Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modulating TRAIL-Mediated Apoptosis in Prostate Cancer Using Synthetic Triterpenoids

Abstract : We have identified a group of synthetic triterpenoids, 2-cyano-3, 12-dioxooleana-1,9-dien-28-oic acid(CDDO) and its derivative 1-(2-cyano-3, 12-dioxooleana-1,9-dien-28-oyl) imidazole (CDDO-Im), which induce apoptosis in breast and prostate cancer cells. Moreover, sub-lethal doses(nanomolar range) of triterpenoids sensitize TRAIL-resistant breast and prostate cancer cells to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis. For example, in T47D and MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells, TRAIL falls to initiate caspase-8 processing and consequently does not initiate TRAIL-mediated apoptosis. Concomitant treatment with CDDO or CDDO-Im reverses the TRAIL-resistant phenotype, leading to rapid induction of TRAIL-mediated apoptosis, while having no adverse effects on normal human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC). Mechanistically, CDDO and CDDO-Im 1)down-regulate the anti-apoptotic protein c-FLIP, which inhibits caspase-8 activation at the DISC (death-inducing signaling complex), 2) and induce up-regulation of the death receptors DR4 and DR5 on the cell surface. The combination of CDDO-Im and Trail treatment, we found no significant toxicity in mouse tissues or hematological parameters. In conclusion, triterpenoids used either alone, or in combination with TRAIL, represent a promising new cancer therapy, deserving of further pre-clinical testing.
Explaining negotiations in the conciliation committee

The conciliation committee is the ultimate bicameral dispute settlement mechanism of the ordinary legislative procedure of the European Union. Who gets what, and why, in this committee? We argue that its institutional setup is biased in favour of the Council of Ministers. Employing the Wordfish algorithm, we show that the joint text is more similar to the Council common position than to the parliamentary reading in almost 70 percent of the dossiers that reached conciliation up to February 2012. The European Parliament is more successful in the post-Amsterdam period, when the Council decides by qualified majority voting, the rapporteur comes from a large party, the European Commission is supportive, and when national administrations are more involved in the implementation process than the Commission.
Characterization of a structure consisting of magnetostatic responsive microscopic particles and its application in antennas

Wireless communication systems often require that a single antenna work at different frequencies. Thus the reconfigurable antennas are useful in frequency agile environments to receive a signal over multiple bands. Research on antenna reconfigurability using mechanical systems and radio frequency (RF) switches have been implemented in the past years. One problem for these voltagecontrolled switches is that they require direct current (DC) bias control lines for operation. The incorporation of DC biasing circuitry also limits designers to explore the reconfigurable capacity of many antennas. The DC bias control lines can possibly degrade the antenna performance. Moreover, because of the additional control signals, many existing multiband systems cannot use reconfigurable antennas. In this research, magnetostatic responsive particles are used in micro-sized cavities to manufacture novel magnetic switches that are activated in a magnetic field. Furthermore, the characterization, modeling in simulation software, and lumped element model extraction of these micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) based on magnetic switches is presented. A refined method of quantifying the micro sized magnetic particles in a cavity and the response of the proposed micro level magnetic switches in the RF field is also explained in detail. Then, a microstrip patch antenna loaded with Electromagnetic Band Gaps (EBGs) that cannot be reconfigured using existing RF switching devices was reconfigured using the proposed magnetic switches and is presented in this research for the first time. A comparison between PIN diodes and the proposed magnetic switches on a microstrip patch is also included in this research to show the efficiency of the proposed structure. Overall, the proposed magnetic switches showed good results when used in antenna systems to achieve reconfigurability and do not effect the radiation characteristics of the reconfigured antenna.
Phenotype in Corneal Fibroblasts Is Controlled by an Interleukin-ltt Autocrine Feedback Loop

Methods. Disruption of the actin cytoskeleton with cytochalasin B (CB), which mimics changes in shape that occur in repair tissues, was used to stimulate repair gene expression in earlypassage fibroblasts. Changes in expression of IL-la, IL-8, collagenase, and ENA-78 were determined by Northern blot analysis, radioimmunoassay, and an enzyme-amplified sensitivity immunoassay (EASIA). Expression of repair genes was also examined in repair fibroblasts, isolated from healing, penetrating keratectomy wounds in rabbits.
A Distributed and Hierarchical Architecture for Deferred Validation of Transactions in Key-Value Stores

Key-value stores are today a fundamental component for building large-scale distributed systems. Early key-value stores did not offer any support for running transactions but, with time, it became obvious that such support could simplify the application design and development. The key challenge in this context is to support transactional semantics while preserving the scalability properties of key-value stores. In this thesis we propose an architecture to perform transaction validation in a distributed and scalable manner. The architecture exploits the fact that in the current key-value stores, data is partitioned across multiple servers and that correlated data can be stored in the same server if the appropriate partitioning function is used. In this context, transactions that access correlated data in the same partition (local transactions) can be validated and committed concurrently, by different servers. Transactions that access multiple partitions (distributed transactions) can take longer to be validated and committed, but do not interfere with local transactions. The architecture is based on a tree of transaction validators, where the leaf nodes are responsible for single partitions, offering higher throughput and lower latency, while non-leaf nodes are responsible for several partitions. We have performed an extensive experimental validation of the proposed architecture that highlights its advantages and limitations. The evaluation shows that, in some scenarios, the proposed architecture can offer improvements up to 23% when compared to other validation and commit strategies, such as distributed two-phase commit.
MULTIVARIATE TIME-VARYING AUTOREGRESSIVE MODELING OF FETAL SYMPATHO-VAGAL BALANCE THROUGH GESTATION

A processing framework is proposed to model relative changes in fetal sympatho-vagal balance at equally spaced gestational periods. The proposed method is based on a multivariable time-varying autoregression (TVAR) of the beatto-beat time di®erences obtained from non-invasive fetal electrocardiographic (ECG) or magnetocardiographic (MCG) measurements. In order to quantify the sympatho-vagal balance at each measured gestational period, the ratio between the standard deviation of normal-to-normal (SDNN) beat intervals and the sum of absolute di®erences (SAD) is computed. While the SDNN quanti ̄es the overall variability of the sympathetic and vagal systems, the SAD enhances short-term variability components related to vagal control, then the ratio of these two compares with high speci ̄city the overall variability against the short-term vagal component in the time domain. The SDNN/SAD ratio is used to form a new data set by removing short-term variability events, then leaving only those corresponding to longer-term sympatho-vagal balance. The new data set is then analyzed as a dynamical system by ̄tting it to a suitable multivariate TVAR, and relative changes in the sympatho-vagal balance through the analyzed gestational periods are assumed to be related to the dynamics of the time-varying coe±cients of the TVAR. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method, simulated and real fetal E/MCG data are analyzed. The results show that the modeling approach is able to infer the expected trend seen through sympatho-vagal development.
Firms’ Environmental Uncertainty and Excessive CEO Pay

We investigate the relationship between environmental uncertainty and the power of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the firm level. We use the coefficient of variation of sales to measure environmental uncertainty (Ghosh and Olsen, 2009) and CEO excess pay as a proxy for CEO power (Bebchuk et al., 2011). Our multivariate regression analyses reveal a significant and negative relationship between environmental uncertainty and the excessive CEO pay, suggesting that CEO power decreases in the presence of a volatile operational environment. We perform various additional tests and obtain consistent results. In summary, our findings imply that uncertain corporate operational environments mitigate the power of CEOs.
Deposition of Hydroxyl Functionalized Films by Means of ethylene Aerosol-Assisted Atmospheric Pressure Plasma

The atmospheric pressure plasma deposition of hydroxyl functionalized hydrocarbon films is reported in this work, with a reactor fed with water aerosol and ethylene. The effects of power and feed flow rates onto film chemistry have been investigated. Coatings produced with this approach can find application in the biomedical field, among others, as platforms for cell adhesion and proliferation. Results show that operating at 4 kHz provides a much higher amount of hydroxyl group in the coating compared with samples obtained at 11 kHz. After water immersion, the stability of the films and their amount of hydroxyl groups remain high. A simplified deposition mechanism is proposed.
In vitro regenerative potentials of the medicinal plant Abutilon indicum (L.) Sweet

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the most suitable concentration of growth regulators for callus induction and subsequent organogenesis in Abutilon indium (L.) Sweet (Malvaceae) leaf, stem and seed explants. Since the plant has a lot of medicinal importance, it was subjected to culture in vitro . Kinetin for seeds, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), benzyl amino purine (BAP), naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) for leaf as well as BAP and kinetin for stem were the growth regulators used at different concentrations individually. Results showed that growth regulators at different combinations on subculture resulted in the regeneration of shoots. The excised shoots were transferred to liquid medium for in vitro rhizogenesis and plantlets were acclimatized in the laboratory conditions before they were transferred to garden soil. Histologically, callus sections were with active centres, embryoids and multiple shoot buds. Cytological variations such as multinucleate, chromosome bridges, polyploidy and tracheary elements were noticed in callus cells. The regenerated plants were morphologically and cytologically similar to the in vivo plants. Key words: Embryoids, multiple shoot buds, multinucleate, polyploidy, Malvaceae.
Morphological Operations Applied to Digital Art Restoration

This paper provides an overview of the processes involved in detecting and removing cracks from digitized works of art. Specic attention is given to the crack detection phase as completed through the use of morphological operations. Mathematical morphology is an area of set theory applicable to image processing, and therefore lends itself eectively to the digital art restoration process.
Gender and Genre Linguistic Profiling: A Case Study on Female and Male Journalistic and Diary Prose

English. This paper intends to investigate the linguistic profile of maleand femaleauthored texts belonging to two very different textual genres: newspaper articles and diary prose. By using a wide set of linguistic features automatically extracted from text and spanning across different levels of linguistic description, from lexicon to syntax, our analysis highlights the peculiarities of the two examined genres and how the genre dimension is influenced by variation depending on author’s gender (and vice versa). Italiano. Questo lavoro nasce con lo scopo di definire il profilo linguistico di testi scritti da uomini e da donne appartenenti a due generi testuali molto diversi: la prosa giornalistica e le pagine di diario. Attraverso lo studio di una ampia gamma di caratteristiche linguistiche estratte automaticamente dai testi e riguardanti diversi livelli di descrizione linguistica, che vanno dall’analisi lessicale del testo a quella sintattica, questo lavoro mette in luce le peculiarità dei due generi testuali presi in esame e come la dimensione del dominio dei testi venga influenzata dalla dimensione del genere uomo/donna
Surface Plasmon Resonance technology to assess biological interactions

Molecular interactions between proteins or between proteins and small molecules are pivotal events for selective binding of biological structures and, consequentially, for their correct function. In this scenario, the evaluation of kinetic parameters, characterizing a molecular interactions, is considered a crucial event to reveal the nature of binding processes. The focus on peculiar forces involved in the molecular recognition represents an opportunity to explore biological interactions in real time, and to develop a number of innovative biotechnological methods for diagnosis and/or therapy. Currently, optical biosensors, offering an increasingly effective technology to detect in real time molecular binding, are usually composed by a detector, a sensor surface and a sample delivery system: only defi nite substances, which are able to interact specifi cally with the biological part, lead to an optical or electrical signal of the physical transducer. In this review we want to highlight the exponentially-growing interest of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) based optical biosensors for molecular binding analysis in different research fi elds. Review Article Surface Plasmon Resonance technology to assess biological interactions Silvia Bartollino*, Alessandro Medoro, Donatella Mignogna, Erika di Zazzo and Bruno Moncharmont Department of Medicine and Health Sciences “V. Tiberio”, University of Molise, Italy *Address for Correspondence: Silvia Bartollino, PhD, Department of Medicine and Health Sciences “V. Tiberio”, University of Molise, Via F. De Sanctis, 86100 Campobasso, Italy, Tel: +39 0874404886; Email: silvia.bartollino@unimol.it Submitted: 15 July 2017 Approved: 24 August 2017 Published: 25 August 2017 Copyright: 2017 Bartollino S, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Mediterranean-wide Green Vegetation Abundance for Land Degradation Assessment Derived from AVHRR NDVI and Surface Temperature 1989 to 2005

NOAA AVHRR data stemming from the MEDOKADS archive and ranging from 1989 to 2005 was processed and decomposed into their fractions of the vegetated, non-vegetated and the so called ‘cold’ endmember. Decomposition occurred via Linear Unmixing within a triangle spanned up by NDVI (y-axis) and surface temperature (x-axis), separately for each of the 612 10-day composites. Endmembers were derived statistically using percentiles and the inverse relationship between NDVI and Ts. The cold endmember was fixed at -20 degrees Celsius, the vegetated endmember at NDVI = 0.7, the latter was then empirically corrected for illumination effects. Linear Unmixing occurred for the whole Mediterranean area, separately for a western and eastern window. Outcomes are the vegetation abundance, soil abundance and ‘cold’ abundance, indicating the individual coverage of a pixel by each of these. The vegetation abundance was re-scaled to the so-called Grenn Vegetation Fraction (GVF), re-distributing the “cold” abundance on vegetation and soil abundance proportionally. Unmixing led to a higher stability of GVF data in comparison to NDVI data with regard to atmospheric effects. The data was post-processed for missing values and outliers and it was filtered. The GVF shows close parallelism on several test sites in comparison to a re-scaled NDVI within the endmember limits. The positive effect of the cold abundance, which is amongst other accounting for negative effects from poor atmospheric conditions and which was used to improve the GVF, could be clearly shown. Comparison with high and low resolution SPOT data shows a linear relationship and higher values for GVF. Squared GVF values were found to be closely correlated with independently derived high and low resolution vegetation cover (fCover), confirming this relationship known from literature. Coefficients of determination (R), slope and offset of linear relations between squared GVF on one side and the two validation data sets on the other side were 0.69, 0.91, 0.07 and 0.58, 1.27, 0.06, respectively. In addition to the ‘per se’ value of the derived abundances, validation results indicate that squared GVF may be used as approximation for vegetation cover.
Traditional Knowledge in the Time of Neo-Liberalism: Access and Benefit-Sharing Regimes in India and Bhutan

In a neoliberal world, traditional knowledge (TK) of biodiversity possessed by Indigenous and Local Communities (ILCs) in the global South has become a valuable "commodity" or "bio-resource," necessitating the setting up of harmonized ground rules (international and national) in the form of an access and benefitsharing regime to facilitate its exchange in the world market. Despite criticisms that a regime with a neo-liberal orientation is antithetical to the normative ethos of ILCs, it could also offer a chance for developing countries and ILCs to generate revenue for socioeconomic development—to which they are gradually becoming open, but only under fair and equitable terms. Based on this context, this article proposes to look into the legal and policy frameworks and institutional regimes governing access and benefit sharing of TK associated with biological resources in two countries of South Asia: India and Bhutan. The article seeks to examine how such regimes are reconciling the imperatives of a neo-liberal economy with providing a just and equitable framework for ILCs and TK holders, which is truly participatory and not top-down.
Hemodynamic Forces-Induced Biochemical Changes in Aortic wall: Effect on Redox State of the Tissue

Shear stress and hydrostatic pressure-induced stretch are known to enhance the production of free radicals, causing oxidative stress in the vascular wall and have been implicated in endothelial inflammation and vascular lesions. Production of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase probably constitute a key factor in maintaining the redox state of arterial wall in response to hemodynamic forces. In the present study, redox state of arterial wall at constant pulsatile/laminar shear and varying hydrostatic pressure (70 and 150 cm water) was evaluated. The aim was to study the pressure, in combination with different flow patterns (laminar/pulsatile shear stress), induced oxidative stress which presumably cause arterial wall inflammation leading to vascular legions. The level of reduced glutathione (GSH), lipid peroxidation (LPO) and enzymes known to contribute to the redox status of the cell/tissue, have been measured. Present study quantitatively evaluates the hemodynamic forces induced vascular oxidative stress. We individually assessed the activity of Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), xanthine oxidase (XO), and glutathione-s-transferase (GST) under hemodynamic stress. Secondary antioxidant enzymes like glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) and glutathione reductase (GR) were also measured. The increased oxidative stress under pulsatile shear stress and high hydrostatic pressure potentially suggests that vascular inflammation is the key to understand initiation of vascular lesions. Higher concentrations of SOD in arterial wall ought to be considered since this explains arterial wall antioxidant defense in vascular pathologies, which potentially involve oxidative stress. In conclusion, pulsatile shear stress in combination with hydrostatic pressure is a weak inducer of antioxidant defense in blood vessels, hence, considered to be atherogenic. The finding is relevant to both the normal and pathophysiologically relevant hemodynamically stress rabbit thoracic aorta.
Four-manifolds with 1/4-pinched Flag Curvatures

The Ricci flow on a compact four-manifold preserves the condition of pointwise 1/4- pinching of flag curvatures. Any compact Riemannian four-manifold with 1/4-pinched flag curvatures is either isometric to CP 2 or diffeomorphic to a space-form.
The 154 MHz radio sky observed by the Murchison Widefield Array: noise, confusion and first source count analyses

CAJ thanks the Department of Science, Office of Premier and Cabinet, WA for their support through the Western Australian Fellowship Programme. Support for the MWA comes from the US National Science Foundation (grants AST-0457585, PHY-0835713, CAREER-0847753, and AST-0908884), the Australian Research Council (LIEF grants LE0775621 and LE0882938), the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (grant FA9550-0510247), and the Centre for All-sky Astrophysics (an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence funded by grant CE110001020). Support is also provided by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the MIT School of Science, the Raman Research Institute, the Australian National University, and the Victoria University of Wellington (via grant MED-E1799 from the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development and an IBM Shared University Research Grant). The Australian Federal government provides additional support via the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, Education Investment Fund, and the Australia India Strategic Research Fund, and Astronomy Australia Limited, under contract to Curtin University.
OASIS - Identifying the Core Attributes for RDBMS Alternatives

Since their introduction in the 1970s, relational database management systems have served as the dominate data storage technology. However, the demands of big data and Web 2.0 necessitated a change in the market, sparking the beginning of the NoSQL movement in the late 2000s. NoSQL databases exchanged the relational model and the guaranteed consistency of ACID transactions for improved performance and massive scalability [1]. While the benefits NoSQL proved useful, the lack of sufficient SQL functionality presented a major hurdle for organizations which require it to properly operate. It was clear that new RDBMS solutions which did not compromise functionality or scalability were necessary, which has led to the rise of a new class of modern relational database management systems, NewSQL [2]. This paper seeks to identify a consistent set of requirements necessary for an ideal RDBMS substitute. Among these requirements include possessing the features of a modern RDBMS, which include support of the relational data model and standard ANSI SQL, ACID transactions, and ODBC/JDBC drivers. Additionally, the substitute must address typical RDBMS’ shortcomings in scalability by providing cost-effective scale-out capabilities. These requirements will then be used to filter out existing NoSQL and NewSQL database systems which could serve as viable substitutes to a typical RDBMS. INDEX WORDS: ACID, Database, Hadoop, NewSQL, NoSQL, RDBMS OASIS: IDENTIFYING THE CORE ATTRIBUTES FOR RDBMS SUBSTITUTES by BENJAMIN MCPHERSON B.S. Valdosta State University, 2012 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE STATESBORO, GEORGIA