Pearson r = 0.33, p < 0.004). No direct connection between Vit C levels and reported dietary intake could be established. In stepwise multiple regression, plasma Vit C remained significantly associated with Hb (p = 0.017) but there was no significant association with other variables (dialysis vintage, age, ferritin, TSAT, hs-CRP, residual renal function, and EPO dose). In 9 patients that were evaluated for Vit C in dialysate, plasma Vit C was positively associated (Spearman r = 0.85, p = 0.01) with the amount of Vit C removed during dialysis treatment. ♦ Conclusions: These data indicate that plasma Vit C is positively associated with higher Hb level. Vit C status could play a major role in helping PD patients to utilize iron for erythropoiesis and achieve a better Hb response during anemia management.
Scalable and Portable Implementation of the Fast Multipole Method on Parallel Computers Long Write-up

A scalable and portable Fortran code is developed to calculate Coulomb interaction potentials of charged particles on parallel computers, based on the fast multipole method. The code has a unique feature to calculate microscopic stress tensors due to the Coulomb interactions, which is useful in constant-pressure simulations and local stress analyses. The code is applicable to various boundary conditions, including periodic boundary conditions in two and three dimensions, corresponding to slab and bulk systems, respectively. Numerical accuracy of the code is tested through comparison of its results with those obtained by the Ewald summation method and by direct calculations. Scalability tests show the parallel efficiency of 0.98 for 512 million charged particles on 512 IBM SP3 processors. The timing results on IBM SP3 are also compared with those on IBM SP4. Operating systems or monitors under which the program has been tested: LINUX with MPICH, IBM SP, SGI Origin Programming language used: Fortran77, C language preprocessor Has the code been vectorized or parallelized: parallelized using MPI Standard No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 16 167 ✩ This paper can be downloaded from the CPC Program Library under catalogue identifier: Distribution format: tar gzip file Nature of physical problem Parallel computations of Coulomb potentials, forces, and stress ten-sors for a collection of charged particles. Method of solution The fast multipole method. Typical running time Proportional to the number of charged points.
Myocilin Interacts with Syntrophins and Is Member of Dystrophin-associated Protein Complex*

Background: The non-ocular function(s) of myocilin, a glaucoma-associated protein, is not known. Results: Myocilin interacts with syntrophin, a component of dystrophin-associated protein complex (DAPC) and increases phosphorylation of several regulators of muscle size. Conclusion: Myocilin is involved in the muscle hypertrophy pathways acting through the components of DAPC. Significance: This is the first demonstration of myocilin functions in the skeletal muscles. Genetic studies have linked myocilin to open angle glaucoma, but the functions of the protein in the eye and other tissues have remained elusive. The purpose of this investigation was to elucidate myocilin function(s). We identified α1-syntrophin, a component of the dystrophin-associated protein complex (DAPC), as a myocilin-binding candidate. Myocilin interacted with α1-syntrophin via its N-terminal domain and co-immunoprecipitated with α1-syntrophin from C2C12 myotubes and mouse skeletal muscle. Expression of 15-fold higher levels of myocilin in the muscles of transgenic mice led to the elevated association of α1-syntrophin, neuronal nitric-oxide synthase, and α-dystroglycan with DAPC, which increased the binding of laminin to α-dystroglycan and Akt signaling. Phosphorylation of Akt and Forkhead box O-class 3, key regulators of muscle size, was increased more than 3-fold, whereas the expression of muscle-specific RING finger protein-1 and atrogin-1, muscle atrophy markers, was decreased by 79 and 88%, respectively, in the muscles of transgenic mice. Consequently, the average size of muscle fibers of the transgenic mice was increased by 36% relative to controls. We suggest that intracellular myocilin plays a role as a regulator of muscle hypertrophy pathways, acting through the components of DAPC.
Compact, thermal-noise-limited reference cavity for ultra-low-noise microwave generation.

We demonstrate an easy-to-manufacture 25-mm-long ultra-stable optical reference cavity for transportable photonic microwave generation systems. Employing a rigid holding geometry that is first-order insensitive to the squeezing force and a cavity geometry that improves the thermal noise limit at room temperature, we observe a laser phase noise that is nearly thermal noise limited for three frequency decades (1 Hz to 1 kHz offset) and supports 10 GHz generation with phase noise near -100 dBc/Hz at 1 Hz offset and <-173 dBc/Hz for all offsets >600 Hz. The fractional frequency stability reaches 2×10-15 at 0.1 s of averaging.
Functional Regulation of Sugar Assimilation by N-Glycan-specific Interaction of Pancreatic α-Amylase with Glycoproteins of Duodenal Brush Border Membrane*

Background: PPA binds to specific glycoprotein N-glycans. Results: Interaction between PPA and glycoligands in duodenum BBM activates glucose production while inhibiting glucose absorption by enterocytes. Conclusion: N-Glycans in BBM function as a target for α-amylase in order to control glucose assimilation via their interaction. Significance: We have discovered the modulatory role of BBM glycoprotein N-glycans, which contribute to blood glucose homeostasis. Porcine pancreatic α-amylase (PPA) binds to N-linked glycans of glycoproteins (Matsushita, H., Takenaka, M., and Ogawa, H. (2002) J. Biol Chem., 277, 4680–4686). Immunostaining revealed that PPA is located at the brush-border membrane (BBM) of enterocytes in the duodenum and that the binding is inhibited by mannan but not galactan, indicating that PPA binds carbohydrate-specifically to BBM. The ligands for PPA in BBM were identified as glycoprotein N-glycans that are significantly involved in the assimilation of glucose, including sucrase-isomaltase (SI) and Na+/Glc cotransporter 1 (SGLT1). Binding of SI and SGLT1 in BBM to PPA was dose-dependent and inhibited by mannan. Using BBM vesicles, we found functional changes in PPA and its ligands in BBM due to the N-glycan-specific interaction. The starch-degrading activity of PPA and maltose-degrading activity of SI were enhanced to 240 and 175%, respectively, while Glc uptake by SGLT1 was markedly inhibited by PPA at high but physiologically possible concentrations, and the binding was attenuated by the addition of mannose-specific lectins, especially from Galanthus nivalis. Additionally, recombinant human pancreatic α-amylases expressed in yeast and purified by single-step affinity chromatography exhibited the same carbohydrate binding specificity as PPA in binding assays with sugar-biotinyl polymer probes. The results indicate that mammalian pancreatic α-amylases share a common carbohydrate binding activity and specifically bind to the intestinal BBM. Interaction with N-glycans in the BBM activated PPA and SI to produce much Glc on the one hand and to inhibit Glc absorption by enterocytes via SGLT1 in order to prevent a rapid increase in blood sugar on the other.
Designing efficient distributed neural classifiers: application to handwritten digit recognition

Describes an automatic method for building distributed neural classifiers for pattern recognition. The methodology is based on the detection of reliable regions in the representation space, i.e. clusters exclusively composed of patterns from the same class. This detection is performed using a hierarchical clustering method associated with the supervised information provided by a professor. The proposed methodology consists of associating each of these regions with a multilayer perceptron (MLP) which has to recognise elements that are inside its region while rejecting all others. Experimental results for a real problem (handwritten digit recognition) reveal an interesting generalisation behaviour of the distributed classifier in comparison to the k-nearest neighbour algorithm as well as a single MLP.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction and physiological activity during acute stress: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE The aim was to examine the effects of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) intervention on cardiovascular and cortisol activity during acute stress. METHOD Eighty-eight healthy community-dwelling individuals reporting elevated stress levels were randomly assigned to the MBSR protocol or a waitlist control group. Before and after the intervention period they participated in a laboratory stress protocol consisting of mental arithmetic and speech tasks. Laboratory measurements included continuous cardiovascular parameters (heart period, heart rate variability, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure [SBP and DBP]), and salivary cortisol. RESULTS Compared to the control group and controlling for age, sex, body mass index, and beta-blockers, the MBSR group showed larger pre- to postintervention decreases in overall SBP (F(1, 58) = 4.99, p = . 029, partial η² = . 08) and DBP (F(1, 58) = 11.09, p = . 002, partial η² = . 16). In addition, the MBSR group exhibited smaller SBP and DBP stress-related changes from pre- to postintervention (F(2, 116) = 4.89, p = . 012, partial η² = . 08; F(2, 116) = 6.07, p = . 007, partial η² = . 10, respectively). No effects were obtained on other physiological measures. CONCLUSION MBSR may help reducing blood pressure levels and blood pressure reactivity to stress.
Spoof Surface Plasmon Polariton Based THz Circuitry

Terahertz, abbreviated as THz, (also called T-ray similar to X-ray and γ -ray) is defined as the frequency band spanning from 300 GHz to 10 THz, which is located between the microwave from the electronic side of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum to mid-Infra-Red (abbreviated as mid-IR) on the photonic side of the EM spectrum. As accelerated research and innovations over the past seven decades have resulted in widespread commercialization of both electronic and photonic components, THz band has remained underdeveloped, underexploited, and mostly unallocated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Though certain definitive merits of EM waves at THz have evoked interests of physicists, chemists, biologists and material scientists to deploy THz in Time-Domain Spectroscopy (TDS), bio-sensing, and classical imaging applications, the field of THz circuits (also known as THz electronics) has continued to remain in embryonic stage due to the speed (fT <1 THz) limitations of conventional Silicon and compound semiconductor devices like Field Effect Transistors (FETs), Hetero-junction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs), and Hot Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs). On the other hand, conventional photonic devices cannot be readily adopted to design new THz circuits and systems. Our research vision in THz circuits and systems is to study the meta-material properties of THz
Factors Affecting the Retention of Occupational Therapists in Rural Services

Failure to retain health professionals in rural areas contributes to the poor health status of these communities through an inability to deliver reliable and consistent services. Considerable attention has focused on factors affecting recruitment of health professionals. Far less is known about factors affecting the retention of occupational therapists. In this study ethnographic interviews were conducted with 10 occupational therapists to explore their experiences related to leaving rural practice. Six themes emerged from the participants' experiences and gave rise to a framework that suggests retention can be improved by addressing the imbalance between incentives to leave and to stay in rural practice. The findings can be used by occupational therapists contemplating rural practice, as well as by health services managers responsible for service delivery in rural areas.
Automatic classification of audio data

In this work a novel content-based musical genre classification approach that uses combination of classifiers is proposed. First, musical surface features and beat related features are extracted from different segments of digital music in MP3 format. Three 15-dimensional feature vectors are extracted from three different parts of a music clip and three different classifiers are trained with such feature vectors. At the classification mode, the outputs provided by the individual classifiers are combined using a majority vote rule. Experimental results show that the proposed approach that combines the output of the classifiers achieves higher correct musical genre classification rate than using single feature vectors and single classifiers.
Conceptual Modeling for XML: A Survey

Recently XML is the standard format used for the exchange of data between information systems and is also frequently applied as a logical database model. If we use XML as a logical database model we need a conceptual model for the description of its semantics. However, XML as a logical database model has some special characteristics which makes existing conceptual models as E-R or UML unsuitable. In this pa- per, the current approaches to the conceptual modeling of XML data are described in an uniform style. A list of requirements for XML conceptual models is presented and described approaches are compared on the base of the requirements.
RADIATION DOSE-RATE EFFECTS ON SELECT BIOMARKERS IN A MOUSE TOTAL-BODY IRRADIATION MODEL

In the event of acute radiation exposure, absorbed dose may be unknown and biodosimetry tools are needed by first responders to properly triage patients. We evaluated two protein markers – FMS-related tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (Flt3L) and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) – that are known to be elevated after an acute radiation exposure, as well as total white blood cell (WBC) count changes preand post-irradiation at different dose-rates. Female B6D2F1 mice were divided into one sham-irradiated control group and four total-body irradiated groups. Experimental groups received a total dose of 8 Gy of 60Co gamma photon irradiation at four dose-rates: 0.04, 0.15, 0.30, and 0.47 Gy min-1. Blood samples from mice were collected at 24 and 48 hours post-exposure for WBC and protein biomarkers (Flt3L and G-CSF). Flt3L values at all dose-rates except 0.15 were significantly elevated from controls but not each other. The G-CSF levels in mouse groups of 0.47 Gy min-1 and 0.04 Gy min-1 were significantly different from controls, and 0.15 Gy min-1 significantly differed from 0.47 Gy min-1. WBC changes from baseline showed that all experimental groups were significantly lower than controls, and additionally the 0.04 Gy min-1 group was significantly lower than the 0.30 Gy min-1 group. Though more research is needed, it would appear that at the fixed dose, dose-rates, and time points chosen herein may not be particularly strong or show predictable differences in the selected biomarker expression levels.