Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Profiling the subjective effects of Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol using visual analogue scales

The subjective effects of cannabis and its main psychoactive component Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) have played an important part in determining the therapeutic potential of cannabinoid agonists and antagonists. The effects mainly consist of feeling high, changes in perception, feelings of relaxation and occasionally dysphoric reactions. These effects are captured by two of the most frequently used visual analogue scales (VASs) in clinical (pharmacologic) research to measure subjective effects: VAS Bond and Lader (alertness, calmness and mood) and VAS Bowdle (psychedelic effects). In this analysis, the effects of THC on these VASs were compared within a total of 217 subjects who participated in 10 different studies. Not surprisingly, the item feeling high was found to be the best predictor for the effect of THC. Three separate clusters that describe the spectrum of subjective effects of THC were identified using different statistical methods, consisting of VAS “time”, “thoughts” and “high” (“perception”), VAS “drowsy”, “muzzy”, “mentally slow” and “dreamy” (“relaxation”) and VAS “voices”, “meaning” and “suspicious” (“dysphoria”). These results provide experimental evidence that THC can evoke different classes of effects. These distinct subjective clusters could represent effects on various systems in the brain, which can be used to further differentiate the involvement of endocannabinoid systems in health and disease. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Risk of ischaemic heart disease in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: a nationwide Danish cohort study

Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder. Systemic inflammation increases the risk of atherosclerosis and ischaemic heart disease (IHD). Objective To examine the impact of IBD, including its duration and treatment, on the risk of IHD. Methods In a nationwide population-based cohort of 4.6 million Danes aged ≥15 years, we compared people diagnosed with IBD during 1997–2009 (n=28 833) with IBD-free individuals. Subjects with IHD were identified in the National Patient Register. Using Poisson regression, we estimated the incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for IHD with 95% CI with adjustment for age, gender, socioeconomic status, calendar year and use of drugs for comorbidities. Results A markedly increased risk of IHD was seen within the first year after IBD diagnosis (IRR=2.13 95% CI 1.91 to 2.38). During 1–13 years of follow-up after IBD diagnosis, the risk of IHD was 1.22 (95% CI 1.14 to 1.30). The risk of IHD was lower among patients with IBD using 5-aminosalicylic acids (IRR=1.16; 95% CI 1.06 to 1.26) than among non-users (IRR=1.36; 95% CI 1.22 to 1.51) (p=0.02), in particular among oral corticosteroid users, used as a proxy for disease severity. Likewise patients treated surgically or with thiopurines and tumour necrosis factor α antagonists tended to have reduced IRRs for IHD. Conclusions The risk of IHD was highest in the first year after IBD diagnosis, possibly owing to ascertainment bias. The increased long-term risk of IHD in IBD may be related to chronic inflammation, and interventions reducing the inflammatory burden may attenuate this risk.
Experimental control of a single-link flexible robot arm using energy shaping

Flexible-link robotic manipulators are mechanical devices whose control can be rather challenging, among other reasons because of their intrinsic under-actuated nature. This paper presents the application of an energy-based control design methodology (the so-called IDA-PBC, interconnection and damping assignment passivity-based control) to a single-link flexible robotic arm. It is shown that the method is well suited to handle this kind of under-actuated device not only from a theoretical viewpoint but also in practice. A Lyapunov analysis of the closed-loop system stability is given and the design performance is illustrated by means of a set of simulations and laboratory control experiments, comparing the results with those obtained using conventional control schemes for mechanical manipulators.
Ambient maximum temperature as a function of Salmonella food poisoning cases in the Republic of Macedonia

Background: Higher temperatures have been associated with higher salmonellosis notifications worldwide. Aims: The objective of this paper is to assess the seasonal pattern of Salmonella cases among humans. Material and Methods: The relationship between ambient maximum temperature and reports of confirmed cases of Salmonella in the Republic of Macedonia and Skopje during the summer months (i.e. June, July, August and September) beginning in 1998 through 2008 was investigated. The monthly number of reported Salmonella cases and ambient maximum temperatures for Skopje were related to the national number of cases and temperatures recorded during the same timeframe using regression statistical analyses. The Poisson regression model was adapted for the analysis of the data. Results: While a decreasing tendency was registered at the national level, the analysis for Skopje showed an increasing tendency for registration of new salmonella cases. Reported incidents of salmonellosis, were positively associated (P<0.05) with temperature during the summer months. By increasing of the maximum monthly mean temperature of 1° C in Skopje, the salmonellosis incidence increased by 5.2% per month. Conclusions: The incidence of Salmonella cases in the Macedonian population varies seasonally: the highest values of the Seasonal Index for Salmonella cases were registered in the summer months, i.e. June, July, August and September.
A novel reconfigurable hardware architecture for IP address lookup

IP address lookup is one of the most challenging problems of Internet routers. In this paper, an IP lookup rate of 263 Mlps (Million lookups per second) is achieved using a novel architecture on reconfigurable hardware platform. A partial reconfiguration may be needed for a small fraction of route updates. Prefixes can be added or removed at a rate of 2 million updates per second, including this hardware reconfiguration overhead. A route update may fail due to the physical resource limitations. In this case, which is rare if the architecture is properly configured initially, a full reconfiguration is needed to allocate more resources to the lookup unit.
Understanding Bioluminescence in Dinoflagellates—How Far Have We Come?

Some dinoflagellates possess the remarkable genetic, biochemical, and cellular machinery to produce bioluminescence. Bioluminescent species appear to be ubiquitous in surface waters globally and include numerous cosmopolitan and harmful taxa. Nevertheless, bioluminescence remains an enigmatic topic in biology, particularly with regard to the organisms’ lifestyle. In this paper, we review the literature on the cellular mechanisms, molecular evolution, diversity, and ecology of bioluminescence in dinoflagellates, highlighting significant discoveries of the last quarter of a century. We identify significant gaps in our knowledge and conflicting information and propose some important research questions that need to be addressed to advance this research field.
THE VASCULAR PATTERN OF THE RAT KIDNEY.

Since Bowman’s classical paper in 1842 many workers have studied the vessels of the mammalian kidney but there is still no general agreement as to the precise arrangement of the intrinsic blood vessels. There are a number of possible reasons for this, two of which are particularly important. First, many workers have based their investigations upon a study of sections of injected specimens. This is a most misleading method when used alone and it cannot be over-emphasized that it is essential to study any complex vascular bed by microdissection, as it is otherwise quite impossible to trace a vessel for any distance or to be sure either if it is joining another vessel or is merely crossing it. Secondly, many workers have studied only a single species and their findings have been indiscriminately applied to other animals, and even to man. Although it is reasonable to suppose that the basic pattern is likely to be similar in all mammals, there are certain important species differences which much be appreciated before the results of any experimental work can be evaluated. For these reasons, it has been decided to embark upon a detailed study of the distribution of the fine blood vessels in the kidneys of the common laboratory animals and of man by a method which permits the dissection of macerated specimens as well as the study of sections. It is hoped that the results will be of use in the further study of the physiology of the kidney by means of animal experiments. The present work is concerned with the albino rat. This animal was chosen because it is one of the common laboratory animals, its kidneys are relatively simple in structure, and the renal tubules and blood vessels are arranged in clear-cut zones (Pl. 1, fig. 1).
Unusual relation between glass-forming ability and thermal stability of high-entropy bulk metallic glasses

ABSTRACT It is generally accepted that good glass formers have a high thermal stability against crystallization upon heating. In this paper, we report an unusual relationship between thermal stability and glass-forming ability (GFA) for high-entropy bulk metallic glasses (HE-BMGs). As compared with their conventional counterparts in the same alloy system, the HE-BMGs have a lower energy barrier for atomic diffusion during undercooling, which facilitates crystallization and then reduces the GFA. Our results clearly demonstrate that the GFA of BMGs is governed by the kinetics of the undercooled liquid, whilst their thermal stability is controlled by atomic diffusion in the glass-transition regime. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT IMPACT STATEMENT The undercooled liquid behavior of HE-BMGs plays a key role in determining glass formation, but the thermal stability is controlled by the atomic rearrangement in glassy solid state.
Glutamate Microinjected in the Posterodorsal Medial Amygdala Induces Subtle Increase in the Consumption of a Three‐Choice Macronutrient Self‐Selection Diet in Male Rats

Previous studies have involved the “posterodorsal” amygdaloid area with the control of food intake and the development of obesity in rats. Within this wide region, the posterodorsal medial amygdala (MePD) has connections with specific hypothalamic nuclei that increase feeding behavior and modulate energy balance. Glutamate is the major brain excitatory neurotransmitter, remarkably enhances centrally mediated food consumption, and is abundantly found in the MePD. Here, it was studied the effects of saline (0.3 μL) and glutamate (45 nM or 45 mM/0.3 μL) directly microinjected in the MePD of adult male rats on the consumption of a three‐choice (high‐carbohydrate, high‐protein, or high‐lipid) macronutrient selective diet. The rat adaptation to the experimental procedures and its body weight gain were continuously evaluated. Control data for all groups and results following microinjections were obtained after a fasting protocol. Feeding behavior was evaluated during the subsequent 2‐hr period of free access to the selective diets. Both doses of glutamate microinjected in the MePD did not lead to a higher percentage of animals consuming any of the different diets (P > 0.05), although glutamate 45 mM induced a higher consumption of the high‐carbohydrate diet when compared with presurgery control values (P < 0.01). Interestingly, present data indicate that glutamate in the male MePD induces only a subtle modification in the feeding behavior and suggest that large electrolytic lesions of the “posterodorsal” amygdaloid region might have affected other regions to alter drastically meal size consumption in rats. Anat Rec, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Isolation and Structural Studies of Sulfated Glycoproteins of Hog Gastric Mucosa

SUMMARY Sulfated glycoproteins were purified from tryptic digests of hog stomach mucosa. The sulfated glycoprotein fractions were isolated by ethanol and cetylpyridinium chloride pre-cipitation followed by free-flow electrophoresis. The separation of the sulfated glycoproteins was performed by elution from DEAE-Sephadex A-50 with NaCl. After gel filtration of the major fractions on Bio-Gel A-5Om, final separation was achieved by rechromatography on DEAE-Sephadex. The homogeneity of the purified fractions was confirmed by electrophoresis on cellulose acetate strips at pH 1.76 and 9.0. All of the purified sulfated glycoprotein fractions exhibited strong (A + H) blood-group activity. The extent of activity depended on the sulfate content and decreased slightly as a sulfate content increased. Two groups of similar but distinct carbohydrate chains were separated, one containing 18 and the other 14 glycosyl units. The the studied
Pharmacokinetics of the Soluble Guanylate Cyclase Activator Cinaciguat in Individuals With Hepatic Impairment

Cinaciguat is intended for use in patients with acute decompensated heart failure. The drug is eliminated predominantly via the liver and, therefore, the potential impact of hepatic impairment on cinaciguat pharmacokinetics needs to be determined. This nonrandomized, open‐label, observational study investigated the pharmacokinetics of cinaciguat in individuals with mild (Child‐Pugh A; n = 8) or moderate (Child‐Pugh B; n = 8) hepatic impairment and matched healthy volunteers (n = 16). An exploratory analysis of pharmacodynamic parameters was also conducted. Individuals with mild hepatic impairment and their controls received a single (4‐hour) intravenous infusion of 100 μg/h cinaciguat, whereas individuals with moderate hepatic impairment and their controls received 50 μg/h. Cinaciguat was well tolerated and had a favorable safety profile. The most frequent treatment‐emergent adverse events were headache (4 participants) and spontaneous penile erection (2 participants). In individuals with mild hepatic impairment, only minor increases in plasma cinaciguat concentrations and no significant differences in pharmacodynamic parameters were observed, compared with controls. Individuals with moderate hepatic impairment had a substantially higher cinaciguat exposure than controls. This higher exposure was associated with more pronounced vasodilatation. This study demonstrates that in individuals with mild hepatic impairment, individual dose adaptation may not be required.
Fabrication of Hydrophobic ZnO/PMHS Coatings on Bamboo Surfaces: The Synergistic Effect of ZnO and PMHS on Anti-Mildew Properties

Poor mildew resistance has limited the application of bamboo materials. In this work, ZnO/PMHS coatings were fabricated on bamboo timber surfaces by hydrothermal synthesis method and hydrophobic modification with poly(methylhydrogen)siloxane (PMHS). The surface chemical characteristics and microstructure of the bamboo before and after modification were investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and water contact angle (WCA). The morphology results indicated that ZnO on the surface of bamboo forms flower-like aggregations. The WCA of ZnO/bamboo increased from 65° to 142° after PMHS hydrophobic modification, indicating that the hydrophobicity of bamboo was significantly improved. The original bamboo had poor anti-mildew properties when exposed to Trichoderma viride, Aspergillus niger, and Penicillium citrinum. After depositing ZnO onto the surface of the bamboo, the anti-mildew properties were significantly improved. Furthermore, it was found that after PMHS hydrophobic modification, ZnO/bamboo had excellent anti-mildew properties when exposed to the three mold hyphae, which indicated that PMHS hydrophobic modification had a synergistic effect on the anti-mildew properties of bamboo with a ZnO coating.
Escherichia coli in Europe: An Overview

Escherichia coli remains one of the most frequent causes of several common bacterial infections in humans and animals. E. coli is the prominent cause of enteritis, urinary tract infection, septicaemia and other clinical infections, such as neonatal meningitis. E. coli is also prominently associated with diarrhoea in pet and farm animals. The therapeutic treatment of E. coli infections is threatened by the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. The prevalence of multidrug-resistant E. coli strains is increasing worldwide principally due to the spread of mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids. The rise of multidrug-resistant strains of E. coli also occurs in Europe. Therefore, the spread of resistance in E. coli is an increasing public health concern in European countries. This paper summarizes the current status of E. coli strains clinically relevant in European countries. Furthermore, therapeutic interventions and strategies to prevent and control infections are presented and discussed. The article also provides an overview of the current knowledge concerning promising alternative therapies against E. coli diseases.
gm: a practical tool for automating DNA sequence analysis

The gm (gene modeler) program automates the identification of candidate genes in anonymous, genomic DNA sequence data. gm accepts sequence data, organism-specific consensus matrices and codon asymmetry tables, and a set of parameters as input; it returns a set of models describing the structures of candidate genes in the sequence and a corresponding set of predicted amino acid sequences as output, gm is implemented in C, and has been tested on Sun, VAX, Sequent, MIPS and Cray computers. It is capable of analyzing sequences of several kilobases containing multi-exon genes in less than 1 min execution time on a Sun 4/60.
Continuum micromechanics of martensitic laminate microstructure with interface energies

Aufgrund ihrer nicht-konvexen freien Energie und ihrer charakteristischen Gittersymmetrien bilden martensitische Materialien eine Laminat-Mikrostruktur uber diverse Langenskalen, aus der die meisten ihrer thermomechanischen Merkmale abgeleitet werden konnen. Oberflachen und Grenzflachen, die innerhalb der martensitischen Laminat-Mikrostruktur gebildet werden, beeinflussen fast jeden Aspekt ihres Verhaltens. Die vorliegende Arbeit entwickelt ein Allround-Modell bezuglich der Grenzflachen, welches die mikro-, meso- und makroskopischen Eigenschaften der martensitischen Laminat-Mikrostruktur unter Verwendung von Energiemethoden simuliert. Das mikromechanische Kontinuumsmodell besteht aus drei Energieansatzen: 1. elastische Energie eines Laminats erster Ordnung, 2. Zwillingsgrenzflachenenergien der koharenten Grenzflachen, 3. Korngrenzenergie als Mikrodehnungsenergie eines selbstahnlichen Konstrukts. Im Rahmen der Energieminimierung wird ein nichtlineares Finite-Elemente-Schema implementiert.
Continuous automated measurement of gaseous nitrous and nitric acids and particulate nitrite and nitrate.

An automated measurement system for HONO(g) and HNO 3 (g) along with particulate nitrite and nitrate is described. The system alternately measures the gas phase and aerosol phase constituents. The gases are collected by a parallel plate wet denuder, and the effluent aerosol is collected by steam condensation, followed by impaction/thermophoresis. The fully automated instrument provides separate but quantitative collection of gases and particles at relatively high flow rates and displays very low interference from NO and NO 2 . Coupled to an anion chromatograph, the detection limit estimated for a signal equivalent to that of three times the noise level of the blank is 110 parts per quadrillion (ppq, 10 -15 atm) and 230 ppq of gaseous HONO and HNO 3 , respectively, and 230 and 650 pg/m 3 aerosol nitrite and nitrate, respectively, for a 8-min integrated sample. The instrument operates over prolonged periods with minimal attention. Data are reported for outdoor ambient air measurements and for indoor air with kerosene-fueled space heaters in operation.
The Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus ORF34 Protein Binds to HIF-1α and Causes Its Degradation via the Proteasome Pathway

ABSTRACT Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the causative agent for Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and two other lymphoproliferative disorders, primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) and multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD). Kaposi's sarcoma is a highly vascular tumor, and recently both hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) and HIF-2α were detected in KS samples, indicating a role of HIFs in the KSHV life cycle. Previously, we showed that ORF34, a lytic gene of unassigned function, was activated by hypoxia and that ORF34 transcription was upregulated by both HIFs (M. Haque, D. A. Davis, V. Wang, I. Widmer, and R. Yarchoan, J Virol. 77:6761–6768, 2003). In the present study, we show that coexpression of ORF34 with HIF-1αm (degradation-resistant HIF-1α) caused substantial reduction in HIF-1α-dependent transcription, as evidenced by reporter assays. Two-way immunoprecipitation experiments revealed that ORF34 physically interacted with HIF-1αm in transient expression experiments. Deletion analysis revealed that three different ORF34 domains interacted with the amino-terminal domain of HIF-1α. Also, purified HIF-1α and ORF34 proteins interacted with each other. The observed transcriptional inhibition of HIF-1α-dependent promoters was attributed to degradation of HIF-1α after binding with ORF34, since the overall amount of wild-type HIF-1α but not the degradation-resistant one (HIF-1αm) was reduced in the presence of ORF34. Moreover, ORF34 caused degradation of HIF-1α in a dose-dependent manner. Inhibition of the ubiquitin-dependent pathway by the chemical proteasome inhibitor MG132 prevented HIF-1α degradation in the presence of ORF34. These results show that ORF34 binds to HIF-1α, leading to its degradation via the proteasome-dependent pathway.
A framework for describing interactions with graphical widgets

De\cnbmg the user interaction and visual feedback provided by a graphical widget is currently done through combined v ritten description with visual interaction snap-sho~. This approach is laborious and can be repetitive if all the widgets in a Graphical User Interface (GUI) must be documented. Furthermore. such a de.scriptiort does not necessary reveal common widget behavior. nor does it directly guide a person in creating a new widget. One need$ to infer standard behavior from the existing widget set before a new and consistent widget can be designed
Intelligent trading architecture

This work presents the Intelligent Trading Architecture (ITA), which is a new automated trading system architecture that supports multiple strategies for multiple market conditions through hierarchical trading signals generation. The central idea of the proposed system architecture is decomposing the trading problem into a set of tasks that are handled by distributed autonomous agents under a minimal central coordination. With this kind of architecture, we can take advantage of currently available and future high‐performance computing systems. These systems, due to the way computer architecture has evolved in the recent past and foreseeable future, are composed of multiple processor cores. We are implementing the ITA software architecture employing the Carnegie Mellon Navigation (CARMEN) robot control software and using a publish/subscribe communication model. Together, CARMEN and this communication model allow the implementation of high‐performance, scalable parallel computing systems that leverage the architecture of multi‐core systems. For this work, we evaluated the data structures and algorithms employed by the symbol module of the ITA software architecture, which is responsible for maintaining the synchronized local copies of exchanges limit order books (LOB) for the instruments traded by the system. Our LOB implementation strongly outperformed a reference implementation in all evaluated parameters by more than one order of magnitude in some cases, achieving average throughputs of 4 million orders/s when creating new orders, 3 million orders/s when changing existing orders, and 17 million orders/s when querying orders. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.