Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contractile behaviour of cardiac ventricular muscle in strontium solution.

s The contractility of the ventricular muscle of bullfrog in Ca-free Sr Ringer was investigated.The well-known depression of the rate of rise of twitch tension as well as prolongation of the time to peak tension were observed.The latter change was closely related to the lengthening of the action potential duration.The washout of muscle with a divalent cation-free perfusate caused a more rapid decline of the twitch contraction in the muscle preparation preloaded with Sr than in that preloaded with Ca.High potassium solution containing 30 mM caffeine produced a contracture in the muscle preloaded with Sr even after prolonged divalent cation-free perfusion although its magnitude was smaller than in the muscle preloaded with Ca. The pattern of the potassium contracture of the muscle perfused with Sr was quite different from that perfused with Ca.In the former condition the initial transient component was suppressed while the secondary sustained component was prominently augmented.Noradrenaline in 10-5g/ml exerted a negative inotropic effect on the potassium contracture of the Ca-perfused muscle whereas it did not demonstrate any inhibitory effect on the potassium contracture of the Sr-perfused muscle although a marked prolongation as well as a positive inotropism of the twitch contraction were observed in the latter condition. An electron microscopic study revealed that electron-opaque granules, identified as Sr by means of X-ray spectrum microanalysis,are located both in the sarcoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria. From these results it was concluded that Sr replaces Ca in maintaining the electrical and mechanical activities of the heart muscle.It is also suggested that Sr suppresses the inactivation kinetics of the slow ionic channel and exerts some inhibitory effects on myofibrillar ATPase activity.The possibility of contribution of the intracellular binding sites to the regulation of contraction is discussed.Noradrenaline seems to stimulate Ca uptake by the sequestering system but appears to be ineffective in Sr uptake. Received for publication December 27,1976
Lowered Cancer Risk With ACE Inhibitors/ARBs: A Population‐Based Cohort Study

There are conflicting reports on cancer risk associated with angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). This retrospective cohort study was conducted to analyze the risk of cancer development in patients who received ACE inhibitors/ARBs as treatment for essential hypertension. Using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, 297,688 eligible study patients with essential hypertension were identified. According to their antihypertensive prescriptions, the study patients were stratified into an ACE inhibitor group, an ARB group, or a control group. After matching, participants were observed for the occurrence of cancer. In the ACE inhibitor group compared with the control group, the hazard ratio was 0.51 (95% confidence interval, 0.39–0.68). In the ARB group compared with the control group, the hazard ratio was 0.8 (95% confidence interval, 0.65–0.97). Regular use of ACE inhibitors/ARBs was not associated with an increased risk of cancer development and was actually found to decrease overall cancer risk in this study.
Pharmacological regulation in vitro of meiotic resumption in oocytes of Xenopus laevis.

The pharmacological control in vitro of meiotic resumption in Xenopus laevis oocytes was undertaken with a variety of drugs or agents which either mimic a steroidal hormone, progesterone, the physiological inducer of meiosis in vivo and in vitro, potentiate progesterone-induced meiosis (e.g. insulin) or inhibit the action of steroidal and non-steroidal inducers. Most steroidal and non-steroidal inducers trigger a cascade of cellular events which seem to be initiated at the oocyte membrane. One membrane target seems to be the enzyme adenylate cyclase which is inhibited (with concomitant dephosphorylation of yet unknown cellular substrates) by progesterone as well by several other inducers, or activated by inhibitors of meiosis such as cholera toxin or forskolin. However, additional, complementary or subsequent interaction(s) of inducers with other membrane and/or cellular constituents, such as calcium, phospholipids and protein kinase C have been also suggested by experiments with cycloheximide (a protein synthesis inhibitor) or with a serine protease inhibitor, which both inhibit progesterone-induced meiosis. Furthermore, dideoxyadenosine was shown to decrease particulate adenylate cyclase, although it did not induce meiosis in vitro. It is hoped that the great variety of pharmacological agents which can be used at the present time to study in vitro the meiotic resumption of Xenopus laevis oocytes may help to clarify the complex sequence of meiotic events which start at the cell membrane level and progress to the second meiotic metaphase.
A Health Impact Assessment of a Proposed Bill to Decrease Speed Limits on Local Roads in Massachusetts (U.S.A.)

Decreasing traffic speeds increases the amount of time drivers have to react to road hazards, potentially averting collisions, and makes crashes that do happen less severe. Boston’s regional planning agency, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), conducted a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) that examined the potential health impacts of a proposed bill in the state legislature to lower the default speed limits on local roads from 30 miles per hour (mph) to 25 mph. The aim was to reduce vehicle speeds on local roads to a limit that is safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and children. The passage of this proposed legislation could have had far-reaching and potentially important public health impacts. Lower default speed limits may prevent around 18 fatalities and 1200 serious injuries to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians each year, as well as promote active transportation by making local roads feel more hospitable to cyclists and pedestrians. While a lower speed limit would increase congestion and slightly worsen air quality, the benefits outweigh the costs from both a health and economic perspective and would save the state approximately $62 million annually from prevented fatalities and injuries.
REGULARITY OF SOAP FILM-LIKE SURFACES SPANNING GRAPHS IN A RIEMANNIAN MANIFOLD

Let M be an n-dimensional complete simply connected Riemann- ian manifold with sectional curvature bounded above by a nonpositive constant � 2 . Using the cone total curvature TC() of a graph which was intro- duced by Gulliver and Yamada (8), we prove that the density at any point of a soap film-like surfacespanning a graphM is less than or equal to 1 2� {TC() � 2 Area(p× ×) }. From this density estimate we obtain the reg- ularity theorems for soap film-like surfaces spanning graphs with small total curvature. In particular, when n = 3, this density estimate implies that if TC() < 3.649� + � 2 inf p2M Area(p× ×) , then the only possible singularities of a piecewise smooth (M,0,�)-minimizing setare the Y -singularity cone. In a manifold with sectional curvature bounded above by b 2 and diameter bounded by �/b, we obtain similar re- sults for any soap film-like surfaces spanning a graph with the corresponding bound on cone total curvature.
Learning to liaise and elide comme il faut: evidence from bilingual children*

ABSTRACT Liaison and elision in French are phonological phenomena that apply across word boundaries. French-speaking children make errors in contexts where liaison/elision typically occurs in adult speech. In this study, we asked if acquisition of French liaison/elision can be explained in a constructivist framework. We tested if children's liaison/elision was sensitive to co-occurrence and meaning. We expected children's use of liaison/elision to correlate with their experience with French (estimated by vocabulary). Thirty-one French-speaking children (twenty-five bilingual) between three and five years old produced familiar vowel-initial words, following four words: (1) un, (2) deux, (3) un petit and (4) beaucoup de. The children with smaller French vocabularies produced many vowel-initial words and some consonant-initial chunks. The children with larger French vocabularies produced liaison/elision correctly across several frames while associating a number interpretation with liaised consonants. These results suggest that children use a variety of cues to construct the appropriate use of liaison/elision.
Breeding system in a population of Trigonella balansae (Leguminosae).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Although some taxonomic studies in the genus Trigonella have been conducted, there has been no concerted effort to study the breeding system. This paper examines the floral structure and pollination system in a population of T. balansae, an annual pasture legume. METHODS Floral morphology, hand and vector pollination, stigma receptivity, pollen tube growth, using scanning electron and fluorescence microscopy, were conducted. KEY RESULTS Measurements of floral structure from before to after anthesis indicates an inability for T. balansae to self-pollinate and a requirement for an external vector to effectively transfer pollen from the anthers onto the stigmas of this species. Seed set can be obtained by hand or honeybee manipulation of T. balansae flowers. CONCLUSIONS Trigonella balansae is a self-compatible species, but which requires vectors such as honeybees to bring about pollination.
Enumeration of coliform bacteria; A tool for evaluating water quality

Microbial indicators are used to determine whether or not water is safe for use. Recently, concerns have been raised about the appropriate use of microbial indicators to regulate recreational use of water bodies. The present study is conducted to assess the water quality of fresh water reservoir-Adharwadi Lake, Kalyan, Dist. Thane, Maharashtra, India by using, the coliform group of bacteria as indicators of microbiological contamination. On the basis of result, it can be concluded that bacterial fauna showed seasonal variation. Wherein, the highest proportion of indicator coliforms was observed during monsoon season and lowest proportion was observed during winter season. Further it can be concluded that the water from the reservoir is not fit for human consumption as per CPCB standard limits and corrective measures are necessary.
Learning for human-agent collaboration on the semantic Web

Semantic Web is a challenging framework to make Web information machine readable or understandable, but it seems not enough to make human's requirements for collecting and utilizing information automatically. The Agent technology becomes hopeful approach to bridge the gap between humans and machines. Agents may be autonomous and intelligent entities that may travel among agents and human. They get the requirements from human or other agents, and offer an appropriate solution through consulting among them. The main difference between agent and ordinary software development is the issue of coordination, cooperation and learning. This issue is very important for utilizing the Web information. We attempt to give an overview and research challenges with respect to the combination of machine learning and agent technologies with semantic Web from the perspective of interaction as well as interoperability among agents and humans.
Melatonin and Ischemic Stroke: Mechanistic Roles and Action

Stroke is one of the most devastating neurological disabilities and brain's vulnerability towards it proves to be fatal and socio-economic loss of millions of people worldwide. Ischemic stroke remains at the center stage of it, because of its prevalence amongst the several other types attacking the brain. The various cascades of events that have been associated with stroke involve oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction, upregulation of Ca2+ level, and so forth. Melatonin is a neurohormone secreted by pineal and extra pineal tissues responsible for various physiological processes like sleep and mood behaviour. Melatonin has been implicated in various neurological diseases because of its antioxidative, antiapoptotic, and anti-inflammatory properties. We have previously reviewed the neuroprotective effect of melatonin in various models of brain injury like traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. In this review, we have put together the various causes and consequence of stroke and protective role of melatonin in ischemic stroke.
The Influence of Zygosity and Chorion Type on Fat Distribution in Young Adult Twins Consequences for Twin Studies

Abstract An adverse intra-uterine environment has been associated with abdominal fat distribution in singletons. Twins often have a low birth weight and a short gestation. Therefore, they may have an increased risk to develop abdominal obesity. Furthermore, monozygotic monochorionic twins (MZ MC) have a larger intra-pair birth weight difference compared to monozygotic dichorionic twins (MZ DC). If adult anthropometry is programmed in utero, this may affect the intra-pair correlations in adulthood and, consequently, also the results from the classic twin method to estimate genetic and environmental influences. In the present study, we compared the absolute values, the intra-pair differences, and the intra-pair correlations of body mass, height, BMI, and abdominal fat distribution of 424 MZ MC, MZ DC and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs (aged 18–34 yrs). DZ, MZ DC and MZ MC twins did not differ for most anthropometric characteristics. Only MZ women tended (p = 0.03) to accumulate more abdominal fat compared to DZ twins. Overall, the contribution of zygosity and chorion type to adult anthropometry was rather low (≤ 1.7%). Although the intra-pair birth weight difference of MZ MC pairs (10.5% in men, 12.3% in women) was significantly larger compared to that of MZ DC pairs (6.9% and 9.2% resp.), the intra-pair differences in adult anthropometry were similar for both MZ twin types. Also the intra-pair correlations of MZ MC and MZ DC pairs were strikingly alike, suggesting no significant influence of the prenatal environment on adult concordance. In conclusion, the substantial difference in the prenatal environment of MZ MC and MZ DC twins did not result in a difference in intra-pair concordance of adult anthropometry and fat distribution. Therefore, we suggest that the chorion type of MZ twins does not bias the twin design and the estimation of the genetic contribution to adult anthropometry.
Efficient preference learning with pairwise continuous observations and Gaussian Processes

Human preferences can effectively be elicited using pairwise comparisons and in this paper current state-of-the-art based on binary decisions is extended by a new paradigm which allows subjects to convey their degree of preference as a continuous but bounded response. For this purpose, a novel Beta-type likelihood is proposed and applied in a Bayesian regression framework using Gaussian Process priors. Posterior estimation and inference is performed using a Laplace approximation. The potential of the paradigm is demonstrated and discussed in terms of learning rates and robustness by evaluating the predictive performance under various noise conditions on a synthetic dataset. It is demonstrated that the learning rate of the novel paradigm is not only faster under ideal conditions, where continuous responses are naturally more informative than binary decisions, but also under adverse conditions where it seemingly preserves the robustness of the binary paradigm, suggesting that the new paradigm is robust to human inconsistency.
Extending document management systems with user-specific active properties

Document properties are a compelling infrastructure on which to develop document management applications. A property-based approach avoids many of the problems of traditional heierarchical storage mechanisms, reflects document organizations meaningful to user tasks, provides a means to integrate the perspectives of multiple individuals and groups, and does this all within a uniform interaction framework. Document properties can reflect not only categorizations of documents and document use, but also expressions of desired system activity, such as sharing criteria, replication management, and versioning. Augmenting property-based document management systems with active properties that carry executable code enables the provision of document-based services on a property infrastructure. The combination of document properties as a uniform mechanism for document management, and active properties as a way of delivering document services, represents a new paradigm for document management infrastructures. The Placeless Documents system is an experimental prototype developed to explore this new paradigm. It is based on the seamless integration of user-specific, active properties. We present the fundamental design approach, explore the challenges and opportunities it presents, and show our architectures deals with them.
Moving vehicle detection based on optical flow estimation of edge

This paper proposed a moving vehicle detection algorithm based on optical flow estimation on an edge image. Using the Canny operator, the image edge is obtained and refined. Then a set of feature points is extracted from the edge image. The pyramid model of Lucas-Kanade optical flow is used to calculate the optical flow information of the feature point set. A new algorithm, which is called the weighted Kmeans optical flow clustering algorithm, is proposed to cluster feature points and used to identify vehicle pattern of the feature point set on the optical flow so that the moving vehicle can be efficiently extracted from the complicated dynamic background. In this paper the vehicle videos, which are captured by a camera on a moving car, are used as the test data set. The experimental results show that this algorithm can effectively detect the moving vehicles in the videos from the camera on the moving car.
Spectrum sensing of OFDM signals in the presence of CFO: New algorithms and empirical evaluation using USRP

In this work, we consider spectrum sensing of OFDM signals. We deal with the inevitable problem of a carrier frequency offset, and propose modifications to some state-of-the-art detectors to cope with that. Moreover, the (modified) detectors are implemented using GNU radio and USRP, and evaluated over a physical radio channel. Measurements show that all of the evaluated detectors perform quite well, and the preferred choice of detector depends on the detection requirements and the radio environment.
Oral mucositis induced by anticancer treatments: physiopathology and treatments

Oral mucositis is a frequent and devastating side effect of anticancer treatments. It impairs the patient's quality of life and also can be life threatening because severe infections and delayed or incomplete anticancer treatments may result. This problem has been largely overlooked and underestimated in the past. However, recently studies have been performed to precisely identify the epidemiology, cost, consequences, physiopathology, and treatments of oral mucositis. Clinical guidelines have recently been published to help the daily management of this frequent complication. In addition, some innovative new drugs, including palifermin, have been developed to prevent and treat this major side effect of cancer treatments. In this paper we summarize the recent developments of oral mucositis management.
A novel rat model for chemotherapy‐induced alopecia

Background. More than half of all people diagnosed with cancer receive chemotherapy, and approximately 65% of these develop chemotherapy‐induced alopecia (CIA), a side‐effect that can have considerable negative psychological repercussions. Currently, there are very few animal models available to study the mechanism and prevention of CIA.
Proved Metamodels as Backbone for Software Adaptation

In this paper we demonstrate the error-prone status of the UML 2.3 metamodel relating to state machines. We consequently provide a corrected version based on formal proofs written and processed with the help of the Coq system prover. The purpose of the proposed research is to support dynamical adaptation by means of models at runtime. Software components are internally endowed with complex state machines (models) realizing their behavior. Adaptation amounts to dynamically changing the state machines’ structure (for instance, adding a new state). This occurs via SimUML, a state machine execution engine that is constructed on the top of a metamodel resulting from correctness proofs.
Altering The Primal Environment: Health Effects Associated With Assisted Reproductive Technologies

When Darine El-Chaar began her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Ottawa five years ago, she grew curious about the potential health repercussions of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), the catchall term for procedures used to help couples artificially conceive a child. ART involves surgically removing eggs from a woman’s ovaries, combining them with sperm in the laboratory, and returning them to the womb.1 Women undergoing ART take “fertility drugs” such as clomiphene citrate and gonadotropins to stimulate the production of many eggs rather than the single egg that would normally grow during their monthly menstrual cycle.2 El-Chaar wondered about the influence that ART procedures, as well as the underlying infertility itself, might have on the health of children conceived. She is one of many researchers working to answer the fundamental question of whether introducing fertility drugs and manipulating eggs and sperm in a laboratory setting—in essence, altering the primal environment—sets the stage for adverse health effects in children. Artist’s rendering of intracytoplasmic sperm injection, in which a single sperm is inserted into an egg. Although some research indicates such a risk exists, there haven’t been enough large-scale studies to ascertain if the potential effects are severe enough over the long term to deter couples from seeking infertility treatments. Meanwhile, some findings are pointing the way toward possible refinements to improve health outcomes for ART babies.
Promoting cancer screening: lessons learned and future directions for research and practice. Proceedings from a workshop. June 9-10, 2003. Washington, DC, USA.

The authors thank the following individuals for their assistance in providing information for the current article: Jean-Pierre de Landtsheer, Felix Gurtner, Fabio Levi, Rosemary Ancelle-Park, Helene Sancho-Garnier, Cecile Dantzer, Sven Törnberg, Laszlo Tabar, Sonja Eaker, Lars Holmberg, Anne Lindgren, and Peter Nygren. The authors also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.