Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CIA_A_322696 1527..1539

1Gerontology and Geriatrics Centre, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; 3Department of Medicine, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, Singapore Purpose: Malnutrition and population ageing are doubly global healthcare challenges. It is widely recognized that disability is a major contributor to malnutrition among older people, but the importance of reducing malnutrition risk (MR) for disability prevention is given little attention. We investigated the association between MR and risk of incident disability and functional decline among community-dwelling older persons. Materials and Methods: Prospective cohort study of community-dwelling older adults aged 55 and above (Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Study) with 3–5 years follow-up. MR was measured at baseline using an appropriate and validated index (ENIGMA); physical and functional measures at baseline and follow-up included instrumental and basic activity of daily living (ADL), knee extension (KES), gait velocity (GV), timed up-and-go (TUG). Results: Compared to low MR, mild-moderate MR (OR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.02–2.01) and severe MR (OR=1.74, 95% CI=1.10–2.74) were associated with higher risks of incident disability. Severe MR was associated with functional decline (OR = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.11– 2.57). Estimates were adjusted for demographic, social, lifestyle behaviour and health variables. In particular, eating difficulty was associated with incident disability and functional decline, and low lymphocyte with functional decline. Severe MR and low albumin were associated with 37% worse GV and 126% worse TUG declines; consuming few vegetables or fruits with 34% worse KES decline; polypharmacy with 56% worse TUG decline. Conclusion: Malnutrition risk increased the risk of incident disability and functional decline in non-disabled persons, it worsened physical performance declines. Further studies should investigate the effectiveness of nutritional interventions in reducing the risk of disability among older people.
DDDT_A_248892 2865..2876

1Department of Neurosurgery, Qilu Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250012, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250012, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Neurosurgery, The Fifth People’s Hospital of Jinan, Jinan, Shandong Province 250022, People’s Republic of China Introduction: Cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury (CIRI) is the main factor that leads to poor prognosis of cerebral ischemia. Apoptosis has been shown to occur during the process of CIRI. Extracellular vesicles derived from mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs-EVs) have shown broad potential for treating brain dysfunction and eliciting neuroprotective effects after stroke through neurogenesis and angiogenesis. However, the mechanism of action of extracellular vesicles during CIRI is not well known. Methods: A middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model was induced by the modified Longa method, and MSCs-EVs were injected via the tail vein. Results: Our results showed that MSCs-EVs significantly alleviated neurological deficits, reduced the volume of cerebral infarction and brain water content, improved pathological lesions in cortical brain tissue, and attenuated neuronal apoptosis in the cortex at 24 h and 48 h after MCAO in rats. Western blotting analysis showed that MSCs-EVs significantly upregulated p-AMPK and downregulated p-JAK2, p-STAT3 and p-NF-κB. In addition, an AMPK pathway blocker reversed the effect of MSCs-EVs on brain damage. Conclusion: These results indicate that MSCs-EVs protected MCAO-injured rats, possibly by regulating the AMPK and JAK2/STAT3/NF-κB signaling pathways. This study supports the use of MSCs-EVs as a potential treatment strategy for MCAO in the future.
OTT_A_286627 13097..13109

1Department of Molecular Pathology, The Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Medical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Blood Transfusion, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Medical Laboratory, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, People’s Republic of China
MBPeT: A Model-Based Performance Testing Tool

—In recent years, cloud computing has become increasingly common. Verifying that applications deployed in the cloud meet their performance requirements is not simple. There are three different techniques for performance evaluation: analytical modeling, simulation, and measurement. While analytical modeling and simulation are good techniques for getting an early performance estimation, they rely on an abstract representation of the system and leave out details related for instance to the system conﬁguration. Such details are problematic to model or simulate, however they can be the source of the bottlenecks in the deployed system. In this paper, we present a model-based performance testing tool that measures the performance on web applications and services using the measurement technique. The tool uses models to generate workload which is then applied to the system in real-time and it measures different performance indicators. The models are deﬁned using probabilistic timed automata and they describe how different user types interact with the system. We describe how load is generated from the models and the features of the tool. The utility of the tool is demonstrated by applying to a WebDav case study.
Robust Partial Feedback Linearizing Stabilization

This project presents a stabilization scheme for a three-phase grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system to control the current injected into the grid and dc-link voltage to extract maximum power from photovoltaic (PV) units. The scheme is achieved mainly based on the design of a controller using a partial feedback linearizing approach of feedback linearization where the stabilization of the scheme is ensured by considering uncertainties within the PV system mode. The performance of the stability enhancement is evaluated on a three-phase grid-connected PV system in terms of delivering maximum power under changes in atmospheric conditions. In the grid connected PV system the control objectives are met by a strategy using a pulse width modulation (PWM) scheme based on two cascaded control loops. The two cascaded control loops consist of an outer voltage control loop to settle the PV array at the Maximum Power Point (MPP) and an inner current control loop to establish the duty ratio for the generation of a sinusoidal output current which is in phase with the grid voltage.
Salicylic acid and systemic acquired resistance play a role in attenuating 1 crown gall disease caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens

1 We investigated the effects of salicylic acid (SA) and systemic acquired resistance (SAR) on 3 crown gall disease caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens . Nicotiana benthamiana plants 4 treated with SA showed decreased susceptibility to Agrobacterium infection. Exogenous 5 application of SA to Agrobacterium cultures decreased its growth, virulence and 6 attachment to plant cells. Using Agrobacterium whole genome microarrays we 7 characterized the direct effects of SA on bacterial gene expression and showed that SA 8 inhibits induction of virulence ( vir ) genes, the repABC operon and differentially regulates 9 the expression of many other sets of genes. Using virus-induced gene silencing we further 10 demonstrate that plant genes involved in SA biosynthesis and signaling are important 11 determinants for Agrobacterium infectivity on plants. Silencing of isochorismate synthase 12 ( ICS ), non-expresser of PR-1 ( NPR1 ), and salicylic acid binding protein-2 ( SABP2 ) in N . 13 benthamiana enhanced Agrobacterium infection. Moreover, plants treated with benzo- 14 (1,2,3)-thiadiazole-7-carbothioic acid, a potent inducer of SAR, showed reduced disease 15 symptoms. Our data suggest that SA and SAR both play a major role in retarding 16 Agrobacterium infectivity. 17 post infection ( F G ). These experiments were repeated at least three times with a minimum of 100 leaf disks for each plant and the data presented is the mean with standard error values. Letters indicate significant difference using Fisher’s least significant difference test at P <0.05.
Serum Folate concentration and Coronary Heart Disease prevalence: Findings from the 1999-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed utilizing the 1999-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Firstly, logistic regression analysis was applied to explore the association between folate status, as a category variable, and CHD prevalence, and odds ratios (ORs) along with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed to measure the association strengths. Secondly, a combination of restricted cubic spline and logistic regression analysis was used to illustrate the non-linear association between folate level, as a continuous variable, and CHD prevalence, and OR curve was drawn to display the relationship.
A New Class of Arabidopsis Constitutive Photomorphogenic Genes lnvolved in Regulating Cotyledon Development

Light signals have profound effects on morphogenesis of hypocotyls and cotyledons of Arabidopsis seedlings, but the mechanisms by which light signals are transduced and integrated to control these processes are poorly understood. We report here the identification of a new class of constitutive photomorphogenic (cop) mutants, cop2, cop3, and cop4, in which dark-grown seedlings have open and enlarged cotyledons resembling those of light-grown wild-type seedlings. The epistatic relationships of these three mutations to previously characterized phytochrome-deficient mutations suggest that C O R , COP3, and COP4 may act downstream of phytochrome in the light regulatory pathway. Mutations in each of the three loci.alleviate the normal inhibition of cell-type differentiation, cell enlargement, and lateral cell division obsenred in cotyledons of dark-grown wild-type seedlings, but do not affect plastid differentiation. The cop4 mutation also leads to high-leve1 dark expression of nuclear, but not plastid-encoded, light-inducible genes. We further show that for the nuclear cabl gene encoding a chlorophyll alb binding protein of the photosynthetic light-harvesting complex, activation in dark-grown cop4 mutants is achieved by modulation of promoter activity. Interestingly, COP4 modulates cabl promoter activity through a pathway distinct from that of COPl and COP9. Furthermore, cop4 mutants are detecrive in both root and shoot gravitropic responses, indicating that the COP4 locus may be involved in both light-signaling and gravity-sensing processes.
Phase transitions from nuclei to stars

In these lectures we review the present status of knowledge of the nuclear thermal as well as quantum phase transitions. Examples in nuclear physics concern in particular shape transitions, vanishing of pairing correlations at high excitation, nuclear multifragmentation as well as deconfinement to the quark-gluon plasma. For all these phenomena conceptual and formal challenges arise, associated to the definition and classification of phase transitions in finite, open and transient systems. In these lectures we discuss the theoretical methods allowing one to extend the standard formalism of phase transitions to these non-standard situations. The thermodynamics of phase transitions in nuclei is associated to new physics phenomena, very different to the ordinary macroscopic phase transition behaviors. In particular when non-extensive systems as atomic nuclei are subject to of phase transitions, the different statistical ensembles are not equivalent, meaning that the observed physics depends on the externally applied constraints. In this context we show that an extensive external constraint on the order parameter leads to phase separation quenching as well as to thermodynamic anomalies. Two different applications in nuclear physics are worked out, namely the possible occurrence of negative heat capacity in nuclear multifragmentation, and the phase transition quenching in the core-crust transition of neutron stars.
A “trafﬁ c control” role for TGF β 3: orchestrating dermal and epidermal cell motility during wound healing

ell migration is a rate-limiting event in skin wound healing. In unwounded skin, cells are nourished by plasma. When skin is wounded, resident cells encounter serum for the ﬁ rst time. As the wound heals, the cells experience a transition of serum back to plasma. In this study, we report that human serum selectively promotes epidermal cell migration and halts dermal cell migration. In contrast, human plasma promotes dermal but not epidermal cell migration. The on-and-off switch is operated by transforming growth factor (TGF) β 3 levels, which are undetectable in plasma and high in serum, and by TGF β receptor (T β R) type II levels, which are low in epidermal cells and high in dermal cells. Depletion of TGF β 3 from serum converts serum to a plasmalike reagent. The addition of TGF β 3 to plasma converts it to a serumlike reagent. Down-regulation of T β RII in dermal cells or up-regulation of T β RII in epidermal cells reverses their migratory responses to serum and plasma, respectively. Therefore, the naturally occurring plasma → serum → plasma transition during wound healing orchestrates the orderly migration of dermal and epidermal cells.
Trabajo Fin de Máster Sistema de estimulación extracelular para la modificación de parámetros de red en redes neuronales en cultivo Extracellular stimulation system for the modification of network parameters in cultured neural networks

This project focuses on the use of a state of the art microelectrode array (MEAs) chip for the study and manipulation of cultured neural networks. MEA chips containing 26400 electrodes arranged on a sensing area of 3.85×2.10 mm were used to obtain electrical recordings from two cultures of dissociated cortical neurons from pre-natal rats. A closed-loop stimulation protocol was implemented on the MEA platforms so that stimulation pulses could be delivered to a determined electrode on the array in response to action potentials detected on another electrode. One of the neuronal cultures was subjected to a closed-loop stimulation protocol whereas the second one was used as a control. Several di erent metrics were implemented and applied to the recordings in order to perform a functional characterization of the cultures. The functional analysis of the recordings obtained in the stimulation experiments indicates that the closed-loop stimulation induced a signi cant and generalized loss of activity and connectivity in the cultured neuronal network.
Chapter 13 Convolutional Neural Networks 13 . 1 The Importance of Convolutional Neural Networks

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs or ConvNets) are a specialized form of deep neural networks for analyzing input data that contain some form of spatial structure (Goodfellow et al. 2016). CNNs are primarily used to solve problems of computer vision (such as self-driving cars, robotics, drones, security, medical diagnoses, treatments for the visually impaired, etc.) using images as input, since it takes advantage of the grid structure of the data. CNNs work by first deriving low-level representations, local edges, and points, and then composing higher level representations, overall shapes, and contours. The name of these deep neural networks is due to the fact that they apply convolutions, a type of linear mathematical operation. CNNs use convolution in at least one of their layers, instead of a general matrix multiplication, as do the feedforward deep neural networks studied in the previous chapters. Compared to other classification algorithms, the preprocessing required in a CNN is considerably lower. For these reasons, CNNs have been used to identify faces, individuals, tumors, objects, street signs, etc. Thanks to successful commercial applications of this type of deep neural networks, the term “deep learning” was coined and it is the most popular name given to artificial neural networks with more than one hidden layer. Also, their popularity is attributed in part to the fact that the best CNNs today reach or exceed human-level performance, a feat considered impossible by most experts in computer vision only a few decades back. The inspiration for CNNs came from a cat’s visual cortex (Hubel and Wiesel 1959), which has small regions of cells that are sensitive to specific regions in the visual field; this means that when specific areas of the visual field are excited, then those cells in the visual cortex will be activated as well. In addition, it is important to point out that the excited cells depend on the shape and orientation of the objects in the visual field. This implies that horizontal edges excite some neurons, while vertical edges excite other neurons (Hubel and Wiesel 1959).
Improved License Plate Localization Algorithm Based on Morphological Operations

Automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) systems have become an important tool to track stolen cars, access control, and monitor traffic. ALPR system consists of locating the license plate in an image, followed by character detection and recognition. Since the license plate can exist anywhere within an image, localisation is the most important part of ALPR and requires greater processing time. Most ALPR systems are computationally intensive and require a high-performance computer. The present algorithm differs significantly from those utilised in previous ALPR technologies by offering a fast algorithm, composed of structural elements which more precisely conducts morphological operations within an image, and can be implemented in portable devices with low computation capabilities. The present algorithm is able to accurately detect and differentiate license plates in complex images. This method was first tested through MATLAB with an on-line public database of Greek number plates and was 100% accurate in all clear images, and achieved 98.45% accuracy when using the entire database which included complex backgrounds and license plates obscured by shadow and dirt. Second, the efficiency of the algorithm was tested in devices with low computational processing power, by translating the code to Python, and was 300% faster than previous work.
Some Biochemical Changes in Serum of Female Albino Rats Administered Aqueous Extract of Piper guineense Schumach Seeds

This study examined the biochemical changes in serum of female albino rats administered aqueous extract of Piper guineense Schumach seeds extract. The test animals (groups 2, 3 and 4) received 25 mg/kg, 50 mg/kg and 75 mg/kg of the extract respectively for 21 days, while group 1 served as control and received a placebo of 0.9% physiological saline which is the vehicle for administration. On the 22 day the test animals which have been fasted overnight were sacrificed with chloroform anesthesia. Blood was collected through cardiac puncture. Results show that serum protein, albumin and packed cell volume concentration significantly (p≤0.05) increased. Creatinine and urea levels decreased (p≤0.05) significantly, 95% confidence level, while cholesterol profile decreased Original Research Article Uhegbu et al.; IJBcRR, 8(1): 1-7, 2015; Article no.IJBcRR. 17911 2 (p≤0.05) significantly, except HDL. Superoxide dismutase, glutathione-s-transferase, increased (p≤0.05) significantly, while lipid peroxidation decreased. This study has shown that nursing mothers in South East of Nigeria who use the Piper guineense Schumach seeds may derive immense benefit from its effect on the biochemical parameters assayed in this study.
Survey and analysis of microsatellites in the silkworm, Bombyx mori: Frequency, Distribution, Mutations, Marker potential and their Conservation in heterologous species

We studied microsatellite frequency and distribution in 21.76 Mb random genomic sequences, 0.67 Mb BAC sequences from Z chromosome and 6.3 Mb EST sequences of Bombyx mori. We mined microsatellites of ≥15 bases of mononucleotide repeats and ≥5 repeat units of other classes of repeats. We estimated that microsatellites account for 0.31% of the genome of B. mori. Microsatellite tracts of A, AT and ATT were the most abundant whereas their number drastically decreased as the length of the repeat motif increased. In general, triand hexanucleotide repeats were over-represented in the transcribed sequences except TAA, GTA and TGA, which were excess in genomic sequences. The Z chromosome sequences contained shorter repeat types than the rest of the chromosomes in addition to a higher abundance of AT rich repeats. Our results showed that base composition of the flanking sequence has an influence on the origin and evolution of microsatellites. Transition/transversion were high in microsatellites of ESTs, whereas genomic sequence had an equal number of substitutions and indels. The average heterozygosity value for 23 polymorphic microsatellite loci surveyed in 13 diverse silkmoth strains having 2 to 14 alleles was 0.54. Only 36 (18.2%) of 198 microsatellite loci were polymorphic between the two divergent silkworm populations and 10 (5%) loci revealed null alleles. The microsatellite map generated using these polymorphic markers resulted in 8 linkage groups. B. mori microsatellite loci were the most conserved in its immediate ancestor, B. mandarina, followed by the wild saturniid silkmoth, Antheraea assama.
Improving Support Vector Domain Description by Maximizing the Distance Between Negative Examples and The Minimal Sphere Center's

Support Vector Domain Description (SVDD) is an effective kernel-based method used for data description. It was motivated by the success of Support Vector Machine (SVM) and thus has inherited many of its attractive properties. It has been extensively used for novelty detection and has been applied successfully to a variety of classification problems. This classifier aims to find a sphere with minimal volume including the majority of examples that belong to the class of interest (positive) and excluding the most of examples that are either outliers or belong to other classes (negatives). In this paper we propose a new approach to improve the classification accuracy of SVDD. This objective will be achieved by exploiting the existence of negative examples in the training step, without increasing the computational time and memory resources required to solve the quadratic programming problem of that classifier. Simulation results on two challenging artificial problems, namely chessboard and two spirals, and four benchmark datasets have successfully validated the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Managing the risks of R&D collaboration in the Australian Cooperative Research Centre program

The paper presents initial findings from a study of cross-sector commercially-focused R&D collaborations in the Australian Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Program. The study focuses on how effective collaborative relationships are built between organizations with divergent interests and cultures and different approaches to commercialization. Findings are reported from the first case study interviews. Analysis of the transcribed interviews has produced 16 themes on the management of CRC collaborations. The theme on the management of intellectual property (IP) is discussed. IP management represents a major source of risk to collaborations, and the issues identified reveal much about the trust dynamics involved.