Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Nicotine Consumption on Hyper Acidic Patients Taking PPI: An In-Vitro and Computational Analysis

The study aims to investigate the protein binding kinetics of nicotine and a PPI (pantoprazole) with Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) through UV spectroscopy and computational modeling. Data was obtained by using nicotine and pantoprazole and warfarin and diazepam as the two site specific probes on Bovine serum albumin (BSA). In-vitro and in-silico modeling was carried out in creating an environment that simulates the body environment. Cellulose membrane tubes were cut into 9 cm and tied tightly not to let any mixtures leak out. To determine number of binding sites, association constants by using Scatchard plot, predominant binding site of each drug and rise in % of free fraction of one by the other were analyzed using equilibrium dialysis method. Molecular docking further verifies the observations. In Scatchard plot analysis, for nicotine, n1, n2, k1 and k2 = 2.2, 7.6, 0.18 μM−1 and 0.02 μM−1 and for pantoprazole, n1, n2, k1 and k2 = 0.42, 1.2, 0.40 μM−1 and 0.03 μM−1. Nicotine binds more to diazepam site (site-II) and pantoprazole mainly to warfarin site (site-I). In molecular docking, the binding affinity of nicotine being −5.7 kcal/mole demonstrates higher affinity for site-II than that of pantoprazole whose binding affinity is −8.0 kcal/mole. In absence and presence of warfarin, the free fraction of pantoprazole bound to BSA (1:1) was increased from 37.79% to 82.44% and 51.78% to 98.80% respectively by nicotine. On the other hand, free fraction of nicotine was raised by pantoprazole from 12.89% to 75.70% and 50.08% to 99.66% in the absence and presence of diazepam. Both the results of spectroscopic and computational molecular docking suggest that administering pantoprazole with nicotine might increase the % free fraction of pantoprazole more. Thus, nicotine consumption can be beneficial for smoker people taking PPI like pantoprazole.
Effect of solvent and extraction conditions on antioxidative activity of sage (salvia officinalis l.) extracts obtained by maceration

: In this paper, the extraction of phenolics from sage (Salvia Officinalis L.) which was grown in the plantations of MP Ljekobilje Trebinje, was carried out by maceration at different extraction time periods (30, 60, 90 , 120, 150 and 180 min), using different organic solvents (40%, 50% and 60% ethanol, 40%, 50% and 60% methanol) and water. The influence of each solvent on the extraction of total phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidative activity of obtained extracts was evaluated. The effect of solid-to-solvent ratio (1:7, 1:10 and 1:15) on the extraction yield of total phenolics was investigated. The influence of different extraction temperatures (room temperature, 30, 40, 50 and 60 ºC) on the content of total phenolics and flavonoids and antioxidative activity of the extract was also investigated. The content of total phenolics and flavonoids in the obtained sage extracts was determined spectrophotometrically. The radical scavenging capacity was determined by the DPPH method, wherein the extract concentration required to neutralize 50% of the initial DPPH radical concentration was also determined. The aqueous solutions of ethanol gave the highest yield of the extract, ie. the highest content of total phenolics and flavonoids in extracts obtained at room temperature and optimal extraction time of 60 minutes. Increasing the time of extraction has increased the content of the total phenolics and flavonoids in extracts, while the excessive time and temperature of the extraction had a negative effect on total phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidative activity of sage extracts.
Text encoding for deep learning neural networks: A reversible base 64 (Tetrasexagesimal) Integer Transformation (RIT64) alternative to one hot encoding with applications to Arabic morphology

One Hot Encoding (OHE) is currently the norm in text encoding for deep learning neural models. The main problem with OHE is that the size of the input vector, and hence the number of neurons in the input layer, depends on the size of the vocabulary. Experience has shown that the training time for text classification neural models grows exponentially with the size of the vocabulary when OHE is used. For example, if the size of the vocabulary is 10,000, then the size of the input vector will be model 10,000 implying 10,000 neurons in the input layer. This paper proposes and illustrates the use of an alternative Reversible Integer Transformation (RIT) whereby each word in the training/testing set is transformed into base-64 integer format. The transformation is reversible, and the output of the network can easily be converted back to string format (without the need for an index). Another important feature is that each character in the word is represented using only six bits at the appropriate position in the resulting base-64 integer. The maximum number of neurons needed in the input layer is 64, but the actual number of neurons depends on the maximum word length in the vocabulary, and is usually below 64.
The effect of an optical network on-chip on the performance of chip multiprocessors

OPTICAL networks on-chip (ONoC) have been proposed to reduce power consumption and increase bandwidth density in high performance chip multiprocessors (CMP), compared to electrical NoCs. However, as buffering in an ONoC is not viable, the end-to-end message path needs to be acquired in advance during which the message is buffered at the network ingress. This waiting latency is therefore a combination of path setup latency and contention and forms a significant part of the total message latency. Many proposed ONoCs, such as Single Writer, Multiple Reader (SWMR), avoid path setup latency at the expense of increased optical components. In contrast, this thesis investigates a simple circuit-switched ONoC with lower component count where nodes need to request a channel before transmission. To hide the path setup latency, a coherence-based message predictor is proposed, to setup circuits before message arrival. Firstly, the effect of latency and bandwidth on application performance is thoroughly investigated using full-system simulations of shared memory CMPs. It is shown that the latency of an ideal NoC affects the CMP performance more than the NoC bandwidth. Increasing the number of wavelengths per channel decreases the serialisation latency and improves the performance of both ONoC types. With 2 or more wavelengths modulating at 25 Gbit/s , the ONoCs will outperform a conventional electrical mesh (maximal speedup of 20%). The SWMR ONoC outperforms the circuit-switched ONoC. Next coherence-based prediction techniques are proposed to reduce the waiting latency. The ideal coherence-based predictor reduces the waiting latency by 42%. A more streamlined predictor (smaller than a L1 cache) reduces the waiting latency by 31%. Without prediction, the message latency in the circuit-switched ONoC is 11% larger than in the SWMR ONoC. Applying the realistic predictor reverses this: the message latency in the SWMR ONoC is now 18% larger than the predictive circuitswitched ONoC.
Well-Posedness of a Navier-Stokes/Mean Curvature Flow system

We consider a two-phase flow of two incompressible, viscous and immiscible fluids which are separated by a sharp interface in the case of a simple phase transition. In this model the interface is no longer material and its evolution is governed by a convective mean curvature flow equation, which is coupled to a two-phase Navier-Stokes equation with Young-Laplace law. The problem arises as a sharp interface limit of a diffuse interface model, which consists of a Navier-Stokes system coupled with an Allen-Cahn equation. We prove existence of strong solutions for sufficiently small times and regular initial data.
Innovating Shakespeare: The Politics of Technological Partnership in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Tempest (2016)

This article examines the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) recent focus on digital ‘innovation’ by analysing the relationship between their emerging digital-focused business practices and digital performance practice for The Tempest (2016). To assess this relationship, I first review the socioeconomic context of 21st century neoliberal UK economic policy that encourages arts organisations such as the RSC to participate in innovative digital production practices. I follow with a definition and deconstruction of ‘innovation’ as a key term in UK economic policy. I then demonstrate how the RSC has strategically become involved in innovation practices throughout the 2010s. I will then analyse the digital, motion-capture performance practices the RSC developed in partnership with Intel and motion-capture studio The Imaginarium for The Tempest. In doing so, I will demonstrate that The Tempest serves to legitimise the RSC’s status as a competitor and collaborator in the wider digital economy.
Transcription factor EGR 3 is involved in the estrogen-signaling pathway in breast cancer cells

Estrogen has been closely associated with the genesis and malignant progression of breast cancer. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the effects of estrogen is far from being completely clarified. We previously developed a custom-made cDNA microarray consisting of approximately 200 estrogen-responsive genes in breast cancer cells. Using this system, we found one estrogen-induced gene in various cancer cell lines, including breast cancer MCF-7 cells, which encode a zinc-finger transcription factor, EGR3 (early growth response 3). Northern blot analysis of estradiol-treated MCF-7 cells showed rapid and robust induction of Egr3, and addition of cycloheximide or ICI 182,780 suggested that Egr3 is the bona fide target for the estrogen receptor (ER ). Using stable transformants derived from MCF-7 cells which were transfected with expression-controllable Egr3-expression vector, we demonstrated that Nab2 is one of the target genes for EGR3. Microarray analysis of the transformants revealed other candidate EGR3-induced genes. These strategies could be useful for analyzing downstream genes of ER , and may contribute to elucidating the extensive signaling network of estrogen stimuli. Furthermore, a reporter assay using the upstream region of fasL probably involving escape from the immune system revealed that fasL is another target gene for EGR3. The roles of EGR3 in the physiology of breast cancer are discussed. Journal of Molecular Endocrinology (2004) 32, 649–661
Efficient Resource-Sharing Algorithms for Mobile-Cell’s Sidehaul and Access Links

The mobile-cells (MCs) aim to enhance quality of service for the in-vehicular cellular users by mitigating vehicular penetration loss. Allocating resources for MCs is challenging because of multiple links involved, for example, sidehaul link (SL) and access link (AL). In this letter, we propose algorithms to enable resource sharing between an MC’s AL, SL, and conventional cellular users. The proposed algorithm is shown to yield high ergodic rates across all three resource-sharing links.
Vestibular, proprioceptive, and cutaneous reflex modulation explored through a height-induced postural threat

ii Preface. iv Table of contents . vii List of tables . xiii List of figures . xiv List of abbreviations and symbols . xv Acknowledgments. xvi Chapter 1: General introduction and literature review . 1 1.1 Falls, fear of falling, and fear-related effects on postural control . 1 1.2 Goal of the thesis . 2 1.3 Vision . 3 1.4 Vestibular system and vestibular contributions to balance . 4 1.4. 1 Basic anatomy and physiology . 4 1.4. 2 How does the vestibular system contribute to balance control? 10 1.4. 3 Modulation of vestibular function . 11 1.4. 4 How can the vestibular system be probed? 13 1.5 Muscle spindles and stretch reflexes . 18
Benefits of Management Systems Integration

The number of implemented and certified management systems in organizations is growing. In 2013 there were more than 1.1 million organizations with certified ISO 9001 management system. A big number of companies implement also other management systems and integrate them. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the benefits of integration of management systems in Polish organizations. The presented results are based on data obtained from 81 organizations that have implemented and certify at least two standardized management systems. The organizations were divided into 3 groups with different level of integration of implemented management systems. The level of integration was measured by the degree of integration of the system goals, resources and processes. As a top rated benefits of integration have been found such benefits as: Unification objectives, processes and resources, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization and avoiding of duplication. Organizations that integrated their management systems on an average level, calculated as the integration of goals, procedures and documentation, achieve the greatest benefit from the integration process. Moreover, in the group of organizations, that integrated more than 3 management systems, benefits of integration were higher than in companies where only two or three systems were integrated.
MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF 5754-NETO ALUMINUM ALLOY IRRADIATED UP TO HIGH FLUENCES : NEUTRON SPECTRUM AND TEMPERATURE EFFECTS

The 5000 and 6000 series aluminum alloys are extensively used in research reactors. To validate the choice of the suitable Al-alloys for the core components and the experimental devices for the conception of the Jules Horowitz Reactor (RJH), a characterization program of some highly irradiated components was performed. In this paper, we focalise on the 5754NET alloy in the annealed temper (O treatment) which was irradiated under different neutron spectrum, in Osiris and Orphée reactors. Tensile test results on this alloy irradiated for 30 years in OSIRIS are presented. The temperature and fluence effects are discussed. Tensile test results on the 5754-NET alloy irradiated for 15 years in ORPHEE in a cold neutron flux (cold source shell) are provided and compared with results obtained after irradiation with a harder neutron spectrum in Osiris. Neutron calculations in the ORPHEE cold source shell show that the total flux is hardly reduced by the presence of the cold source, but the Si production rate is increased by a mean factor of 1.53. This Si production rate is dependent on the circumferential position relative to the reactor core. The comparison with the data on the alloy irradiated in Osiris shows that the total elongation after irradiation is directly related to the Si content created under neutron flux, whereas the mechanical strength is hardly affected by the high Si production rate due to the cold neutron flux. The neutron spectrum effect is discussed and compared to published results. Microhardness measurements on the TIG-welding joins show that, on the unirradiated sample, the melted zone is slightly harder than the base metal. This difference is smoothed at high neutron fluence. All these results contribute to a better knowledge of aluminium alloys properties under irradiation in research reactors. This topic is very important for better risk and safety analyses of this type of reactors. 1
Estimating the van Genuchten retention curve parameters of undisturbed soil from a single upward infiltration measurement

Estimation of the soil–water retention curve, θ(h), on undisturbed soil samples is of paramount importance to characterise the hydraulic behaviour of soils. Although a method of determining parameters of the water retention curve (α, a scale parameter inversely proportional to mean pore diameter and n, a measure of pore size distribution) from saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks), sorptivity (S) and the β parameter, using S and β calculated from the inverse analysis of upward infiltration (UI) has been satisfactorily applied to sieved soil samples, its applicability to undisturbed soils has not been tested. The aim of the present study was to show that the method can be applied to undisturbed soil cores representing a range of textures and structures. Undisturbed soil cores were collected using stainless steel cylinders (5cm internal diameter×5cm high) from structured soils located in two different places: (1) an agricultural loam soil under conventional, reduced and no tillage systems; and (2) a loam soil under grazed and ungrazed natural shrubland. The α and n values estimated for the different soils using the UI method were compared with those calculated using time domain reflectometry (TDR) pressure cells (PC) for pressure heads of –0.5, –1.5, –3, –5, –10 and –50kPa. To compare the two methods, α values measured with UI were calculated to the drying branch of θ(h). For each treatment, three replicates of UI and PC calculations were performed. The results showed that the 5-cm high cylinders used in all experiments provided accurate estimates of S and β. Overall, the α and n values estimated with UI were larger than those measured with PC. These differences could be attributed, in part, to limitations of the PC method. On average, the n values calculated from the optimised S and β data were 5% larger than those obtained with PC. A relationship with a slope close to 1 fitted the n values estimated using both methods (nPC=0.73 nUI+0.49; R2=0.78, P<0.05). The results show that the UI method is a promising technique to estimate the hydraulic properties of undisturbed soil samples.
Economics of Tropical Root Crops in the Pacific

This article evaluates the economics of tropical root crops which are important for the Pacific population, their agriculture and livelihood. It estimates the productivity function for root crops and identifies that the root crop sub-sector remains detached from developments in other sectors like agriculture and services. Therefore, the paper recommends improvement in scale of production through productivity.
Lactoferrin is a dynamic protein in human melioidosis and is a TLR4-dependent driver of TNF-α release in Burkholderia thailandensis infection in vitro

Melioidosis is an often-severe tropical infection caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei (Bp) with high associated morbidity and mortality. Burkholderia thailandensis (Bt) is a closely related surrogate that does not require BSL-3 conditions for study. Lactoferrin is an iron-binding glycoprotein that can modulate the innate inflammatory response. Here we investigated the impact of lactoferrin on the host immune response in melioidosis. Lactoferrin concentrations were measured in plasma from patients with melioidosis and following ex vivo stimulation of blood from healthy individuals. Bt growth was quantified in liquid media in the presence of purified and recombinant human lactoferrin. Differentiated THP-1 cells and human blood monocytes were infected with Bt in the presence of purified and recombinant human lactoferrin, and bacterial intracellular replication and cytokine responses (tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β and interferon-γ) were measured. In a cohort of 49 melioidosis patients, non-survivors to 28 days had significantly higher plasma lactoferrin concentrations compared to survivors (median (interquartile range (IQR)): 326 ng/ml (230–748) vs 144 ng/ml (99–277), p<0.001). In blood stimulated with heat-killed Bp, plasma lactoferrin concentration significantly increased compared to unstimulated blood (median (IQR): 424 ng/ml (349–479) vs 130 ng/ml (91–214), respectively; p<0.001). Neither purified nor recombinant human lactoferrin impaired growth of Bt in media. Lactoferrin significantly increased TNF-α production by differentiated THP-1 cells and blood monocytes after Bt infection. This phenotype was largely abrogated when Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) was blocked with a monoclonal antibody. In sum, lactoferrin is produced by blood cells after exposure to Bp and lactoferrin concentrations are higher in 28-day survivors in melioidosis. Lactoferrin induces proinflammatory cytokine production after Bt infection that may be TLR4 dependent.
Secrecy Outage Probability Analysis of Friendly Jammer Selection Aided Multiuser Scheduling for Wireless Networks

In this paper, we study a multiuser uplink network consisting of one base station (BS), multiple users and one eavesdropper (E), where the users are intended to transmit their confidential messages to BS, while the eavesdropper attempts to tap their transmissions. To improve the transmission secrecy, we propose two friendly jammer selection-aided multiuser scheduling schemes, namely, the random jammer selection-aided multiuser scheduling (RJS-MUS) without knowing the eavesdropper’s channel state information (CSI) and the optimal jammer selection-aided multiuser scheduling (OJS-MUS), where the CSIs of eavesdropper are available. For comparison purposes, the conventional non-jammer selection-aided multiuser scheduling (NJS-MUS) scheme is considered as a benchmark. We derive exact and asymptotic closed-form secrecy outage probability expressions for the conventional NJS-MUS as well as proposed RJS-MUS and OJS-MUS schemes. The numerical results show that the proposed RJS-MUS and OJS-MUS schemes with equal power allocation between the selected friendly jammer and scheduled user perform worse than the conventional NJS-MUS approach in terms of the secrecy outage probability in the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) region. As the SNR increases, the secrecy outage performance of RJS-MUS and OJS-MUS schemes substantially improves, which is, in turn, better than that of conventional NJS-MUS approach. Moreover, the secrecy advantage of RJS-MUS and OJS-MUS over NJS-MUS becomes more significant with an increasing SNR. Also, it is shown that for both the RJS-MUS and OJS-MUS schemes, a better secrecy performance can be achieved through an optimal power allocation (OPA) between the scheduled user and friendly jammer. In addition, the proposed RJS-MUS and OJS-MUS schemes with OPA strictly outperform the conventional NJS-MUS approach in terms of the secrecy outage probability.
Infection with SARS-CoV-2 in primary care health care workers assessed by antibody testing

Abstract Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused a pandemic threat of public health during the last month causing more than 10 million infections and 500 000 deceased patients worldwide. Nevertheless, data about risk of infection for health care workers are sparse. Methods In a large primary care facility, 151 workers underwent SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G (IgG) testing. In addition, participants had to complete a survey regarding symptoms and their individual risk of infection. Results Symptoms suspicious for COVID-19 occurred in 72%, fever in 25% of all subjects. Four workers (2.6%, 95% confidence interval 0.8–7.1%) had a positive SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing. None of these was free from COVID-19 suspicious symptoms. Source of infection was presumably professional in three of four individuals. Conclusion Our systematic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a cohort of health care workers in a large outpatient centre revealed an apparently low rate of 2.6% past SARS-CoV-2 infections. Relative risk for infection following health care profession cannot be derived as data about infection rates in the corresponding general population are lacking.