Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of methylprednisolone on cell proliferation in C3H/HeJ spontaneous mammary tumors.

The present studies were initiated to investigate the effects of methylprednisolone (MP) on the growth and cell kinetics of C3H/HeJ spontaneous mammary tumor. MP given every 12 hr in 9 doses at 10 or 20 mg/kg/dose resulted in temporary stasis of tumor growth with little or no volume regression. Cell kinetic parameters were determined by in vitro methods after MP every 12 hr in 3 doses. At both dose levels a similar 50% decrease in the tritiated thymidine labeling index was observed 2 hr after treatment. At this time, the primer-dependent DNA polymerase labeling index, an in vitro estimate of tumor growth fraction, was similar to untreated controls at both dose levels. The cell kinetic changes after MP (10 mg/kg every 12 hr in 3 doses) suggested a reversible G1 block with synchronous progression of tumor cells through the cell cycle after cessation of treatment. While synchrony was also suggested after MP (20 mg/kg every 12 hr in 3 doses), resumption of cell proliferation was delayed by 18 hr. Treatment with 5-fluorouracil and methotrexate 12 hr after cessation of MP (10 mg/kg every 12 hr in 3 doses), a time corresponding to maximal tritiated thymidine labeling index, resulted in greater tumor regression and greater regrowth delay than did 5-fluorouracil and methotrexate given at times corresponding to low tritiated thymidine labeling indexes. Tumor volume-doubling times during regrowth were significantly longer than either prior to treatment or after methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil alone.
Mapping of quantitative trait loci affecting organ weights and blood variables in a broiler layer cross

1. A genome scan was performed to locate genomic regions associated with traits that are known to vary in birds (most commonly broilers) suffering from heart, lung or muscular dysfunction and for weight of the dressed carcass and some internal organs. 2. The F2 population studied was derived from a cross between a broiler and a layer line and consisted of over 460 birds that were genotyped for 101 markers. 3. There was strong support for segregation of quantitative trait loci (QTL) for carcass and organ weights and blood variables. We identified 11 genome-wide significant QTL (most of them for dressed carcass weight) and several genome-wide suggestive QTL. 4. The results point to some genome regions that may be associated with health-related traits and merit further study, with the final aim of identifying linked genetic markers that could be used in commercial breeding programmes to decrease the incidence of muscular and metabolic disorders in broiler populations.
VideoDraw: a video interface for collaborative drawing

This paper describes VideoDraw, a shared drawing tool, and the process by which it is being designed and developed. VideoDraw is a prototype, videobased, tool that provides a shared “virtual sketchbook” among two or more collaborators. It not only allows the collaborators to see each others' drawings, but also conveys the accompanying hand gestures and the process of creating and using those drawings. Its design stems from studying how people collaborate using shared drawing spaces. Design implications raised by those studies were embodied in a prototype, which was in turn observed in use situations. Continued research studying the use of VideoDraw (in comparison with other collaborative media) will lead to a better understanding of collaborative drawing activity and inform the continued technical development of VideoDraw.
A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF PROSODY-BASED DETECTION OF QUESTIONS IN ARABIC SPEECH MONOLOGUES

ةيتوصلا تاربنلاو عاقيلإا ملع مدختسي (Prosody) قوطنملا ةجلاعمب ةقلعتملا تاقيبطتلا نم ديدعلا يف عساو قاطن ىلع ، ملاكلا ىلع فرعتلا اهنم ملكتملا ىلع فرعتلاو جهلو هت إ ايلآ هعيطقتو ملاكلل يعوضوملا فينصتلا يف اضيأ ملعلا اذه مدختسي امآ ، رعاشملا ديدحتو ليوحت تاقيبطت يفو لمج ىل ،ةعومسم ةءارق ىلإ بوتكملا صنلا ةيبرعلا ريغ ىرخأ تاغل تيقل دقو اريثآ ددصلا اذه يف مامتهلاا نم . فوسو دحأ ىلإ ةساردلا هذه يف ضرعتن ةيتوصلا تاربنلاو عاقيلإا ملعل ةمهملا تاقيبطتلا ، عطاقم ديدحت وهو وردلاو تارضاحملا يف ةحورطملا ةلئسلأا و ، ةلجسملا ةيبرعلا س دعت ةساردلا هذه ب نم ةلئسلأل يللآا جارختسلاا لاجم يف ملاعلا تاغل قاطن ىلع ةدئار انملع بسح نم نوكم دودحم زنكم ءانبب انمق اذل ، ةلجسملا ةيتوصلا تارضاحملا 1028 نم ةصلختسم ةقوطنم ةلمج 15 تملا ملاكلا عيطقتب لاوأ انمق ، ةيتوص ةيبرع ةرضاحم ةينمزلا ةدملا تازيم ىلع ادامتعا لمج ىلإ لص (Duration) ةيتوصلا ةفاثكلا تازيمو (Intensity). اهدعب ، ةعطقملا لمجلا نم ةيتوصلا تاربنلاو عاقيلإا تامس صلاختساب انمق مث انلخدأ هذه عبرأ ىلإ تامسلا ة لا مأ لااؤس اهنوآ ةلمجلا ديدحت متيل ةفلتخم تافنصم .
Type IIB String Backgrounds on Parallelizable PP-Waves and Conformal Liouville Theory.

The scope of this work concerns the adaptation of the parallelizability pp-wave (Ppp-wave) process to D = 10 type IIB string backgrounds in the presence of the non-trivial anti-self dual R-R 5-form F. This is important in the sense that it gives rise to some unsuspected properties. In fact, exact solutions of type IIB string backgrounds on Ppp-waves are discussed. For the u-dependence of the dilaton field �, we establish explicitly a correspondence between type IIB supergravity equations of motion and 2d-conformal Liouville field theory. We show also that the corresponding conserved conformal current T(�) coincides exactly with the trace of the symmetric matrix µij appearing in the quadratic front factor F = µijx i x j of the Ppp-wave. Furthermore, we ′
Test orchestration a framework for Continuous Integration and Continuous deployment

The enterprises follow Agile Software Development methodology to because business requirements changes frequently. In Agile Software Development methodology, it is essential to continuously integrate the component into a main trunk of a project to test the new component of the system. Then test all the component of the project; this happens frequently so it needs to stream line processes to orchestrate the tests. So it is difficult to manage the software development life cycle for those changes and maintain the software code quality. To maintain the product quality it is essential to integrate the product component and need to deploy a product on pre-production environment and test the product. Hence the need for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery process for software product. The popularization of DevOps, and cloud computing has revolutionized the software delivery process- making it faster and affordable for business to release their software continuously. Hence Enterprises need for reliable and predictable delivery process of software. The objective of the paper is to design an effective framework for automated testing and deployment to help to automate the code analysis, test selection, test scheduling, environment provisioning, test execution, results analysis and deployment pipeline. Test orchestration framework typically very complicated to develop such pipeline to make software reliable, and bug free. For environment provisioning can be provided through virtualization and cloud computing.
Three Essays in Macroeconomics

Author(s): Fu, Zhiming | Advisor(s): Guo, Jang-Ting; Suen, Richard M.H. | Abstract: This dissertation studies three main topics in macroeconomics: the impact of labor market frictions on labor supply and income inequality, the impact of goods market frictions on individuals' optimization decisions, and the housing market in the business cycle. In chapter one, I briefly review the research of this dissertation. Chapter two develops a dynamic general equilibrium model with progressive taxation, labor market search and heterogeneous households to study the impact of tax reform on labor supply and income inequality across educational groups. Households differ in their educational level and their time preference. I study the labor supply response to tax reform along both the intensive margin (hours worked) and the extensive margins (labor force participation). The quantitative results show that: (i) a tax reform which decreases the marginal tax rate by the same magnitude of that in the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA-86), has a significant impact on households' labor supply and that approximately 65 percent of the aggregate labor supply response is along the extensive margin; (ii) households' labor supply response to tax reform depends on their educational levels. Households with less education respond more significantly along both the intensive and extensive margin while the response of households with highest education is subtle. However, the income share of the highest educational group increases due to an increase in capital income after tax reform. These findings are consistent with the empirical literature studying the effects of TRA-86 on labor supply.Chapter three introduces search frictions in the goods market into the classic income fluctuation problem and explores individuals' intertemporal optimization decisions. Individuals make their optimal choices when they face labor productivity shocks, borrowing constraints, and search frictions in the goods market. In this framework, individuals save not only for precaution but also for transaction-the higher asset holdings an individual has the shorter waiting time for getting the frictional goods. This provides an additional dimension to look at individuals' consumption and savings behavior. It also provides a possible channel to solve the problem encountered in the Aiyagari-Bewley model, which predicts a relatively low income inequality compared to the data observed. In the forth chapter, I examine the business cycle properties of the housing market in a multi-sector dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with intermediate inputs and adjustment costs for capital and housing. The quantitative results replicate three main business cycle features of the housing market. First, GDP, consumption, non-residential investment, and residential investment co-move positively during the business cycle. Second, residential investment is twice as volatile as business investment. Finally, house prices and residential investment are positively correlated-a result rarely observed in models without demand side shocks.
Do student developers differ from industrial developers?

In this paper, we analyze a dataset containing student and industrial developer ratings about the key software engineering concept of object-oriented class dasiacohesionpsila. In particular, we use a number of statistical tests to determine, as a key objective, the extent to which student developers and industrial developers differ. Results revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between the cohesion ratings for the two groups. Correlation of cohesion against class features, however, did reveal evidence that the two groups might be disparate. The research suggests that student and industry practitioners may not differ to the large extent that is commonly believed but when class features are used as a benchmark do show certain differences.
The Probiotic Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum Reduces Feed Conversion and Protects from Potentially Harmful Intestinal Microorganisms and Necrotic Enteritis in Broilers

Probiotics which do not result in the development and spread of microbial resistance are among the candidate replacements for antibiotics previously used as growth promotors. In this study the effect of in-feed supplementation of the butyrate producing Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum strain 25-3T on performance, intestinal microbiota and prevention of necrotic enteritis (NE), a disease caused by Clostridium perfringens was evaluated in broilers. For the performance study, day old Ross 308 chicks were randomly allocated into two treatment groups and fed either a non-supplemented diet or a diet supplemented with 109 cfu lyophilized B. pullicaecorum per kg feed for 40 days. On day 40 broilers administered B. pullicaecorum had a significant lower bodyweight (2675 g vs. 2762 g; p = 0.0025) but supplementation of B. pullicaecorum decreased the feed conversion ratio significantly (1.518 vs. 1.632; p < 0.0001). Additionally, ingestion of the Butyricicoccus strain significantly lowered the abundance of Campylobacter spp. in the caecum and Enterococcus and Escherichia/Shigella spp. in the ileum at day 40. In feed supplementation of B. pullicaecorum in the NE trials resulted in a significant decrease in the number of birds with necrotic lesions compared with the untreated control group. These studies show that supplementation of B. pullicaecorum is able to improve feed conversion, to reduce the abundance of some potentially important pathogens in the caeca and ileum and to contribute to the prevention of NE in broilers, making the strain a potential valuable probiotic.
Diversity of Bacteria Growing in Natural Mineral Water after Bottling

ABSTRACT Bacterial growth occurs in noncarbonated natural mineral waters a few days after filling and storage at room temperature, a phenomenon known for more than 40 years. Using the full-cycle rRNA approach, we monitored the development of the planktonic bacterial community in a noncarbonated natural mineral water after bottling. Seven 16S rRNA gene libraries, comprising 108 clones in total, were constructed from water samples taken at various days after bottling and from two different bottle sizes. Sequence analyses identified 11 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), all but one affiliated with the betaproteobacterial order Burkholderiales (6 OTUs) or the class Alphaproteobacteria (4 OTUs). Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was applied in combination with DAPI (4′,6′-diamidino-2-phenylindole) staining, viability staining, and microscopic counting to quantitatively monitor changes in bacterial community composition. A growth curve similar to that of a bacterium grown in a batch culture was recorded. In contrast to the current perception that Gammaproteobacteria are the most important bacterial components of natural mineral water in bottles, Betaproteobacteria dominated the growing bacterial community and accounted for 80 to 98% of all bacteria detected by FISH in the late-exponential and stationary-growth phases. Using previously published and newly designed genus-specific probes, members of the betaproteobacterial genera Hydrogenophaga, Aquabacterium, and Polaromonas were found to constitute a significant proportion of the bacterial flora (21 to 86% of all bacteria detected by FISH). For the first time, key genera responsible for bacterial growth in a natural mineral water were identified by applying molecular cultivation-independent techniques.
Modulation of Host Biology by Pseudomonas aeruginosa Quorum Sensing Signal Molecules: Messengers or Traitors

Bacterial cells sense their population density and respond accordingly by producing various signal molecules to the surrounding environments thereby trigger a plethora of gene expression. This regulatory pathway is termed quorum sensing (QS). Plenty of bacterial virulence factors are controlled by QS or QS-mediated regulatory systems and QS signal molecules (QSSMs) play crucial roles in bacterial signaling transduction. Moreover, bacterial QSSMs were shown to interfere with host cell signaling and modulate host immune responses. QSSMs not only regulate the expression of bacterial virulence factors but themselves act in the modulation of host biology that can be potential therapeutic targets.
Deriving Backtracking Monad Transformers Functional Pearl

In a paper about pretty printing J. Hughes introdu ed two fundamental te hniques for deriving programs from their spe i ation, where a spe i ation onsists of a signature and properties that the operations of the signature are required to satisfy. Brie y, the rst te hnique, the term implementation, represents the operations by terms and works by de ning a mapping from operations to observations | this mapping an be seen as de ning a simple interpreter. The se ond, the ontext-passing implementation, represents operations as fun tions from their alling ontext to observations. We apply both te hniques to derive a ba ktra king monad transformer that adds ba ktra king to an arbitrary monad. In addition to the usual ba ktra king operations | failure and nondeterministi hoi e | the prolog ut and an operation for delimiting the e e t of a ut are supported.
An unbiased search for the signatures of protostars in the ρ Ophiuchi molecular cloud , II. Millimetre continuum observations

The dense cores which conceive and cradle young stars can be explored through continuum emission from associated dust grains. We have performed a wide field survey for dust sources at 1.2 millimetres in the ρ Ophiuchi molecular cloud, covering more than 1 square degree in an unbiased fashion. We detect a number of previously unknown sources, ranging from extended cores over compact, starless cores to envelopes surrounding young stellar objects of Class 0, Class I, and Class II type. We analyse the mass distribution, spatial distribution and the potential equilibrium of the cores. For the inner regions, the survey results are consistent with the findings of previous narrower surveys. The core mass function resembles the stellar initial mass function, with the core mass function shifted by a factor of two to higher masses (for the chosen opacity and temperature). In addition, we find no statistical variation in the core mass function between the crowded inner regions and those in more isolated fields except for the absence of the most massive cores in the extended cloud. The inner region contains compacter cores. This is interpreted as due to a medium of higher mean pressure although strong pressure variations are evident in each region. The cores display a hierarchical spatial distribution with no preferred separation scale length. However, the frequency distribution of nearest neighbours displays two peaks, one of which at 5000 AU can be the result of core fragmentation. The orientations of the major axes of cores are consistent with an isotropic distribution. In contrast, the relative orientations of core pairs are preferentially in the NW-SE direction on all separation scales. These results are consistent with core production and evolution in a turbulent environment. Finally, we report the discovery of a new, low-mass Class 0 object candidate and its CO outflow.
Neuroprotection by Hypoxic Preconditioning Requires Sequential Activation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor and Akt

Hypoxic preconditioning provides protection against ischemic brain lesions in animal models of cerebral ischemia–hypoxia. To analyze the underlying molecular mechanisms, we developed an invitro model of hypoxic neuroprotection in cerebellar granule neurons (CGN) by reducing the oxygen tension to 1–5% for 1–24 hr. Exposure to 5% O2 for 9 hr resulted in reduction of cell death after potassium deprivation, treatment with 100 μm glutamate, or 500 μm 3-nitroproprioninc acid (3-NP) by 46, 22, and 55%, respectively. Shorter (1 or 3 hr) or longer (>12 hr) intervals or pretreatment with lower oxygen tension failed to rescue CGN from death. In contrast, toxicity of four different chemotherapeutic drugs [1-(2-chloroethyl)-3-cyclohexyl-1-nitrosourea, cisplatine, topotecane, and vincristine] was unaffected by hypoxic preconditioning. The induction of protective effects was dependent on new protein synthesis. Protein levels of B-cell lymphoma protein-2 (BCL-2), BCL-xL/S, heat shock protein 70/90, and BCL-2-associated death protein remained unaltered. CGN incubated at 5% O2 for 9 hr showed increased levels of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), the VEGF receptor-2 (VEGFR-2), phosphorylated Akt/protein kinase B (PKB), and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 (ERK1). Incubation with a neutralizing anti-VEGF antibody, a monoclonal antibody to VEGFR-2, wortmannin, or antisense-Akt/PKB, but not treatment with U0126, an ERK-inhibitor, reverted the resistance acquired by hypoxic preconditioning. Inhibition of VEGFR-2 blocked the activation of Akt/PKB. Finally, pretreatment with recombinant VEGF resulted in a hypoxia-resistant phenotype in the absence of hypoxic preconditioning. Our data are indicating a sequential requirement for VEGF/VEGFR-2 activation and Akt/PKB phosphorylation for neuronal survival mediated by hypoxic preconditioning and propose VEGF as a hypoxia-induced neurotrophic factor.
Towards a Maximal Mass Model

We investigate the possibility to construct a generalization of the Standard Model, which we call the Maximal Mass Model because it contains a limiting mass $M$ for its fundamental constituents. The parameter $M$ is considered as a new universal physical constant of Nature and therefore is called the fundamental mass. It is introduced in a purely geometrical way, like the velocity of light as a maximal velocity in the special relativity. If one chooses the Euclidean formulation of quantum field theory, the adequate realization of the limiting mass hypothesis is reduced to the choice of the de Sitter geometry as the geometry of the 4-momentum space. All fields, defined in de Sitter p-space in configurational space obey five dimensional Klein-Gordon type equation with fundamental mass $M$ as a mass parameter. The role of dynamical field variables is played by the Cauchy initial conditions given at $x_5 = 0$, guarantying the locality and gauge invariance principles. The corresponding to the geometrical requirements formulation of the theory of scalar, vector and spinor fields is considered in some detail. On a simple example it is demonstrated that the spontaneously symmetry breaking mechanism leads to renormalization of the fundamental mass $M$. A new geometrical concept of the chirality of the fermion fields is introduced. It would be responsible for new measurable effects at high energies $E \geq M$. Interaction terms of a new type, due to the existence of the Higgs boson are revealed. The most intriguing prediction of the new approach is the possible existence of exotic fermions with no analogues in the SM, which may be candidate for dark matter constituents.
Identification of observables in quantum toboggans

Schrödinger equations for ‘quantum toboggans’ with real energies are given the generalized eigenvalue-problem form Hψ = EWψ, where H ≠ H† and W ≠ W† ≠ I. The consistent probabilistic interpretation of these models is provided. The new double-series formula for the necessary ad hoc metric Θ = Θ(H, W) is derived which defines the acceptable inner products in the physical Hilbert space of states. The formula degenerates to the usual single series in the non-tobogganic trivial-weight limit W → I.
Distributed Computing on Complex Networks

This work considers the problem of finding analytical expressions for the expected values of dis- tributed computing performance metrics when the underlying communication network has a complex structure. Through active probing tests a real distributed computing environment is analysed. From the resulting network, ensembles of synthetic graphs with additional structure are used in Monte Carlo simulations to both validate analytical expressions and explore the performance metrics under different conditions. Computing paradigms with different hierarchical structures in computing ser- vices are gauged, fully decentralised (i.e., peer-to-peer) environments providing the best performance. Moreover, it is found that by implementing more intelligent computing services configurations (e.g., betweenness centrality based mappings) and task allocations strategies, significant improvements in the parallel efficiency can be achieved. We qualitatively reproduce results from previous works and provide closed-form solutions for the expected performance metrics linking topological, application structure and allocation parameters when job dependencies and a complex network structure are considered.