Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Untargeted Metabolomics Reveals Dose-Response Characteristics for Effect of Rhubarb in a Rat Model of Cholestasis

Cholestasis is a serious manifestation of liver diseases with limited therapies. Rhubarb, a widely used herbal medicine, has been frequently used at a relatively large dose for treating cholestasis. However, whether large doses are optimal and the therapeutic mechanism remain unclear. To explore these questions, the anti-cholestatic effect of five doses of rhubarb (0.21, 0.66, 2.10, 6.60, and 21.0 g/kg) in an alpha-naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT)-induced rat model of cholestasis was examined by histopathology and serum biochemistry. A dose-dependent anti-cholestatic effect of rhubarb (0.21–6.6 g/kg) was observed, and an overdose of 21.0 g/kg showed a poor effect. LC-MS-based untargeted metabolomics together with pathway analysis were further applied to characterize the metabolic alterations induced by the different rhubarb doses. Altogether, 13 biomarkers were identified. The dose-response curve based on nine important biomarkers indicated that doses in the 0.42–6.61 g/kg range (EC20–EC80 range, corresponding to 4.00–62.95 g in the clinic) were effective for cholestasis treatment. The pathway analysis showed that bile acid metabolism and excretion, inflammation and amino acid metabolism were altered by rhubarb in a dose-dependent manner and might be involved in the dose-response relationship and therapeutic mechanism of rhubarb for cholestasis treatment.
To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate, that is the question. Much of the recent trend in society against vaccination is that the general population does not understand 1) how vaccines work and 2) how one’s vaccination status can influence others. Further compounding this is rather low acceptance of the influenza vaccine, a vaccine which is sometimes not even effective against the strains predominantly in circulation. Through engaging in a conversation about the role of vaccines in immunity not only of oneself but also about surrounding persons, we can increase vaccine acceptance. Herein is a physical assay which illustrates the concept of herd immunity with differing levels of vaccinations within a population. Students will learn that low vaccination rates do little to nothing to stop disease spread and that a large portion of the population (80%) is necessary to achieve near-eradication. This lesson is able to be taught at multiple levels using supplies that can mostly be obtained at the grocery store. In addition to illustrating vaccination, this study approximates a direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), enabling students to better understand that technique and how it is used to diagnose disease as well as the interrelation between antigens and antibodies
Phylogenetic analysis of ZmPP2C, a protein phosphatase 2C gene from Zea mays

ZmPP2C was a protein phosphatase 2C gene that we cloned from maize roots. It is an important type of protein phosphatase family. AlignX is a software which can compare homology of many proteins or nucleic acids and search homologous fragments or different bases in high similarity sequences. This paper makes use of the AlignX program to visualize and analyze DNA sequences of ZmPP2C comparing with other protein phosphatase 2C from Arabidopsis and other plants. Based on the AlignX program, we map the phyligenetic trees and analyse them. The conclusion shows that ZmPP2C has high homology with MPC9 from Mesembryanthemum crystallinum Linn (ice plant). And in another phylogenetic analysis of ZmPP2C and all PP2Cs from Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis), ZmPP2C has high homology with Group F, which was classified by enzyme-catalyzed region.
Entropies, Convexity, and Functional Inequalities on Phi-entropies and Phi-sobolev Inequalities

Our aim is to provide a short and self contained synthesis which generalise and unify various related and unrelated works involving what we call Φ-Sobolev functional inequalities. Such inequalities related to Φ-entropies can be seen in particular as an inclusive interpolation between Poincaré and Gross logarithmic Sobolev inequalities. In addition to the known material, extensions are provided and improvements are given for some aspects. Stability by tensor products, convolution, and bounded perturbations are addressed. We show that under simple convexity assumptions on Φ, such inequalities hold in a lot of situations, including hyper-contractive diffusions, uniformly strictly log-concave measures, Wiener measure (paths space of Brownian Motion on Riemannian Manifolds) and generic Poisson space (includes paths space of some pure jumps Lévy processes and related infinitely divisible laws). Proofs are simple and relies essentially on convexity. We end up by a short parallel inspired by the analogy with Boltzmann-Shannon entropy appearing in Kinetic Gases and Information Theories.
Information Security and National Culture Comparison between ERP system security implementations in Singapore and Sweden

SUMMARY IT security, national culture and enterprise resource planning systems that seem to be three distinctive concepts have been merged in this explorative study. Several factors have contributed to the conception of this converging thesis idea; (1) the growing importance of IT security within organizations, (2) the globalization trend that is " shrinking " the world and bringing varying national cultures more interconnected to each other, and (3) the majority of computer software, not the least Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, are designed and produced in one country under the influence of one culture, then marketed and used worldwide. The key question that arises from all these factors is how national cultures impact IT security implementation within ERP systems. The empirical study focused on two countries; Singapore in Southeast Asia and Sweden in Northern Europe. Both countries share similar characteristics on a macro perspective, yet culturally contrasting, enabling a comparison on a corporate level. Four companies – two in respective country – were included in the study. The IT or Finance Managers of these companies were interviewed in order to extract basic company and system information, as well as specifically to examine how the authorization process within the ERP system is implemented, communicated, and enforced. The results were then linked to Hofstede's four national culture dimensions for analysis. A significant linkage could be established in the analysis; noticeable variations in IT security implementation existed along Hofstede's dimensions where Singapore and Sweden differed the most culturally (power distance & individualism and collectivism), less or no differences were detected along the other two dimensions (uncertainty avoidance & masculinity and femininity) where Singapore and Sweden were relatively similar culturally. The human factor was identified as essential to the effectiveness of IT security implementation, concurring with previous studies in this field. A general lack of enforcement and sense of priority from the highest-ranking executives was also discovered. In terms of product and managerial implications, national culture-specific solutions to security problems can be designed and implemented, which was demonstrated and applied in a II comprehensive case study based on the company IBS's ERP software and a password security issue uncovered during the interviews. There are also solutions that can be employed universally, yet these measures are general and broad in both purpose and scope, making them expensive to utilize and complex to maintain.
Towards unconstrained face recognition from image sequences

The paper presents experiments using a radial basis function (RBF) network to tackle the unconstrained face recognition problem using low resolution video information. Input representations that mimic the effects of receptive field functions found at various stages of the human vision system were used with RBF network; that learnt to classify and generalise over different views of each person to be recognised. In particular, Difference of Gaussian (DoG) filtering and Gabor wavelet analysis are compared for face recognition from an image sequence. RBF techniques are shown to provide excellent levels of performance where the view varies and the authors discuss how to relax constraints on data capture and improve preprocessing to obtain an effective scheme for real-time, unconstrained face recognition.
Hochschild cohomology and characteristic classes for star products

We show that the Hochschild cohomology of the algebra obtained by formal deformation quantization on a symplectic manifold is isomorphic to the formal series with coefficients in the de Rham cohomology of the manifold. The cohomology class obtained by differentiating the star-product with respect to the deformation parameter is seen to be closely related to the characteristic class of the quantization. A fundamental role in the analysis is played by ``quantum Liouville operators,'' which rescale the deformation parameter in the same way in which Liouville vector fields scale the Poisson structure (or the units of action). Several examples are given.
Evaluation of Fault-Tolerant Multiprocessor Systems for High Assurance Applications

In designing high assurance systems, the dependability goals are achieved through the adoption of several fault tolerance techniques. Unfortunately, their combined effect on the system cannot be, in the general case, derived by straightforward composition of the stand-alone component's analysis, because of mutual dependence of their controlling parameters. In this paper the assessment of overall system dependability induced by such integrated fault tolerance organizations is carried out through a stochastic simulation approach. To this purpose, a few fault tolerant multiprocessor architectures, based on the integrated usage of standard error processing structures with a recently proposed diagnostic mechanism, called -count, are selected and evaluated. The diagnostic mechanism gets its input (error signals) from the error processing mechanism, whose behaviour is in turn influenced by the rapidity and correctness with which -count identifies permanently/intermittently faulty processors. The choice of the basic fault tolerance mechanisms to adopt, as well as the reference system architecture, has been driven by the characteristics of the envisaged target applications: mainly, stringent dependability requirements, to be traded with adequate levels of performance and cost. The analysis has been focused on performability, which is an appropriate measure to evaluate whether a certain design is "better" than another under dependability and performance point of view.
MultiMatch: multiple Access to Cultural Heritage

Our shared cultural heritage (CH) is an essential part of our European identity, transcending cultural and language barriers. The aim of the MultiMatch project is to enable users to explore and interact with online internet-accessible CH content, across media types and language boundaries, in ways that do justice to the multitude of existing perspectives. This has been achieved through the development of a search engine targeted for the access, organisation and personalized presentation of large and complex cultural heritage information. MultiMatch aims at heterogeneous digital object retrieval and presentation.
Trehalose-6-phosphate and SnRK1 kinases in plant development and signaling: the emerging picture

Carbohydrates, or sugars, regulate various aspects of plant growth through modulation of cell division and expansion. Besides playing essential roles as sources of energy for growth and as structural components of cells, carbohydrates also regulate the timing of expression of developmental programs. The disaccharide trehalose is used as an energy source, as a storage and transport molecule for glucose, and as a stress-responsive compound important for cellular protection during stress in all kingdoms. Trehalose, however, is found in very low amounts in most plants, pointing to a signaling over metabolic role for this non-reducing disaccharide. In the last decade, trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P), an intermediate in trehalose metabolism, has been shown to regulate embryonic and vegetative development, flowering time, meristem determinacy, and cell fate specification in plants. T6P acts as a global regulator of metabolism and transcription promoting plant growth and triggering developmental phase transitions in response to sugar availability. Among the T6P targets are members of the Sucrose-non-fermenting1-related kinase1 (SnRK1) family, which are sensors of energy availability and inhibit plant growth and development during metabolic stress to maintain energy homeostasis. In this review, we will discuss the opposite roles of the sugar metabolite T6P and the SnRK1 kinases in the regulation of developmental phase transitions in response to carbohydrate levels. We will focus on how these two global regulators of metabolic processes integrate environmental cues and interact with hormonal signaling pathways to modulate plant development.
Hopping movement simulation of elastic actuator

In this paper, we presented a multimodal elastic actuator which combining the motor, spring, brake and clutch that produces several modes of operation. The operation modes including stiff position control, series elastic actuation as well as the possibility to store and release energy were analyzed. A prototype of multimodal elastic actuator was constructed, dynamics equations of elastic actuator were established, and hopping movements with harmonic excitation were studied. Hopping movement was analyzed using receding horizon policy, the elastic actuator was controlled with preloaded hopping, and the hopping simulations with different ground trajectories were studied. The hopping movement simulation study of multimode elastic actuator provides important theoretical basis for the understanding of motion mechanism of bionic actuator and control implementation of hopping movement.
Toward Precise Constraints on the Growth of Massive Black Holes

Growth of massive black holes (MBHs) in galactic centers comes mainly from gas accretion during their QSO/AGN phases. In this paper we apply an extended Sołtan argument, connecting the local MBH mass function with the time integral of the QSO luminosity function to the demography of MBHs and QSOs from recent optical and X-ray surveys, and obtain robust constraints on the luminosity evolution (or mass growth history) of individual QSOs (or MBHs). We find that the luminosity evolution probably involves two phases, an initial exponentially increasing phase set by the Eddington limit and a following phase in which the luminosity declines with time as a power law (with a slope of ~–1.2 to –1.3) set by a self-similar long-term evolution of disk accretion. Neither an evolution involving only the increasing phase with a single Eddington ratio nor an exponentially declining pattern in the second phase is likely. The period of a QSO radiating at a luminosity higher than 10% of its peak value is about (2–3) × 108 yr, during which the MBH obtains ~80% of its mass. The mass-to-energy conversion efficiency is ≃0.16 ± 0.04+ 0.05−0, with the latter error accounting for the maximum uncertainty due to Compton-thick AGNs. The expected Eddington ratios in QSOs from the constrained luminosity evolution cluster around a single value close to 0.5-1 for high-luminosity QSOs and extend to a wide range of lower values for low-luminosity ones. The Eddington ratios for high-luminosity QSOs appear to conflict with those estimated from observations (~0.25) by using some virial mass estimators for MBHs in QSOs, unless the estimators systematically overestimate MBH masses by a factor of 2-4. We also infer the fraction of optically obscured QSOs, ~60%-80%. The constraints obtained above are not affected significantly by MBH mergers and multiple times of nuclear activity (e.g., triggered by multiple times of galaxy wet major mergers) in the MBH growth history. We discuss further applications of the luminosity evolution of individual QSOs to obtaining the MBH mass function at high redshifts and the cosmic evolution of triggering rates of nuclear activity.
Dietary deficiency of N-3 fatty acids alters rhodopsin content and function in the rat retina.

PURPOSE To investigate the possibility that previously demonstrated reductions in photoreceptor sensitivity to light in n-3 fatty-acid-deficient rats can be explained by alterations in rhodopsin content and/or function. METHODS Sprague-Dawley rats were reared throughout gestation, lactation, and up to 24 weeks of age on a diet containing safflower oil (n-3 fatty-acid-deficient) or soybean oil as the sole source of lipids. Dark-adapted content and in vivo regeneration of rhodopsin after bleaching were measured by detergent extraction. The regeneration rate constants and number of photons absorbed by rhodopsin under steady-state bleach conditions were calculated from these values. The rate of metarhodopsin II (MII) formation in vitro was determined by flash bleaching extracted pigment and native rod outer segment membranes. Rod outer segment length and photoreceptor cell density were determined in histologic sections through the inferior central retina. RESULTS Dark-adapted rhodopsin content of retinas from rats reared on safflower oil was 12% to 15% higher than that of rats raised on soybean oil at every age measured. The rate of rhodopsin regeneration was significantly slower in rats reared on safflower oil while the level of steady-state bleach was the same. This meant that the rats reared on safflower oil absorbed about one half as many photons during light exposure. The rate of metarhodopsin II formation in vitro was unaffected by n-3 fatty acid deficiency. No difference in either rod outer segment length or cell number was detected. CONCLUSION A reduced capacity for photon absorption by rhodopsin could play a role in lowering retinal sensitivity to light in n-3 fatty-acid-deficient rats.
Reconciling Factor Graph with User Feedback

Factor graph is a representative graphical model to handle uncertainty of random variables. Factor graph has been used in various application domains such as named entity recognition, social network analysis, and credibility evaluation. In this paper, we study the problem of reducing uncertainty in factor graph towards reaching a common truth or deterministic information. We propose a pay-as-you-go approach that leverages user feedback for uncertainty reduction. As the availability of human input is often limited, we develop techiniques to identify the most uncertain spots in factor graph for maximizing the benefits of a given user feedback. We demonstrate the efficiency of our techniques on real-world applications.
Gravitational waves from coalescing massive black holes in young dense clusters

HST observations reveal that young massive star clusters form in gas‐rich environments like the Antennae galaxy which will merge in collisional processes to form larger structures. These clusters amalgamate and if some of these clusters harbour a massive black hole in their centres, they can become a strong source of gravitational waves when they coalesce. In order to understand the dynamical processes that are into play in such a scenario, one has to carefully study the evolution of the merger of two of such young massive star clusters and more specifically their respective massive black holes. This will be a promising source of gravitational waves for both, LISA and the proposed Big Bang Observer (BBO), whose first purpose is to search for an inflation‐generated gravitational waves background in the frequency range of 10−1 – 1 Hz. We used high‐resolution direct summation N‐body simulations to study the orbital evolution of two colliding globular clusters with different initial conditions. Even if the fin.
International Capital Market Integration, Educational Choice and Economic Growth

This paper examines the impact of capital market integration (CMI) on higher education and economic growth. We take into account that participation in higher education is non-compulsory and depends on individual choice. Integration increases (decreases) the incentives to participate in higher education in capital-importing (-exporting) economies, all other things equal. Increased participation in higher education enhances productivity progress and is accompanied by rising wage inequality. From a national policy point of view, education expenditure should increase after integration of similar economies. Using foreign direct investment (FDI) as a measure for capital flows, we present empirical evidence which largely confirms our main hypothesis: An increase in net capital inflows in response to CMI raises participation in higher education and thereby fosters economic growth. We apply a structural estimation approach to fully track the endogenous mechanisms of the model.
Multilevel Modular DC/DC Power Converter for High-Voltage DC-Connected Offshore Wind Energy Applications

Recently, the interest in offshore wind farms has been significantly increased because of the stronger and more stable winds at sea, which will lead to a higher power production. DC/DC power conversion solutions are becoming more popular for fulfilling the growing challenges in the high-voltage (HV) dc-connected offshore wind power industry. This paper presents several multilevel modular dc/dc conversion systems based on the capacitor-clamped (CC) module concept for high-power offshore wind energy applications. Two types of the CC modules, namely, the double-switch (DS) module and the switchless (SL) module, are discussed. A soft-switching technique is adopted to achieve minimal switching losses and the maximum system efficiency. Theoretical analysis is carried out for the 2n+1-level cascaded configurations based on the CC modules. The inherent interleaving property of the proposed configurations effectively reduces the output voltage ripple without adding extra components. A cascaded hybrid topology is developed by the combination of DS and SL modules. The proposed hybrid topology achieves higher efficiency and lower component count. The cascaded hybrid approach is evaluated in terms of the power device count, reliability, and efficiency against other HV dc/dc topologies to demonstrate its advantage for HVDC-connected offshore wind farms. The experimental results of two 5-kW prototype CC converters are presented to validate the theoretical analysis and principles as well as attest the feasibility of the proposed topologies.
Discovery of MINC1, a GTPase-Activating Protein Small Molecule Inhibitor, Targeting MgcRacGAP

The Rho family of Ras superfamily small GTPases regulates a broad range of biological processes such as migration, differentiation, cell growth and cell survival. Therefore, the availability of small molecule modulators as tool compounds could greatly enhance research on these proteins and their biological function. To this end, we designed a biochemical, high throughput screening assay with complementary follow-up assays to identify small molecule compounds inhibiting MgcRacGAP, a Rho family GTPase activating protein involved in cytokinesis and transcriptionally upregulated in many cancers. We first performed an in-house screen of 20,480 compounds, and later we tested the assay against 342,046 compounds from the NIH Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository. Primary screening hit rates were about 1% with the majority of those affecting the primary readout, an enzyme-coupled GDP detection assay. After orthogonal and counter screens, we identified two hits with high selectivity towards MgcRacGAP, compared with other RhoGAPs, and potencies in the low micromolar range. The most promising hit, termed MINC1, was then examined with cell-based testing where it was observed to induce an increased rate of cytokinetic failure and multinucleation in addition to other cell division defects, suggesting that it may act as an MgcRacGAP inhibitor also in cells.