Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SCARAB: scaling reachability computation on large graphs

Most of the existing reachability indices perform well on small- to medium- size graphs, but reach a scalability bottleneck around one million vertices/edges. As graphs become increasingly large, scalability is quickly becoming the major research challenge for the reachability computation today. Can we construct indices which scale to graphs with tens of millions of vertices and edges? Can the existing reachability indices which perform well on moderate-size graphs be scaled to very large graphs? In this paper, we propose SCARAB (standing for SCAlable ReachABility), a unified reachability computation framework: it not only can scale the existing state-of-the-art reachability indices, which otherwise could only be constructed and work on moderate size graphs, but also can help speed up the online query answering approaches. Our experimental results demonstrate that SCARAB can perform on graphs with millions of vertices/edges and is also much faster then GRAIL, the state-of-the-art scalability index approach.
A Two-Hybrid Screen of the Yeast Proteome for Hsp90 Interactors Uncovers a Novel Hsp90 Chaperone Requirement in the Activity of a Stress-Activated Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase, Slt2p (Mpk1p)

ABSTRACT The Hsp90 chaperone cycle catalyzes the final activation step of several important eukaryotic proteins (Hsp90 “clients”). Although largely a functional form of Hsp90, an Hsp90-Gal4p DNA binding domain fusion (Hsp90-BD) displays no strong interactions in the yeast two-hybrid system, consistent with a general transience of most Hsp90-client associations. Strong in vivo interactions are though detected when the E33A mutation is introduced into this bait, a mutation that should arrest Hsp90-client complexes at a stage where the client is stabilized, yet prevented from attaining its active form. This E33A mutation stabilized the two-hybrid interactions of the Hsp90-BD fusion with ∼3% of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteome in a screen of the 6,000 yeast proteins expressed as fusions to the Gal4p activation domain (AD). Among the detected interactors were the two stress-activated mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases of yeast, Hog1p and Slt2p (Mpk1p). Column retention experiments using wild-type and mutant forms of Hsp90 and Slt2p MAP kinase, as well as quantitative measurements of the effects of stress on the two-hybrid interaction of mutant Hsp90-BD and AD-Slt2p fusions, revealed that Hsp90 binds exclusively to the dually Thr/Tyr-phosphorylated, stress-activated form of Slt2p [(Y-P,T-P)Slt2p] and also to the MAP kinase domain within this (Y-P,T-P)Slt2p. Phenotypic analysis of a yeast mutant that expresses a mutant Hsp90 (T22Ihsp82) revealed that Hsp90 function is essential for this (Y-P,T-P)Slt2p to activate one of its downstream targets, the Rlm1p transcription factor. The interaction between Hsp90 and (Y-P,T-P)Slt2p, characterized in this study, is probably essential in this Hsp90 facilitation of the Rlm1p activation by Slt2p.
Assessment of the knowledge and attitudes of intern doctors to medication prescribing errors in a Nigeria tertiary hospital

Context: Junior doctors are reported to make most of the prescribing errors in the hospital setting. Aims: The aim of the following study is to determine the knowledge intern doctors have about prescribing errors and circumstances contributing to making them. Settings and Design: A structured questionnaire was distributed to intern doctors in National Hospital Abuja Nigeria. Subjects and Methods: Respondents gave information about their experience with prescribing medicines, the extent to which they agreed with the definition of a clinically meaningful prescribing error and events that constituted such. Their experience with prescribing certain categories of medicines was also sought. Statistical Analysis Used: Data was analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 17 (SPSS Inc Chicago, Ill, USA). Chi-squared analysis contrasted differences in proportions; P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: The response rate was 90.9% and 27 (90%) had <1 year of prescribing experience. 17 (56.7%) respondents totally agreed with the definition of a clinically meaningful prescribing error. Most common reasons for prescribing mistakes were a failure to check prescriptions with a reference source (14, 25.5%) and failure to check for adverse drug interactions (14, 25.5%). Omitting some essential information such as duration of therapy (13, 20%), patient age (14, 21.5%) and dosage errors (14, 21.5%) were the most common types of prescribing errors made. Respondents considered workload (23, 76.7%), multitasking (19, 63.3%), rushing (18, 60.0%) and tiredness/stress (16, 53.3%) as important factors contributing to prescribing errors. Interns were least confident prescribing antibiotics (12, 25.5%), opioid analgesics (12, 25.5%) cytotoxics (10, 21.3%) and antipsychotics (9, 19.1%) unsupervised. Conclusions: Respondents seemed to have a low awareness of making prescribing errors. Principles of rational prescribing and events that constitute prescribing errors should be taught in the practice setting.
Histidine Kinase Homologs That Act as Cytokinin Receptors Possess Overlapping Functions in the Regulation of Shoot and Root Growth in Arabidopsis

Cytokinins are plant hormones that may play essential and crucial roles in various aspects of plant growth and development. Although the functional significance of exogenous cytokinins as to the proliferation and differentiation of cells has been well documented, the biological roles of endogenous cytokinins have remained largely unknown. The recent discovery of the Arabidopsis Histidine Kinase 4 (AHK4)/CRE1/WOL cytokinin receptor in Arabidopsis thaliana strongly suggested that the cellular response to cytokinins involves a two-component signal transduction system. However, the lack of an apparent phenotype in the mutant, presumably because of genetic redundancy, prevented us from determining the in planta roles of the cytokinin receptor. To gain insight into the molecular functions of the three AHK genes AHK2, AHK3, and AHK4 in this study, we identified mutational alleles of the AHK2 and AHK3 genes, both of which encode sensor histidine kinases closely related to AHK4, and constructed a set of multiple ahk mutants. Application of exogenous cytokinins to the resultant strains revealed that both AHK2 and AHK3 function as positive regulators for cytokinin signaling similar to AHK4. The ahk2 ahk4 and ahk3 ahk4 double mutants and the ahk single mutants grew normally, whereas the ahk2 ahk3 double mutants exhibited a semidwarf phenotype as to shoots, such as a reduced leaf size and a reduced influorescence stem length. The growth and development of the ahk2 ahk3 ahk4 triple mutant were markedly inhibited in various tissues and organs, including the roots and leaves in the vegetative growth phase and the influorescence meristem in the reproductive phase. We showed that the inhibition of growth is associated with reduced meristematic activity of cells. Expression analysis involving AHK:β-glucuronidase fusion genes suggested that the AHK genes are expressed ubiquitously in various tissues during postembryonic growth and development. Our results thus strongly suggest that the primary functions of AHK genes, and those of endogenous cytokinins, are triggering of the cell division and maintenance of the meristematic competence of cells to prevent subsequent differentiation until a sufficient number of cells has accumulated during organogenesis.
Mumbai stroke registry (2005-2006)--surveillance using WHO steps stroke instrument--challenges and opportunities.

BACKGROUND India will face enormous socioeconomic burden because life expectancy is increasing placing larger numbers of older people at risk of stroke and other chronic diseases. In order to plan prevention strategies, reliable information on stroke epidemiology is required. For uniform data collection (population based), WHO recommends use of STEPS Stroke instrument. STUDY A well-defined community (H-ward) with verifiable census data, and representative of population structure of Mumbai (Bombay), was selected. The manual on WHO STEPwise approach to stroke surveillance (STEPS; http://www.who.int/chp/steps/Manual.pdf) was the operational protocol. RESULTS During the two year study period (Jan 2005 to Dec 2006), 521 new stroke (CVD) cases (males--275 and females--246) were identified; of which 456 (238 males and 218 females) had "first ever stroke"(FES) indicating an annual incidence of 145 per 100,000 persons (CI 95%: 120-170); age adjusted Segi rate: 152/100,000/year (CI 95% 132-172). Two thirds of the FES cases were admitted to health care facilities (Step I: "in-hospital" cases), the remaining 150 (32.8%) either died outside of hospital or were treated at home or nursing homes (Step II: Fatal events in community and Step III: Non-fatal events in community). CVD Diagnosis was supported by CT (Computed Tomography) in 407 (89%) of 456 FES cases: 366 (80.2%) had Ischaemic CVD, 81 (17.7%) had hemorrhagic CVD and 9 (1%) were of unspecified category. The mean age was 66 yrs SD +/- 13.60 and women were older compared with men (mean age 68.9 yrs SD +/- 13.12 versus 63.4 yrs SD +/- 13.53). Hypertension (BP more than 140/90 mm Hg) alone or in various combinations was present in 378 ( 82.8%) cases. Case fatality at 28 days after the FES stroke was 29.8%. Of 320 surviving patients 38.5% had moderate to severe disability. CONCLUSIONS WHO STEPs stroke surveillance Instrument is simple to use and, practical for community surveys. The data are useful for planning stroke prevention campaigns on public awareness and education with regard to diet, exercise, blood pressure control and early symptoms of minor strokes.
A Revisit of Marino-Tomei's Result on Output Feedback Control of a Class of Non-Minimum Phase Nonlinear Systems

Abstract In this note, global stabilization by output feedback is investigated for a class of non-minimum-phase nonlinear systems previously considered by Marino and Tomei (2005). It is shown that it is possible to construct, via a new design method that involves no filter transformation, a globally stabilizing dynamic output feedback controller of order n , instead of n + 2( ρ — 1), for the non-minimum phase nonlinear system in output feedback form Marino and Tomei (2005), under a slightly general condition (i.e., Assumption 2.2) together with the assumption that the nonlinear system is non-minimum-phase with respect to the original output, but minimum-phase with respect to a virtual linear output. Two examples are given to illustrate the simplicity of the new design approach and its effectiveness.
Towards context-based dynamic video adaptation

Nowadays, many devices with different characteristics can be used to access a multimedia content. Some of these characteristics, like memory capacity and screen resolution, turn restricted the access to this content. Researchers have been working in automatically adapting the system, in according with the device capabilities. However, most of this works only consider the network condition, such as bandwidth and packet loss, offering services in a static way. This work presents an alternative for video adaptation. Using a Neural Network we analyze data, suchas devices capabilities, user's preferences or network condition, in order to obtain the most adequate coder's input parameters that will adapt content matching devices' restrictions or users' needs.
Weak acid permeability through lipid bilayer membranes. Role of chemical reactions in the unstirred layer

The premeabilities of planar lipid bilayer (egg phosphatidylcholine- decane) membranes to butyric and formic acids were measured by tracer and pH electrode techniques. The purposes of the study were (a) to establish criteria for the applicability of each method and (b) to resolve a discrepancy between previously published permeabilities determined using the different techniques. Tracer fluxes of butyric acid were measured at several concentrations and pH's. Under symmetrical conditions the one-way flux of butyric acid(J) is described by 1/J = 1/Pul ([HA] + [A-]) + 1/Pm([HA]), where Pul and Pm are the unstirred layer and membrane permeability coefficients. Pm determined in this manner is 950 x 10(4) cm s-1. Published values for the butyric acid permeability for egg phosphatidylcholine-decane bilayers are 11.5 x 10(-4) (Wolosin and Ginsburg, 1975) and 640 x 10(-4) cm s-1 (Orbach and Finkelstein, 1980). Wolosin and Ginsburg measured net fluxes from a solution of pH = Pka into an unbuffered solution containing a pH electrode. Orbach and Finkelstein measured tracers fluxes under symmetrical conditions at pH 7.4. We reproduced the results of Wolosin and Ginsburg and showed that their apparently low Pm was caused by unstirred layer effects in their poorly buffered solutions. The permeability to formic acid (pKa = 3.75) measured by both tracer and pH electrode techniques was approximately 10(-2) cm s-1. However, if pm greater than Pul, the pH electrode technique cannot be used for measuring the permeabilities of weak acids with pKa's greater than approximately 4.
Zero-crossing based image projections encoding for eye localization

This paper introduces a feature extraction and classification framework that is capable of fast and accurate description of the eye area. The extracted features are based on the combination of integral image projections with TESPAR signal encoding. While image projections were widely used in the field of image analysis, TESPAR was developed for speech recognition and it was only very recently used in conjunction with image signals. Using the unique combinations of the two techniques, we construct features that are easy to compute and provide independency with scale and illumination variation. The computed features are used as inputs into a Multi Layer Perceptron and the capabilities of the resulting framework are proved in an application of eye localization.
Anomalous binding of epidermal growth factor to A431 cells is due to the effect of high receptor densities and a saturable endocytic system

This study was conducted to determine how extraordinarily high numbers of epidermal growth factor receptors (EGF-R) affected the binding and internalization of EGF in the transformed cell line A431. I found that at low EGF concentrations, the kinetics of binding behaved as a nonsaturable, first-order process showing no evidence of multiple- affinity classes of receptors. However, EGF dissociation rates were strongly dependent on the degree of receptor occupancy in both intact cells and isolated membranes. This occupancy-dependent dissociation appears to be due to diffusion-limited binding. EGF-induced receptor internalization was rapid and first order when the absolute number of occupied receptors was below 4 x 10(3) min-1. However, at higher occupancies the specific internalization rate progressively declined to a final limiting value of 20% normal. The saturation of EGF-R endocytosis was specific since internalization of transferrin receptors was not affected by high concentrations of either transferrin or EGF. Saturation of EGF-R endocytosis probably involves a specific component of the endocytic pathway since fluid phase endocytosis increased coordinately with EGF-R occupancy. I conclude that there are several aspects of EGF-R dynamics on A431 cells are neither similar to the behavior of EGF-R in other cell types nor similar to the reported behavior of other hormone receptors. Although A431 cells have an extraordinary number of EGF-R, they do not seem to have corresponding levels of at least two other crucial cell surface components: one that mediates EGF-induced rapid receptor internalization and one that attenuates EGF-induced membrane responses. These factors, in addition to the presence of diffusion-limited binding at low EGF concentrations, are probably responsible for the appearance of multiple-affinity classes of receptors in this cell type.
The Impact of Clientele Changes: Evidence from Stock Splits

We examine the trades of individual and professional investors around stock splits and find that splits bring about a significant shift in investor clientele. We find that a higher fraction of post-split trades are made by less sophisticated investors, as individual investors increase and professional investors reduce their aggregate buying activity following stock splits. This behavior supports the common practitioners' belief that stock splits help attract new investors and improve stock liquidity. The shift in clientele also influences return properties, price discovery, and asset prices: stocks exhibit stronger serial correlation after splits; stocks co-move more with the market index; and the introduction of new investors explains part of the positive post-split drift puzzle.
Non-Invasive Hemoglobin Monitoring during Hemorrhage and Hypovolemic Shock

Abstract : Serial blood draws for the assessment of a trauma patient's hemoglobin (sHgb) and hematocrit (sHct) is standard practice. In the event of multiple casualties this process can be time consuming and lead to the inefficient use of valuable resources. A device that would allow for continuous real-time, non-invasive monitoring of hemoglobin and tissue perfusion would not only improve the utilization of scarce and valuable resources but would also improve triage efforts. We developed a device utilizing the technology of Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy (DOS) to obtain non-invasive measurements of tissue hemoglobin concentration (THC) and oxygen consumption in an animal model of hypovolemic shock induced by successive blood withdrawals. Measured DOS results were compared against invasive systemic physiological measurements to demonstrate that DOS provides a reliable non-invasive measurement of tissue THC, and also quantifies various degrees of hemorrhage induced systemic hypovolemia and subsequent tissue perfusion decreases. DOS provides a potential platform for reliable non-invasive measurements of tissue oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin and may accurately reflect the degree of systemic hypovolemia and compromised tissue perfusion.
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND GROUP PROCESSES Hiding in the Crowd: Can Mortality Salience Promote Affiliation With Others Who Oppose One’s Worldviews?

The present research highlights affiliation defenses in the psychological confrontation with death. In 3 experiments, it was found that mortality salience led to increased affiliation strivings, as indicated by a greater preference for sitting within a group as opposed to sitting alone. Mortality salience actually led to increased affiliation with a worldview-threatening group (Experiments 1–2), even when affiliation with the group forced participants to attack their own worldviews (Experiment 3). Taken together, the findings support a distinct role of affiliation defenses against existential concerns. Moreover, affiliation defenses seem powerful enough to override worldview validation defenses, even when the worldviews in question are personally relevant and highly accessible.
Influence of phase-diffuser dynamics on scintillations of laser radiation in Earth's atmosphere: Long-distance propagation

The effect of a random phase diffuser on fluctuations of laser light (scintillations) is studied. Not only spatial but also temporal phase variations introduced by the phase diffuser are analyzed. The explicit dependence of the scintillation index on finite-time phase variations is obtained for long propagation paths. It is shown that for large amplitudes of phase fluctuations, a finite-time effect decreases the ability of phase diffuser to suppress the scintillations.
Fast and Slow Gating Relaxations in the Muscle Chloride Channel Clc-1

Gating of the muscle chloride channel CLC-1 involves at least two processes evidenced by double-exponential current relaxations when stepping the voltage to negative values. However, there is little information about the gating of CLC-1 at positive voltages. Here, we analyzed macroscopic gating of CLC-1 over a large voltage range (from −160 to +200 mV). Activation was fast at positive voltages but could be easily followed using envelope protocols that employed a tail pulse to −140 mV after stepping the voltage to a certain test potential for increasing durations. Activation was biexponential, demonstrating the presence of two gating processes. Both time constants became exponentially faster at positive voltages. A similar voltage dependence was also seen for the fast gate time constant of CLC-0. The voltage dependence of the time constant of the fast process of CLC-1, τf, was steeper than that of the slow one, τs (apparent activation valences were z f ∼ −0.79 and z s ∼ −0.42) such that at +200 mV the two processes became kinetically distinct by almost two orders of magnitude (τf ∼ 16 μs, τs ∼ 1 ms). This voltage dependence is inconsistent with a previously published gating model for CLC-1 (Fahlke, C., A. Rosenbohm, N. Mitrovic, A.L. George, and R. Rüdel. 1996. Biophys. J. 71:695–706). The kinetic difference at 200 mV allowed us to separate the steady state open probabilities of the two processes assuming that they reflect two parallel (not necessarily independent) gates that have to be open simultaneously to allow ion conduction. Both open probabilities could be described by Boltzmann functions with gating valences around one and with nonzero “offsets” at negative voltages, indicating that the two “gates” never close completely. For comparison with single channel data and to correlate the two gating processes with the two gates of CLC-0, we characterized their voltage, pHint, and [Cl]ext dependence, and the dominant myotonia inducing mutation, I290M. Assuming a double-barreled structure of CLC-1, our results are consistent with the identification of the fast and slow gating processes with the single-pore and the common-pore gate, respectively.
Bioidentical hormone therapy: a review

Objective:The terms “natural” or “bioidentical” hormone therapy (NHT) are used to describe hormone treatment with individually compounded recipes of certain steroids in various dosage forms, including dehydroepiandrosterone, pregnenolone, testosterone, progesterone, estrone, estradiol, and estriol. Based on the results of a person's salivary hormone levels, the final composition of the compounded dosage form is individualized to that specific person. Proponents claim that NHT is better tolerated than manufactured products. This paper is intended to review the concept of NHT and to determine whether there is sufficient scientific evidence to support its use. Design:A literature search was performed in Medline using the following MeSH terms and key words: drug combinations; progestational hormones; hormone replacement therapy; endometrium; estrogen replacement therapy; climacteric; menopause; estradiol; estrogens; progesterone; drug monitoring; and drug compounding. Current Contents, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Lexis Nexis, Google, Medscape, MD Consult, and clinicaltrials.gov were searched with key words. Results:There are a few observational studies and clinical trials comparing conventional hormone therapy with bioidentical hormone therapy. Studies generally lacked adequate study design, including small sample sizes and comparison of inequivalent doses, to prove safety and efficacy. Little evidence was found to support individualized hormone dosing based upon saliva hormone concentrations. Conclusion:Evidence suggests that, although individualized hormonal products may decrease some symptoms of menopause, it seems they have no proven advantage over conventional hormone therapies and their use is not supported by evidence regarding pharmacokinetics, safety, and efficacy.