Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Laurus nobilis, Zingiber officinale and Anethum graveolens Essential Oils: Composition, Antioxidant and Antibacterial Activities against Bacteria Isolated from Fish and Shellfish

Several bacterial strains were isolated from wild and reared fish and shellfish. The identification of these strains showed the dominance of the Aeromonas hydrophila species in all seafood samples, followed by Staphylococcus spp. , Vibrio alginolyticus, Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella ornithinolytica, Klebsiella oxytoca and Serratia odorifera. The isolates were studied for their ability to produce exoenzymes and biofilms. The chemical composition of the essential oils from Laurus nobilis leaves, Zingiber officinale rhizomes and Anethum graveolens aerial parts was studied by GC and GC/MS. The essential oils’ antioxidant and antibacterial activities against the isolated microorganisms were studied. Low concentrations of the three essential oils were needed to inhibit the growth of the selected bacteria and the lowest MBCs values were obtained for the laurel essential oil. The selected essential oils can be used as a good natural preservative in fish food due to their antioxidant and antibacterial activities.
Brief Definitive Report the Transcription Factor Xbp-1 Is Essential for the Development and Survival of Dendritic Cells

Signals emanating from the ER induce a tran-scriptional program that enables cells to survive ER stress. This highly coordinated response is essential for the folding, processing, export, and degradation of all proteins emanating from the ER during stressed and normal conditions. Examples of physiological conditions that require the unfolded protein response (UPR) include plasma cell diff erentiation (1) and pancreatic ␤ cell function (2). Adaptation of tumor cells to hypoxic conditions and glucose deprivation also induces the ER stress response (3). Additionally , there is increasing evidence of protein misfolding in neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington ' s, Alzheimer ' s, and prion-related diseases (4). The UPR exists in all eukaryotes and consists of multiple signaling pathways, the most conserved of which is mediated by IRE1. Upon sensing unfolded proteins, IRE1 oligo-merizes, is activated by autophosphorylation, and uses its endoribonuclease activity to excise an intron from the transcription factor Hac1p in yeast or its mammalian homologue, XBP-1, a cyclic-AMP response element binding protein/ activating transcription factor family member fi rst isolated in our laboratory (5). This uncon-ventional mRNA splicing event results in the conversion of the inactive 267 – amino-acid un-spliced XBP-1 (XBP-1u) protein to an active 371 – amino-acid spliced XBP-1 (XBP-1s) protein (6 – 8). We have previously shown that XBP-1 is essential for the diff erentiation of highly se-cretory cells, including embryonic hepatocytes, exocrine pancreatic acinar cells, and plasma cells (1, 9 – 11). Much has been learned about the factors that control DC diff erentiation. The fms-related tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (Flt3L) (12, 13) and GM-CSF (14, 15) are well known positive regulators of DC development. A more recent study described the involvement of Toll-like receptor (TLR) stimulation in hematopoietic cell proliferation and subsequent DC diff eren-tiation (16). Additionally, several intracellular signaling molecules and transcription factors — including Gfi 1, Id2, Ikaros, IFN regulatory factor 2 (IRF-2), IRF-4, IRF-8, relB, Runx3, Spi-B, and STAT3 — that aff ect the development of individual DC subsets in vivo have been reported (17 – 24). The control of DC survival Dendritic cells (DCs) play a critical role in the initiation, maintenance, and resolution of an immune response. DC survival is tightly controlled by extracellular stimuli such as cytokines and Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling, but the intracellular events that translate such extracellular stimuli into life or death for the DC remain poorly understood. The endoplas-mic reticulum (ER) stress, or unfolded protein …
The Residential Movements of Low-Income Families: The Case of Bogota, Colombia,

Abstract : The paper examines the residential movements of the immigrant and native low-income families within the Bogota metropolitan area. The city center has lost its unique receiving function for immigrants. Low-income immigrants locate predominately in the illegal housing settlements at the periphery of the urban perimeter. The residential location of low-income families is constrained by the structure of the housing and land markets. In addition, immigrants rely heavily on family and friends not only in deciding where to settle first in the metropolitan area, but also in deciding whether and where to migrate. Based on the analysis, broad and tentative conclusions regarding migration, housing and urban development policies are suggested.
Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Target Proteins and Their Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Restriction in Response to Adenovirus Vectors Delivered to Mouse Liver

ABSTRACT The activation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) to cells infected with adenovirus vectors contributes to problems of inflammation and transient gene expression that attend their use in gene therapy. The goal of this study was to identify in a murine model of liver gene therapy the proteins that provide targets to CTLs and to characterize the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I restricting elements. Mice of different MHC haplotypes were infected with an E1-deleted adenovirus expressing human alkaline phosphatase (ALP) or β-galactosidase as a reporter protein, and splenocytes were harvested for in vitro CTL assays to aid in the characterization of CTL epitopes. A library of vaccinia viruses was created to express individual viral open reading frames, as well as the ALP and lacZtransgenes. The MHC haplotype had a dramatic impact on the distribution of CTL targets: in C57BL/6 mice, the hexon protein presented by both H-2Kb and H2Db was dominant, and in C3H mice, H-2Dk-restricted presentation of ALP was dominant. Adoptive transfer of CTLs specific for various adenovirus proteins or transgene products into either Rag-I or C3H-scid mice infected previously with an E1-deleted adenovirus verified the in vivo relevance of the adenovirus-specific CTL targets identified in vitro. The results of these experiments illustrate the impact of lr gene control on the response to gene therapy with adenovirus vectors and suggest that the efficacy of therapy with adenovirus vectors may exhibit considerable heterogeneity when applied in human populations.
Spectral Estimation From Irregular Arrays

The problem of spectral estimation from data sampled at irregularly distributed measurement locations is considered from the point of view of an optimal fit of a spectral model when the amount of data available is large but finite. Several methods are shown to be asymptotically equivalent to the optimal one (as the amount of data becomes large), but several others, previously advocated, are shown to be either biased estimations or to have significantly larger estimation uncertainties than the optimal one. This problem is then reconsidered in a Bayesian formulation. The estimation problem is shown to be a combination of the prior prejudices of the investigator and the ability of the data to yield further information beyond the initial prejudices. In particular, the choice of the spectral model is best made in the context of this combination. The problem of an optimal array design is also considered: given a set of prior prejudices and a spectral model to be tested, what is the distribution of measurement points which yields the maximum amount of spectral information per measurement? An extensive set of optimal arrays is presented, with particular focus on red spectra (i.eo, ones monotonically decreasing with wavenumber), Because the optimal estimation procedure can be computationally cumbersome for large arrays, an efficient approximation is developed for red spectral regimes. Finally, a comparison of our estimation procedure with other methods is made, in which it is shown that an analysis of bias, aliasing, and estimation uncertainty can be made in a unified framework for a large class of methods.
Exploring configurations of functional units in an out-of-order superscalar processor

This study has been carried our in order to determine cost-effective configurations of functional units for multiple-issue out-of-order superscalar processors. The trace-driven simulations were performed on the six integer and the fourteen floating-point programs from the SPEC 92 suite. We first evaluate the number of instructions allowed to be concurrently processed by the execution stages of the pipeline. We then apply some restrictions on the execution issue of different instruction classes in order to define these configurations. We conclude that five to nine functional units are necessary to exploit instruction-level parallelism. An important point is that several data cache ports are required in a processor of degree 4 or more. Finally, we report on complementary results on the utilization rate of the functional units.
Do Working Hours and Type of Work Affect Obesity in South Korean Female Workers? Analysis of the Korean Community Health Survey.

BACKGROUND The prevalence of obesity and the female labor participation rate have been rapidly increasing in South Korea. To examine the relationship between these factors, we investigated the association between timing and type of work and obesity in the Korean female working population. METHODS Data collected by the 2008 Community Health Survey (CHS) were analyzed using a complex, stratified, multistage, probability cluster sampling method. Descriptive analysis of relevant variables was performed using the chi-square test, and work-related variables by work type were identified using multivariate logistic regression. The relationship between long working hours, night/shift work, and body-mass index in female workers and explanatory, stratifying, and dependent variables and covariates was analyzed using multiple logistic regression models. RESULTS A total of 42,234 CHS participants were eligible for study inclusion. Among both manual and nonmanual workers, working less than 40 (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.07-1.31 and aOR 1.29; 95% CI 1.09-0.52, respectively) or more than 60 (aOR 1.18, 95% CI 1.06-1.30 and aOR 1.28, 95% CI 1.04-1.57, respectively) hours per week was significantly associated with obesity after controlling for covariates. However, working type (day or night/shift) was significantly associated with obesity only in nonmanual workers (aOR 1.20, 95% CI 1.01-1.42). When we controlled working type in the model, manual workers who work more than 60 hours show higher likelihood of being obese (OR 1.10, 95% CI 1.02-1.18). CONCLUSION Working fewer (<40) or more than (>60) hours per week is significantly associated with obesity in the Korean female working population, regardless of the type of work. The type of work (day vs. night/shift work) was significantly associated with obesity only in only nonmanual workers.
Jazz Sebastian Bach: A GA System for Music Style Modification

Genetic algorithms (GAs) have successfully been employed in a wide range of artificial intelligence problems. This paper reviews the use of GAs in the area of art creativity and focuses on the connection between the human creativity procedure and the operators of selection-mutation-crossover in a simple GA trying to outline a new algorithmic analogue. It presents "Jazz Sebastian Bach", a novel GA-based computational music system that performs a style modification of a J. S. Bach theme to a Jazz melody. The system's sources of innovation are addressed and exemplified, as is an evaluation of its outputs. The paper concludes with a summary of the main findings and discusses the potential application of the system in the areas of computer-assisted composition and music education.
A growth factor-induced kinase phosphorylates the serum response factor at a site that regulates its DNA-binding activity

A signaling pathway by which growth factors may induce transcription of the c-fos proto-oncogene has been characterized. Growth factor stimulation of quiescent fibroblasts activates a protein kinase cascade that leads to the rapid and transient phosphorylation of the serum response factor (SRF), a regulator of c-fos transcription. The in vivo kinetics of SRF phosphorylation and dephosphorylation parallel the activation and subsequent repression of c-fos transcription, suggesting that this phosphorylation event plays a critical role in the control of c-fos expression. The ribosomal S6 kinase pp90rsk, a growth factor-inducible kinase, phosphorylates SRF in vitro at serine 103, the site that becomes newly phosphorylated upon growth factor stimulation in vivo. Phosphorylation of serine 103 significantly enhances the affinity and rate with which SRF associates with its binding site, the serum response element, within the c-fos promoter. These results suggest a model in which the growth factor-induced phosphorylation of SRF at serine 103 contributes to the activation of c-fos transcription by facilitating the formation of an active transcription complex at the serum response element.
Crustal Structure across the Northwestern Margin of South China Sea: Evidence for Magma‐poor Rifting from a Wide‐angle Seismic Profile

We present results from a 484 km wide‐angle seismic profile acquired in the northwest part of the South China Sea (SCS) during OBS2006 cruise. The line that runs along a previously acquired multi‐channel seismic line (SO49–18) crosses the continental slope of the northern margin, the Northwest Subbasin (NWSB) of the South China Sea, the Zhongsha Massif and partly the oceanic basin of the South China Sea. Seismic sections recorded on 13 ocean‐bottom seismometers were used to identify refracted phases from the crustal layer and also reflected phases from the crust‐mantle boundary (Moho). Inversion of the traveltimes using a simple start model reveals crustal images in the study area. The velocity model shows that crustal thickness below the continental slope is between 14 and 23 km. The continental part of the line is characterized by gentle landward mantle uplift and an abrupt oceanward one. The velocities in the lower crust do not exceed 6.9 km/s. With the new data we can exclude a high‐velocity lower crustal body (velocities above 7.0 km/s) at the location of the line. We conclude that this part of the South China Sea margin developed by a magma‐poor rifting. Both, the NWSB and the Southwest Sub‐basin (SWSB) reveal velocities typical for oceanic crust with crustal thickness between 5 and 7 km. The Zhongsha Massif in between is extremely stretched with only 6–10 km continental crust left. Crustal velocity is below 6.5 km/s; possibly indicating the absence of the lower crust. Multi‐channel seismic profile shows that the Yitongansha Uplift in the slope area and the Zhongsha Massif are only mildly deformed. We considered them as rigid continent blocks which acted as rift shoulders of the main rift subsequently resulting in the formation of the Northwest Sub‐basin. The extension was mainly accommodated by a ductile lower crustal flows, which might have been extremely attenuated and flow into the oceanic basin during the spreading stage. We compared the crustal structures along the northern margin and found an east‐west thicken trend of the crust below the continent slope. This might be contributed by the east‐west sea‐floor spreading along the continental margin.
Hydrologic Regionalization of Watersheds in Turkey

Hydrologic regionalization can be employed for importing data from gauged sites to ungauged sites. A number of techniques have been developed for hydrologic regionalization. This study presents an approach that combines three regionalization techniques in order to obtain homogeneous regions and compute streamflow at desired ungauged sites. First, an agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm is used to determine the number of homogeneous regions. Second, homogeneous regions are defined by the k -means partitioning method. Third, the flow duration curve (FDC) method is used to compute streamflow discharge at desired ungauged sites in homogeneous regions. The combined approach was then applied to 26 river basins in Turkey having 1,410 river gauging stations, where homogeneous regions were identified and streamflow discharge was calculated at ungauged sites. At many of the unguaged sites, small hydropower projects are being planned for development. It was found that these 1,410 river gauging stations (2.
How efficient is BitTorrent?

BitTorrent is arguably the most popular media file distribution protocol used in Internet today. Even though empirically BitTorrent seems to be both efficient and scalable, there has been very little research on the detailed dynamics of its built-in control mechanisms, and their effectiveness across a wide variety of network configurations and protocol parameters. The main goal of this paper is to answer the question of how close BitTorrent is to the optimum, and indirectly how much room there is for further performance optimizations. We develop a centrally scheduled file distribution (CSFD) protocol that can provably minimize the total elapsed time of a one-sender-multiple-receiver file distribution task, and perform a comprehensive comparison between BitTorrent with CSFD. In addition, we compare several peer selection algorithms and analyze the applicability of BitTorrent to real-time streaming applications.
Robot Programming Integrated in a Junior High School Curriculum

Schoolchildren and students have opportunities of actively and concretely manipulate concepts from traditional disciplines when designing, writing and verifying programs for controlling the motion of mini-robots. Thus, educational robotics may naturally allow integrating robot programming activities into traditional subjects of standard curricula instead of adding some form of ICT as a (software) tool for practicing topics from one subject or as one more separate subject. Such an integration, though considered a most fruitful educational usage of computers already in Papert’s researches of the 70’s, is nowadays rarely present in the proposals for introducing computing technologies in schools. Here we present in-progress activities with pupils in the age range 11-14 using RCX and NXT Lego bricks, with a Logo-like programming language supplemented by a development environment specifically implemented for young students. We describe how robot programming has given pupils the chance of manipulating direct and inverse proportions and the concepts of speed and friction in activities coordinated with presentations of these topics in pupils school curriculum. We also comment on the opportunities, while programming mini-robots, of discussing with pupils for comparing solutions to given problems and identifying specific and more general ones. A future direction of our work, toward motivating elementary algebra, arises from these discussions.
Participation des médecins généralistes de la province de Benimellal (Maroc) dans le dépistage du cancer du col

Introduction Au Maroc, chaque année il y aurait environ 2000 nouveaux cas de cancer du col et les 2/3 des cas sont pris en charge à un stade très avancé. Nous avons mené une étude transversale, exhaustive incluant les 71 médecins généralistes exerçant dans les établissements de soins de santé de base du secteur public et privé de la province de Benimellal. Le but était d’évaluer leurs connaissances et leur participation au dépistage du cancer du col. Méthodes Nous avons mené une étude transversale, exhaustive incluant les 71 médecins généralistes exerçant dans les établissements de soins de santé de base du secteur public et privé de la province de Benimellal. Le but était d’évaluer leurs connaissances et leur participation au dépistage du cancer du col. Résultats Le niveau de connaissance était relativement modeste, 22 médecins généraliste avaient répondu à la question sur l'incidence du cancer du col au Maroc, Parmi eux (81,8%) avaient donné une réponse incorrecte. L'Herpes Papilloma virus comme facteur de risque du cancer du col a été identifié par seulement 21% des médecins généralistes. La participation au dépistage était également défaillante, 92,8% n'avaient jamais pratiqué le FCV chez leurs patientes à cause principalement du manque de formation (95,5%). Conclusion Les résultats montrent la nécessité d'améliorer les connaissances théoriques et pratique des médecins généralistes concernant le dépistage du cancer du col.
Utilisation des réseaux sociaux dans la lutte contre la fraude à la carte bancaire sur Internet

Résumé. Du fait de sa croissance très rapide, le commerce électronique devient une cible majeure pour les fraudeurs. La fraude à la carte bancaire sur Internet est le fait de réseaux internationaux du crime organisé. La lutte contre cette fraude est donc un objectif majeur pour assurer la sécurité des moyens de paiement. Les systèmes classiques de détection de la fraude sont basés depuis les années 80 sur des techniques de data mining. Aujourd’hui, les techniques d’analyse des réseaux sociaux sont très largement décrites dans la littérature. Nous présentons ici une méthodologie permettant d’utiliser ces techniques dans la lutte contre la fraude, à la fois pour la détection et pour l’investigation. Nous présentons les résultats obtenus dans le cadre du projet collaboratif eFraudBox, mené avec le GIE Cartes Bancaires.
Holoprosencephaly: A mythologic and teratologic distillate

This review of holoprosencephaly provides a mythologic and teratologic distillate of the subject under the following headings: Babylonian tablets; Greek mythology; pictures from the 16th through the 20th Centuries; 19th Century teratology; history of more modern concepts and their terminologies; and ocean‐going ships named “Cyclops. ” © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Catalyst‐Free Efficient Growth, Orientation and Biosensing Properties of Multilayer Graphene Nanoflake Films with Sharp Edge Planes

We report a novel microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition strategy for the efficient synthesis of multilayer graphene nanoflake films (MGNFs) on Si substrates. The constituent graphene nanoflakes have a highly graphitized knife‐edge structure with a 2–3 nm thick sharp edge and show a preferred vertical orientation with respect to the Si substrate as established by near‐edge X‐ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. The growth rate is approximately 1.6 µm min−1, which is 10 times faster than the previously reported best value. The MGNFs are shown to demonstrate fast electron‐transfer (ET) kinetics for the Fe(CN)63−/4− redox system and excellent electrocatalytic activity for simultaneously determining dopamine (DA), ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA). Their biosensing DA performance in the presence of common interfering agents AA and UA is superior to other bare solid‐state electrodes and is comparable only to that of edge plane pyrolytic graphite. Our work here, establishes that the abundance of graphitic edge planes/defects are essentially responsible for the fast ET kinetics, active electrocatalytic and biosensing properties. This novel edge‐plane‐based electrochemical platform with the high surface area and electrocatalytic activity offers great promise for creating a revolutionary new class of nanostructured electrodes for biosensing, biofuel cells and energy‐conversion applications.