Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vitamin E: A potential therapy for gastric mucosal injury

Abstract Context: Many scientific reports have shown the involvement of oxidative stress and inflammation as well as diminished gastroprotective substances in the pathogenesis of gastric lesions using various models. Therefore, treatment with antioxidants like tocopherol and tocotrienol may afford beneficial effects in attentuating the formation of the gastric lesions. Objective: The aim of this work was to summarize documented reports on the effects of vitamin E on various models of gastric lesion. Methods: A literature search was performed from databases in Medline (PubMed), Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Googlescholar from June to December 2013. Results and conclusion: The potential roles of tocopherol and tocotrienol in modifying the effects of ulcerogenic agents are discussed in this review. The protective effects of the vitamin E might involve ameliorating oxidative stress and inflammation as well as restoration of endogenous gastroprotective substances. This vitamin has the potential to be used as a therapy for gastric mucosal injury.
Hiding Memory Latency using Dynamic Scheduling in Shared-Memory Multiprocessors

The large latency of memory accesses is a major impediment to achieving high performance in large scale shared-memory multi- processors. Relaxing the memory consistency model is an attractive technique for hiding this latency by allowing the overlap of memory accesses with other computation and memory accesses. Previous studies on relaxed models have shown that the latency of write accesses can be hidden by buffering writes and allowing reads to bypass pending writes. Hiding the latency of reads by exploiting the overlap allowed by relaxed models is inherently more difficult, however, simply because the processor depends on the return value for its future computation. This paper explores the use of dynamically scheduled processors to exploit the overlap allowed by relaxed models for hiding the latency of reads. Our results are based on detailed simulation studies of several parallel applications. The results show that a substantial fraction of the read latency can be hidden using this technique. However, the major improvements in performance are achieved only at large instruction window sizes.
Investigating the Potential of a Two-finger Chord Button in Multi-touch Applications

With the increasing use of multi-touch (MT) capable devices, MT interaction has become a commodity during the last years. From personal devices to larger multi-user screens, MT functionality is nowadays considered as a standard way of performing rich interactions. However, moving from a single-touch interaction to a dual-touch and consequently to MT is not always without challenges for the average user. Although, the use of single-touch is very common, interaction design have yet to be examined thoroughly by taking into account potential differences of single and multi-touch functionality. In this work, we investigate the potential of a two-finger chord button in comparison to the traditional single touch buttons that we find in touchscreens. Based on the fact that users are familiar with single touch buttons (even before the MT screens) our hypotheses are: the use of a two finger chord button a) decreases users' efficiency, and b) delays users' responses. In order to investigate our hypotheses, we conducted a controlled experiment with 12 users working on an appropriately designed MT application. The empirical results have indicated that the use of two-finger button significantly delays users' response-time while it does not affect users' efficiency on the performed task.
Mining for attributes and values in tables

Table has been recognized as a simply and widely used data representation scheme. Each table alone typically contains rich and useful information which is valuable for many applications such as information retrieval, question-answering and etc. While all table formats can simply be parsed by human, this parsing is difficult for computer, prohibiting such applications to be done in an automatic manner. In this paper, we thus propose the comprehensive and novel table interpretation technique, namely tInterpreter. Essentially, it transforms a table into its corresponding horizontal 1-dimensional tables. To achieve this, the underlying work is based on (i) the similarity of two given cells with respect to the data type and the semantic correspondence concerns; (ii) the discovery for the boundary of a primitive table residing in a composite table; (iii) the identification of the attribute-value relationship and the value association of cells; and (iv) the integration of two pieces of similar or dissimilar information. The experimental result showed that the overall effectiveness of tInterpreter was higher than Chen, Tengli and Kim.
Extended Caching and Backjumping for Expressive Description Logics

Due to the wide range of modelling constructs supported by the expressive DLSROIQ, the typically used tableau algorithms in competitive reasoning systems such as FaCT++ [16], HermiT,3 or Pellet [14] have a very high worst-case complexity. The development of tableau optimisations that help to achieve practical efficiency is, therefore, a longstanding challenge in DL research (see, e.g., [11, 17]). A very effective and widely implemented optimisation technique is “caching”, where one caches, for a set of concepts, whether they are known to be, or can safely be assumed to be, satisfiable or unsatisfiable [4]. If the set of concepts appears again in a model abstraction, then a cache-lookup allows for skipping further applications of tableau rules. Unfortunately, with increasing expressivity naively caching become unsound, for instance, due to the possible interaction of inverse roles with universal restrictions [1, Chapter 9]. With this contribution we push the boundary of the caching optimisation to the expressive DL SROIQ. The developed unsatisfiability caching method is based on a sophisticated dependency management, which further enables better informed tableau backtracking and more efficient pruning (Section 3). Our techniques are grounded in the widely implemented tableau calculus for SROIQ [9], which makes it easy to transfer our results into existing implementations. The optimisations are integrated within a novel reasoning system, called Konclude [13]. Our empirical evaluation shows that the proposed optimisations result in significant performance improvements (Section 4).
Lead and cognitive function in adults: A questions and answers approach to a review of the evidence for cause, treatment, and prevention

Lead has been extensively used worldwide in gasoline, consumer products, commercial applications, and industrial settings. Its use in gasoline and paint has been particularly hazardous to public health leading to widespread population exposure and substantial lifetime cumulative doses in most Americans over age 40 years. Cumulative lead dose can be estimated by measuring the current concentration of lead in tibia bone by X-ray fluorescence. A growing literature has documented that tibia lead levels are associated with decrements in cognitive function and declines in cognitive function over time. Furthermore, there are several interesting lines of biochemical and epidemiological investigation that have demonstrated potential links of lead to neurodegenerative diseases. These studies support the inference that a proportion of what has been termed ‘normal’ age-related cognitive decline may, in fact, be due to exposure to neurotoxicants such as lead. Well-designed studies of cumulative lead dose and Alzheimer's disease risk should be conducted to follow-up on these leads. The strong and compelling body of literature on lead and cognitive dysfunction and decline also supports a need for intervention studies to prevent lead-related cognitive decline.
Circulatory shock.

Copyright © 2013 Massachusetts Medical Society. Shock is the clinical expression of circulatory failure that results in inadequate cellular oxygen utilization. Shock is a common condition in critical care, affecting about one third of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). 1 A diagnosis of shock is based on clinical, hemodynamic, and biochemical signs, which can broadly be summarized into three components. First, systemic arterial hypotension is usually present, but the magnitude of the hypotension may be only moderate, especially in patients with chronic hypertension. Typically, in adults, the systolic arterial pressure is less than 90 mm Hg or the mean arterial pressure is less than 70 mm Hg, with associated tachycardia. Second, there are clinical signs of tissue hypoperfusion, which are apparent through the three “windows” of the body2: cutaneous (skin that is cold and clammy, with vasoconstriction and cyanosis, findings that are most evident in low-flow states), renal (urine output of <0.5 ml per kilogram of body weight per hour), and neurologic (altered mental state, which typically includes obtundation, disorientation, and confusion). Third, hyperlactatemia is typically present, indicating abnormal cellular oxygen metabolism. The normal blood lactate level is approximately 1 mmol per liter, but the level is increased (>1.5 mmol per liter) in acute circulatory failure.
Cholesterol is required for infection by Semliki Forest virus

Semliki Forest virus (SFV) and many other enveloped animal viruses enter cells by a membrane fusion reaction triggered by the low pH within the endocytic pathway. In vitro, SFV fusion requires cholesterol in the target membrane, but the role of cholesterol in vivo is unknown. In this paper, the infection pathway of SFV was studied in mammalian and inset cells substantially depleted of sterol. Cholesterol-depleted cells were unaltered in their ability to bind, internalize, and acidify virus, but were blocked in SFV fusion and subsequent virus replication. Depleted cells could be infected by the cholesterol-independent vesicular stomatitis virus, which also enters cells via endocytosis and low pH-mediated fusion. The block in SFV infection was specifically reversed by cholesterol but not by cholestenone, which lacks the critical 3 beta-hydroxyl group. Cholesterol thus is central in the infection pathway of SFV, and may act in vivo to modulate infection by SFV and other pathogens.
MicroRNAs Are Essential for the Developmental Switch from Neurogenesis to Gliogenesis in the Developing Spinal Cord

In the developing CNS, neurons and glia are sequentially produced from the ventricular neural progenitor cells. One fundamental question in developmental neurobiology is what signals or factors control the developmental switch from neurogenesis to gliogenesis. Here we report that microRNAs (miRNAs) play an essential role in this important developmental process. Inhibition of miRNA formation in Olig1Cre-mediated Dicer conditional knock-out mice disrupted both oligodendrogenesis and astrogliogenesis in the ventral neuroepithelial cells. By contrast, the early patterning and development of motor neurons were not affected in the mutant spinal cord tissue.
Effect of tocolytic drugs on fetal heart rate variability: a systematic review

Abstract Introduction: Tocolytics may cause changes in fetal heart rate (HR) pattern, while fetal heart rate variability (HRV) is an important marker of fetal well-being. We aim to systematically review the literature on how tocolytic drugs affect fetal HRV. Materials and methods: We searched CENTRAL, PubMed and EMBASE up to June 2016. Studies published in English, using computerized or visual analysis to describe the effect of tocolytics on HRV in human fetuses were included. Studies describing tocolytics during labor, external cephalic version, pre-eclampsia and infection were excluded. Eventually, we included six studies, describing 169 pregnant women. Results: Nifedipine, atosiban and indomethacin administration show no clinically important effect on fetal HRV. Following administration of magnesium sulfate decreased variability and cases of bradycardia are described. Fenoterol administration results in a slight increase in fetal HR with no changes in variability. After ritodrine administration increased fetal HR and decreased variability is seen. The effect of co-administration of corticosteroids should be taken into account. Conclusion: In order to prevent iatrogenic preterm labor, the effects of tocolytic drugs on fetal HRV should be taken into account when monitoring these fetuses.
Elementary epistemological features of machine intelligence

Theoretical analysis of machine intelligence (MI) is useful for defining a common platform in both theoretical and applied artificial intelligence (AI). The goal of this paper is to set canonical definitions that can assist pragmatic research in both strong and weak AI. Described epistemological features of machine intelligence include relationship between intelligent behavior, intelligent and unintelligent machine characteristics, observable and unobservable entities and classification of intelligence. The paper also establishes algebraic definitions of efficiency and accuracy of MI tests as their quality measure. The last part of the paper addresses the learning process with respect to the traditional epistemology and the epistemology of MI described here. The proposed views on MI positively correlate to the Hegelian monistic epistemology and contribute towards amalgamating idealistic deliberations with the AI theory, particularly in a local frame of reference.
Binding of DNA in vitro by a small, acid-soluble spore protein from Bacillus subtilis and the effect of this binding on DNA topology

The DNA within spores of Bacillus subtilis is complexed with a large amount of alpha/beta-type small, acid-soluble spore protein (SASP). Measurement of the interaction of a purified alpha/beta-type SASP with DNA in vitro by a filter binding assay showed that the binding saturated at one molecule of SASP per approximately 5 bp. SASP-DNA binding did not require a divalent cation, was optimal at pH 6.7, and was unaffected by salt up to 400 mM. Binding of SASP to relaxed plasmid DNA in the presence of topoisomerase I resulted in the introduction of 18 (for plasmid pUC19) or 36 (for plasmid pUB110) negative supertwists, a superhelical density similar to that found in several plasmids isolated from spores. The SASP-dependent introduction of negative supertwists did not require a divalent cation, was unaffected by salt, and also gave a value of one molecule of SASP per approximately 5 bp at saturation. There was at least one slow step in the binding of SASP to DNA as seen in both the filter binding and supercoiling assays.
Gene–Environment Interaction in Major Depression: Focus on Experience-Dependent Biological Systems

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a multifactorial and polygenic disorder, where multiple and partially overlapping sets of susceptibility genes interact each other and with the environment, predisposing individuals to the development of the illness. Thus, MDD results from a complex interplay of vulnerability genes and environmental factors that act cumulatively throughout individual’s lifetime. Among these environmental factors, stressful life experiences, especially those occurring early in life, have been suggested to exert a crucial impact on brain development, leading to permanent functional changes that may contribute to lifelong risk for mental health outcomes. In this review, we will discuss how genetic variants (polymorphisms, SNPs) within genes operating in neurobiological systems that mediate stress response and synaptic plasticity, can impact, by themselves, the vulnerability risk for MDD; we will also consider how this MDD risk can be further modulated when gene × environment interaction is taken into account. Finally, we will discuss the role of epigenetic mechanisms, and in particular of DNA methylation and miRNAs expression changes, in mediating the effect of the stress on the vulnerability risk to develop MDD. Taken together, we aim to underlie the role of genetic and epigenetic processes involved in stress- and neuroplasticity-related biological systems on the development of MDD after exposure to early life stress, thereby building the basis for future research and clinical interventions.
Genetic Ablation of Soluble TNF Does Not Affect Lesion Size and Functional Recovery after Moderate Spinal Cord Injury in Mice

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is followed by an instant increase in expression of the microglial-derived proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF) within the lesioned cord. TNF exists both as membrane-anchored TNF (mTNF) and as cleaved soluble TNF (solTNF). We previously demonstrated that epidural administration of a dominant-negative inhibitor of solTNF, XPro1595, to the contused spinal cord resulted in changes in Iba1 protein expression in microglia/macrophages, decreased lesion volume, and improved locomotor function. Here, we extend our studies using mice expressing mTNF, but no solTNF (mTNFΔ/Δ), to study the effect of genetic ablation of solTNF on SCI. We demonstrate that TNF levels were significantly decreased within the lesioned spinal cord 3 days after SCI in mTNFΔ/Δ mice compared to littermates. This decrease did, however, not translate into significant changes in other pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-5, IL-2, CXCL1, CCL2, or CCL5), despite a tendency towards increased IL-10 and decreased IL-1β, TNFR1, and TNFR2 levels in mTNFΔ/Δ mice. In addition, microglial and leukocyte infiltration, activation state (Iba1, CD11b, CD11c, CD45, and MHCII), lesion size, and functional outcome after moderate SCI were comparable between genotypes. Collectively, our data demonstrate that genetic ablation of solTNF does not significantly modulate postlesion outcome after SCI.
Stabilization of a reaction intermediate as a catalytic device: definition of the functional role of the flexible loop in triosephosphate isomerase.

The function of the mobile loop of triosephosphate isomerase has been investigated by deleting four contiguous residues from the part of this loop that interacts directly with the bound substrate. From the crystal structure of the wild-type enzyme, it appears that this excision will not significantly alter the conformation of the rest of the main chain of the protein. The specific catalytic activity of the purified mutant enzyme is nearly 10(5)-fold lower than that of the wild type. Kinetic measurements and isotopic partitioning studies show that the decrease in activity is due to much higher activation barriers for the enolization of enzyme-bound substrate. Although the substrates bind somewhat more weakly to the mutant enzyme than to the wild type, the intermediate analogue phosphoglycolohydroxamate binds much less well (by 200-fold) to the mutant. It seems that the deleted residues of the loop contribute critically to the stabilization of the enediol phosphate intermediate. Consistent with this view, the mutant enzyme can no longer prevent the loss of the enediol phosphate from the active site and its rapid decomposition to methylglyoxal and inorganic phosphate. Indeed, when glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate is the substrate, the enediol phosphate intermediate is lost (and decomposes) 5.5 times faster than it reprotonates to form the product dihydroxyacetone phosphate. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Sequential decision‐theoretic models and expert systems

Sequential decision models are an important component of expert systems since, in general, the cost of acquiring information is significant and there is a trade‐off between the cost and the value of information. Many expert systems in various domains (business, engineering, medicine etc.), needing costly inputs that are not known until the system operates, have to face this problem. In the last decade the field of sequential decision models based on decision theory (sequential decision‐theoretic models) have become more and more important due to both the continuous progress made by research in Bayesian networks and the availability of modern powerful tools for building Bayesian networks and for probability propagation. This paper provides readers (especially knowledge engineers and expert system designers) with a unified and integrated presentation of the disparate literature in the field of sequential decision‐making based on decision theory, in order to improve comprehensibility and accessibility. Besides the presentation of the general theory, a view of sequential diagnosis as an instance of the general concept of sequential decision‐theoretic models is also shown.
Significance of Gangliosides in Neuronal Differentiation of Neuroblastoma Cells and Neurite Growth in Tissue Culture

ABSTRACT: Addition of dl‐threo‐1‐phenyl‐2‐decanolylamine‐3‐morpholino‐1‐propanol HCl (PDMP; 7–24 μM) or Fumonisin B1 (FB1; 30–50 μM) to SH‐SY5Ytrk‐A human neuroblastoma cells results within 4 days in a 40% decrease of the ganglioside content and in a reduction of nerve‐growth‐factor (NGF) ‐induced outgrowth of neuritic processes. NGF‐induced enhancement of GAP‐43 expression was not affected. However, unlike controls, immunostained GAP‐43 appeared concentrated in defined areas of cell perikarya and mostly absent from cell processes. Presence of 20‐μM exogenous GM1 for 4 days in NGF and PDMP containing cell cultures led to an increase of cell‐associated GM1 (15‐fold), GM2 (10‐fold), GM3 (15‐fold), GD1a (4‐fold), GD2, GD1b, and GT1b (all 3‐fold), and partially reversed the PDMP (and FB1) effects on neurite growth and GAP‐43 distribution. In a newly developed neuronal tissue culture system, PDMP and FB1 led to a comparable dose‐dependent inhibition of neurite outgrowth from embryonic chicken spinal cord explants, which had been embedded into a fibrin matrix. In this system, addition of GM1 led to a further inhibition of neurite growth, probably due to an interaction with growth‐promoting components present in the surrounding fibrin matrix.
Identification of an elite sorghum genotype with high In vitro performance capacity

SummaryThe use of plant genetic engineering to augment plant breeding programs is significantly strengthened if novel trait(s) can be introduced directly into elite germplasm. Implementing this technology to sorghum breeding programs has been hampered by the lack of an efficient and transferable protocol that is suitable with elite genotypes. This study was conducted to identify parameters that maximize in vitro culture performance in sorghum targeting a specific elite genotype, C2-97, which possesses enhanced agronomic characteristics. Three different tissue culture media formulations, MS, N6, and M11 were evaluated. M11 medium contains approximately 16% and 85% more total nitrogen and sevenfold and threefold higher levels of potassium phosphate than MS and N6 formulations, respectively. Culture performance of C2-97 across the three media formulations was compared to sorghum genotypes that were previously reported to be amenable to genetic engineering, namely Tx430, P898012. Bwheatland, and C401. Maximum embryogenesis induction was observed on M11 medium for all genotypes tested, with greater than 70% embryogenic calluses occurring on immature embryos derived from the C2-97 genotype cultured on M11 medium.
OPAMP's finite gain and slew rate impact on a 16-bit ΣΔ ADC performance: A case study

This paper aims to offer insight into the topic of discrete-time ΣΔ ADCs. More specifically, we investigate the impact of non-ideal analog subcircuit parameters on the performance of a 16-bit, 1 kHz, differential second order, 1-bit quantizer, sigma-delta modulator in a 180 nm technology. The parameters in question are OPAMPs slew rate and gain which fulfill the role of fully differential, discrete-time integrators. SPICE simulations were used to validate the results obtained in Matlab for each given scenarios.