Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of the hepatic and renal effects of 1,4-dichlorobenzene in the rat and mouse.

The effects of 1,4-dichlorobenzene (DCB) have been compared in male F344 rats given 0 (corn oil control), 25, 75, 150, and 300 mg/kg DCB and male B6C3F1 mice given 0 (corn oil control), 300, and 600 mg/kg DCB by daily oral gavage five days per week for 1, 4, and 13 weeks. The two highest rat and both mouse dose levels were the same as those employed in a NTP bioassay, where DCB produced kidney tumors in male rats and liver tumors in mice. DCB produced significant dose-related increases in relative liver weight in both the rat and the mouse which was associated with, respectively, mild and marked centrilobular hypertrophy. Administration of DCB also produced a sustained induction of microsomal cytochrome P450 content and 7-pentoxyresorufin O-depentylase activity in both species. Western immunoblotting studies demonstrated that DCB induced CYP2B isoenzyme(s) in both rat and mouse liver microsomes. Replicative DNA synthesis was studied by implanting osmotic pumps containing 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine in study Weeks 0-1, 3-4, and 12-13. In the rat hepatocyte labeling index values were only increased in animals given 300 mg/kg DCB for 1 week, whereas hepatocyte labeling index values were significantly increased in mice given 300 and 600 mg/kg DCB for 1 and 4 weeks. DCB treatment produced significant increases in rat renal P1/P2 proximal tubule cell labeling index values at all time points, whereas little effect was observed in mouse kidney. The observed species difference in DCB-induced liver tumor formation may reflect the greater sensitivity of the mouse to tumor promotion by a CYP2B inducer. For the kidney, the present data provides further evidence that while DCB-induced alpha2U-globulin nephropathy is associated with a sustained stimulation of cell replication in male rat renal proximal tubule cells, this effect is not observed in the male mouse.
Agent-Based Approach for Web Crawling

Since its creation in 1990, World Wide Web has increased the popularity of Internet which becomes an important source of information or services for all people over the world. The dynamic nature of the Web draws attention to the need for continuous support and updating of Web information retrieval systems. Web crawling is the process of discovery and maintenance of large-scale web data. Crawlers achieve this process by following the Web pages hyperlinks to automatically download a partial snapshot of the Web. In this paper, an agent-based approach, through three scenarios, for parallel and distributed Web crawling is presented. Simulations with ns2 show that the cloning based mobile agents scenario outperforms the single and multiple mobile agents scenarios.
LSHSS Parent and Teacher Report of Social Skills in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the agreement between parent and teacher perceptions of specific social behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Method: Informant ratings were generated concerning 45 children with ASD between the ages of 5 and 14 years who were enrolled in social skills groups at 2 Midwestern outpatient autism treatment
Source Contributions to Visibility Impairment in the Southeastern and Western United States

Abstract The 1999 Regional Haze Rule requires states to complete comprehensive technical analyses of air pollutants that impair visibility and to define long-term strategies to improve visibility in the nation’s 156 visibility-protected federal Class I national parks and wilderness areas. Class I areas in the southeastern United States are among the most impacted in the country; fine particle loadings in the western United States are a fraction of those in the East. In the Southeast, (NH4)2SO4 (ammonium sulfate) predominantly from SO2 (sulfur dioxide) emissions from electric generating utilities and industrial sources contributes 60–70% of the light extinction on the 20% haziest days; particulate organic matter (POM) predominantly from biogenic emissions and biomass burning is the second largest contributor. In the West, the mix of source contributions is more complex. At Class I areas downwind of major urban areas (e.g., California), ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3), predominantly because of mobile sources, is the dominant contributor to haze. For many western Class I areas, POM from wildland fires and fine particles from windblown dust, largely uncontrollable sources, are significant contributors to haze. International emissions are an additional uncontrollable and significant contribution to total sulfate (SO4) and nitrate (NO3) concentrations at the western Class I areas. In the Southeast, SO2 emissions reductions are projected to result in nearly 1:1 regional SO4 reductions; oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions reductions have minimal impact on NO3 concentrations and haze. In the West, SO2 emissions reductions result in incremental SO4 reductions, whereas mobile NOx emissions reductions are projected to reduce NO3 and improve visibility at Class I areas affected by urban areas. Because wildfire, dust, and international emissions have large contributions to the haziest days and are mostly uncontrollable in the West, reductions from anthropogenic sources in the West have less effect in improving visibility compared with the Southeast.
Modeling and synchronization of biological rhythms: from cells to oyster behavior. (Modélisation et synchronisation: des rythmes cellulaires au comportement de l'huître)

This PhD thesis is dedicated to modeling, analysis and control of oscillations, notably biological rhythms. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part I deals with a real-life application while part II studies more theoretical problems, with potential practical applications. In the first part, motivated by a practical problem of environmental monitoring of coastal environment, this thesis considers the biological rhythms of oysters. It is well known that oysters valve movement activity is heavily inﬂuenced by biological rhythms like circadian and circatidal rhythms. Moreover, pollution in the surrounding marine environment can perturb these rhythms, and inﬂuence the valve movement activity. Using this information, we propose an indirect environmental monitoring solution using oysters as bio-sensor. The proposed solution works on estimating the perturbation by modeling the biological rhythm of oysters through Van der Pol oscillator model. An inherent limit of this approach is that it works through detecting abnormal behavior only. However abnormal behaviors are not all related to pollution. So, we consider the detection of a particular type of abnormal oscillatory behavior i.e. spawning (behavior during reproduction) which is a natural phenomenon and not related to pollution. The spawning detection algorithm is inspired by the engineering literature of oscillatory fault detection. In the second part, oscillations are studied from a theoretical point of view. Having better understanding of the modeling, analysis and control of oscillations may give rise in the future improved environmental monitoring solutions. The first problem of this part is the robustness of oscillations under cell division. Oscillations persist in genetic oscillators (circadian clocks, synthetic oscillators) after cell division. However, in the literature through stochastic simulation it was found that the phase of the oscillation diverges under high variability of extrinsic noise (variability in the cell division time and in the partition of the molecules into daughter cells, cell–cell variability in kinetic parameters, etc). So, in this thesis, we provide analytical conditions that guarantee phase synchronization after cell division using Phase Response Curve (PRC) formalism. Our results corresponds to the existing stochastic simulation results. Finally we consider the problem of synchronization of multi-stable systems using Input-to-State (ISS) stability tool. Many oscillatory systems are multi-stable. Using a recent generalization of ISS theory for multi-stable systems, we propose sufficient conditions for the synchronization of multi-stable systems. As a side result, this work has been applied for the global synchronization of a recently proposed oscillator model called the Brockett oscillator.
Water Structures at Metal Electrodes Studied by Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations

The structure of water on metal electrodes is addressed based on first-principles calculations. Special emphasis is placed on the competition between water-metal and water-water interaction as the structure determining factors. Thus the question will be discussed whether water at metal surfaces is ice- or rather liquid-like. The proper description of liquid phases requires to perform thermal averages. This has been done by combining first-principles electronic structure calculations with molecular dynamics simulations. After reviewing recent studies about water on flat, stepped and pre-covered metal electrodes, some new results will be presented.
Tapping into social media and digital humanitarians for building disaster resilience in Canada

Social media offers the opportunity to connect with the public, improve situational awareness, and to reach people quickly with alerts, warnings and preparedness messages. However, the ever increasing popularity of social networking can also lead to `information overload' which can prevent disaster management organizations from processing and using social media information effectively. This limitation can be overcome through collaboration with `digital humanitarians' - tech savvy volunteers, who are leading the way in crisis-mapping and crowdsourcing of disaster information. Since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, their involvement has become an integral part of the international community's response to major disasters. For example, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) activated the Digital Humanitarian Network during the 2013 response to typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda [1]. Our previous research has shown that Canada's disaster management community has not yet fully taken advantage of all the opportunities that social media offers, including the potential of collaboration with digital humanitarians [2]. This finding has led to the development of an experiment designed to test how social media aided collaboration can enable enhanced situational awareness and improve recovery outcomes. The experiment took place in November 2014 as a part of the third Canada-US Enhanced Resiliency Experiment (CAUSE III), which is an experiment series that focuses on enhancing resilience through situational awareness interoperability. This paper describes the results of the experiment and Canadian efforts to facilitate effective information exchange between disaster management officials, digital humanitarians as well as the public at large, so as to improve situational awareness and build resilience, both at the community and the national level.
Direct intracerebral delivery of cintredekin besudotox (IL13-PE38QQR) in recurrent malignant glioma: a report by the Cintredekin Besudotox Intraparenchymal Study Group.

PURPOSE Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a devastating brain tumor with a median survival of 6 months after recurrence. Cintredekin besudotox (CB) is a recombinant protein consisting of interleukin-13 (IL-13) and a truncated form of Pseudomonas exotoxin (PE38QQR). Convection-enhanced delivery (CED) is a locoregional-administration method leading to high-tissue concentrations with large volume of distributions. We assessed the use of intracerebral CED to deliver CB in patients with recurrent malignant glioma (MG). PATIENTS AND METHODS Three phase I clinical studies evaluated intracerebral CED of CB along with tumor resection. The main objectives were to assess the tolerability of various concentrations and infusion durations; tissue distribution; and methods for optimizing delivery. All patients underwent tumor resection followed by a single intraparenchymal infusion (in addition to the intraparenchymal one following resection), with a portion of patients who had a preresection intratumoral infusion. RESULTS A total of 51 patients with MG were treated including 46 patients with GBM. The maximum tolerated intraparenchymal concentration was 0.5 microg/mL and tumor necrosis was observed at this concentration. Infusion durations of up to 6 days were well tolerated. Postoperative catheter placement appears to be important for optimal drug distribution. CB- and procedure-related adverse events were primarily limited to the CNS. Overall median survival for GBM patients is 42.7 weeks and 55.6 weeks for patients with optimally positioned catheters with patient follow-up extending beyond 5 years. CONCLUSION CB appears to have a favorable risk-benefit profile. CED is a complex delivery method requiring catheter placement via a second procedure to achieve accurate catheter positioning, better drug distribution, and better outcome.
Physiologic changes in mitral stenosis.

THE effects of mitral stenosis on the heart and lungs are due to an obstructive lesion between the left atrium and ventricle. The bodily response to such an obstruction is initially twofold. Most important is a rise of pressure proximal to the obstruction — that is, in the left atrium, pulmonary veins, pulmonary capillaries, pulmonary artery and right ventricle. The amount of blood passing through the obstructed area — the cardiac output — becomes reduced. The size of the orifice of the normal mitral valve in an adult is about 5 sq. cm. The pressure in the left atrium is .
Oscillation Sensitivity in the MiniBooNE Experiment by using the Boosting Particle ID

We report results on νμ → νe oscillation sensitivity by using the RoeFitters and the boosting Particle ID (PID). Reconstruction and PID cuts are optimized for each energy bin with bin width of 50 MeV. The oscillation sensitivity is estimated by using event counting technique. The sensitivity is improved approximately 35% compared with RunPlan results. The effect of systematic uncertainties from background sources on the oscillation sensitivity is studied.
The Organization of Cerebellar Cortical Circuitry Revisited

Abstract: For more than 35 years there has been experimental evidence that parallel fiber activity does not generate the beams of activated Purkinje cells hypothesized on the basis of cortical anatomy and assumed by most theories of cerebellar cortical function. This paper first reviews the evidence for and against the parallel fiber beam hypothesis, and then discusses the findings of our recent experimental and model‐based investigations intended to better understand parallel fiber effects on Purkinje cells. A principal conclusion of these studies is that the excitatory effects of parallel fibers on Purkinje cell dendrites are modulating and must be considered in the context of a balancing inhibitory influence provided by molecular layer interneurons to these same dendrites. It is proposed that this association of excitation and inhibition can account for the lack of beam‐like effects on Purkinje cells. The paper concludes by considering the consequences of this new interpretation of cerebellar cortical circuitry for current theories of cerebellar function.
Role of microglia in ethanol's apoptotic action on hypothalamic neuronal cells in primary cultures.

BACKGROUND Microglia are the major inflammatory cells in the central nervous system and play a role in brain injuries as well as brain diseases. In this study, we determined the role of microglia in ethanol's apoptotic action on neuronal cells obtained from the mediobasal hypothalamus and maintained in primary cultures. We also tested the effect of cAMP, a signaling molecule critically involved in hypothalamic neuronal survival, on microglia-mediated ethanol's neurotoxic action. METHODS Ethanol's neurotoxic action was determined on enriched fetal mediobasal hypothalamic neuronal cells with or without microglia cells or ethanol-activated microglia-conditioned media. Ethanol's apoptotic action was determined using nucleosome assay. Microglia activation was determined using OX6 histochemistry and by measuring inflammatory cytokines secretion from microglia in cultures using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). An immunoneutralization study was conducted to identify the role of a cytokine involved in ethanol's apoptotic action. RESULTS We show here that ethanol at a dose range of 50 and 100 mM induces neuronal death by an apoptotic process. Ethanol's ability to induce an apoptotic death of neurons is increased by the presence of ethanol-activated microglia-conditioned media. In the presence of ethanol, microglia showed elevated secretion of various inflammatory cytokines, of which TNF-α shows significant apoptotic action on mediobasal hypothalamic neuronal cells. Ethanol's neurotoxic action was completely prevented by cAMP. The cell-signaling molecule also prevented ethanol-activated microglial production of TNF-α. Immunoneutralization of TNF-α prevented the microglia-derived media's ability to induce neuronal death. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that ethanol's apoptotic action on hypothalamic neuronal cells might be mediated via microglia, possibly via increased production of TNF-α. Furthermore, cAMP reduces TNF-α production from microglia to prevent ethanol's neurotoxic action.
Work and Family Life of Childrearing Women Workers in Japan: Comparison of Non‐Regular Employees with Short Working Hours, Non‐Regular Employees with Long Working Hours, and Regular Employees

Work and Family Life of Childrearing Women Workers in Japan: Comparison of Non‐Regular Employees with Short Working Hours, Non‐Regular Employees with Long Working Hours, and Regular Employees: Masako Seto, et al. Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine— This study assessed the working and family life characteristics, and the degree of domestic and work strain of female workers with different employment statuses and weekly working hours who are rearing children. Participants were the mothers of preschoolers in a large Japanese city. We classified the women into three groups according to the hours they worked and their employment conditions. The three groups were: non‐regular employees working less than 30 h a week (n=136); non‐regular employees working 30 h or more per week (n=141); and regular employees working 30 h or more a week (n=184). We compared among the groups the subjective values of work, financial difficulties, childcare and housework burdens, psychological effects, and strains such as work and family strain, work‐family conflict, and work dissatisfaction. Regular employees were more likely to report job pressures and inflexible work schedules and to experience more strain related to work and family than non‐regular employees. Non‐regular employees were more likely to be facing financial difficulties. In particular, non‐regular employees working longer hours tended to encounter socioeconomic difficulties and often lacked support from family and friends. Female workers with children may have different social backgrounds and different stressors according to their working hours and work status.
CFD analysis of heat transfer in simultaneously developing region of a square duct using OpenFOAM

Numerical analysis is performed to make a comparative study of laminar forced convective heat transfer in the simultaneously developing regions of heated square ducts. A non-conjugate case, a square duct with single-solid and a square duct with two-solids are selected for the present study. The square duct with two-solids is formed by cladding steel duct over the single-solid Aluminium square duct. The contact resistance between the two solids is neglected. A constant uniform temperature boundary condition is specified over the exterior wall for the ducts and the thermo physical properties of the fluid is assumed to be constant. The non-conjugate case is formed by applying a constant uniform temperature throughout the bulk of the single-solid duct wall. The chtMultiRegionFoam solver in OpenFOAM is used to solve the multiregional heat transfer problem using Finite Volume Method. The results are plotted for longitudinal and transverse distributions of average Nusselt number, local Nusselt number, friction factor and drag coefficient along various curves in the computational domain. The results shows that the average Nusselt number is generally higher for square duct with two solids when compared with single-solid square duct and non-conjugate case.
THE ECHO 28-RHINOVIRUS-CORYZAVIRUS (ERC) GROUP OF VIRUSES.

During the past two years (1-5) we have been studying the properties of a new group of viruses which we isolated from the respiratory secretions of adults with common colds and from children with colds or lower respiratory tract involvement. The strains were designated as coryzavirus. This advance was made possible by employing the newly established WI -26 strain of diploid human fetal lung cells developed by Hayflick and Moorhead (6) of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology. All the agents of the coryzavirus group propagated well and caused marked cytopathology in the WI -26 strain of diploid human cells. All strains were found also to propagate readily and to cause cytopathic changes in KB and in HeLa cell cultures. Indeed, we have found recently that KB cells are as good as, and possibly are superior to, WI-26 cells for primary isolation of these agents. However, varying numbers of blind passages must be made in KB cells before cytopathic effects become obvious. Only one of the coryzaviruses (type 30) propagated and caused cytopathic changes in cell cultures of grivet monkey kidney. Antiserum was prepared in guinea pigs against 35 strains of coryzavirus recovered from adults and children. The strains were separated into 20 distinct immunologic types, based on crossneutralization tests, which have been designated types 11 through 30. The immunologic typing with guinea pig antiserum was confirmed, for all of 10 of the types tested, using paired serum from humans with coryzaviral infection. None of the 20 coryzaviral types were related immunologically to any of the six serologic types of rhinovirus reported by Taylor-Robinson and Tyrrell and their associates (7-9). , or to any of the prototype ECHO, Coxsackie, or reoviruses. Although unrelated immunologically, it was shown that type 28 ECHO virus, the rhinoviruses, and the coryzaviruses share certain biochemical and biophysical properties which provide a basis
Quantification of rilpivirine in human plasma, cervicovaginal fluid, rectal fluid and genital/rectal mucosal tissues using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

BACKGROUND A sensitive, specific and robust liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method has been developed and validated for the quantification of rilpivirine in human plasma, genital/rectal biofluids and mucosal tissues. METHODS Plasma and tissue samples were extracted using protein precipitation (acetonitrile/water; 5:1 v/v), and genital/rectal biofluids absorbed onto ophthalmic swabs were extracted using liquid-liquid extraction (hexane/ethyl acetate; 80:20 v/v). A stable isotope-labeled internal standard ((13)C-d4-RPV) was used, and the assay was validated over a concentration range of 0.5-400 ng/ml. CONCLUSION Inter- and intra-assay precision and accuracy met the acceptance as per US FDA bioanalytical guidelines. The validated assay has been used for the determination of rilpivirine concentrations in these matrices as part of an exploratory pharmacokinetic study investigating the suitability of a long-acting formulation of rilpivirine for pre-exposure prophylaxis.