Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) a therapeutic target for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension?

Pulmonary hypertension (PH), a progressive disorder associated with significant morbidity and mortality, is caused by complex pathways that culminate in structural and functional alterations of the pulmonary circulation and increases in pulmonary vascular resistance and pressure. Diverse genetic, pathological, or environmental triggers stimulate PH pathogenesis culminating in vasoconstriction, cell proliferation, vascular remodeling, and thrombosis. We conducted a thorough literature review by performing MEDLINE searches via PubMed to identify articles pertaining to PPARΓ as a therapeutic target for the treatment of PH. This review examines basic and preclinical studies that explore PPARΓ and its ability to regulate PH pathogenesis. Despite the current therapies that target specific pathways in PH pathogenesis, including prostacyclin derivatives, endothelin-receptor antagonists, and phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors, morbidity and mortality related to PH remain unacceptably high, indicating the need for novel therapeutic approaches. Consequently, therapeutic targets that simultaneously regulate multiple pathways involved in PH pathogenesis have gained attention. This review focuses on peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARΓ), a member of the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily of ligand-activated transcription factors. While the PPARγ receptor is best known as a master regulator of lipid and glucose metabolism, a growing body of literature demonstrates that activation of PPARγ exerts antiproliferative, antithrombotic, and vasodilatory effects on the vasculature, suggesting its potential efficacy as a PH therapeutic target.
Sandu Frunză: „Advertising and Administration under the Pressure of Ethics” - Book Review

„Advertising and Administration under the Pressure of Ethics” (2014) is a book of intellectual elevation and high expression of ideas of Professor Sandu Frunză from Babes-Bolyai University (ClujNapoca, Romania), published to a French publisher, Les Arcs, Editions de la Suers. The zetetic core (inquiry core) is one of ethical theory and applied ethics. It is an ethical theory of the public space and the ethical inflections in the administration, in the advertising area and Bioethics. Overall, the book has cohesion and consistency. Therefore, it is a pleasant and instructive reading.
A high accuracy computed line list for the HDO molecule

A computed list of HD 16 O infrared transition frequencies and intensities is presented. The list, VTT, was produced using a discrete variable representation two-step approach for solving the rotation–vibration nuclear motions. The VTT line list contains almost 700 million transitions and can be used to simulate spectra of mono-deuterated water over the entire temperature range that are of importance for astrophysics. The line list can be used for deuterium-rich environments, such as the atmosphere of Venus, and to construct a possible ‘deuterium test’ to distinguish brown dwarfs from planetary mass objects.
Aromatase Activity and Bone Loss in Men

Aromatase is a specific component of the cytochrome P450 enzyme system responsible for the transformation of androgen precursors into estrogens. This enzyme is encoded by the CYP19A1 gene located at chromosome 15q21.2, that is, expressed in ovary and testis, but also in many extraglandular sites such as the placenta, brain, adipose tissue, and bone. The activity of aromatase regulates the concentrations of estrogens with endocrine, paracrine, and autocrine effects on target issues including bone. Importantly, extraglandular aromatization of circulating androgen precursors is the major source of estrogen in men. Clinical and experimental evidences clearly indicate that aromatase activity and estrogen production are necessary for longitudinal bone growth, the attainment of peak bone mass, pubertal growth spurt, epiphyseal closure, and normal bone remodeling in young individuals. Moreover, with aging, individual differences in aromatase activity may significantly affect bone loss and fracture risk in men.
Toward Quantum-Information Processing with Photons

Quantum mechanics promises a much more powerful information-processing technology than is possible using classical physics. Photons offer one potentially important platform for encoding and manipulating information using the rules of quantum physics. In order to realize this potential, they must interact with each other, something that they are not normally inclined to do. However, as discussed in the Perspective by Walmsley and Raymer, it is possible using a combination of standard optical elements and detectors to synthesize an effective interaction provided all the photons used have identical properties. An important direction of current research is to develop sources of identical photons.
Experiments on consumer preferences and decision making

Consumers are not as rational as assumed by conventional economic theories. The present thesis reports three studies of consumers’ bounded rationality. It has three chapters. In Chapter 1, I investigate the effects of a range of different types of anchor on WTP and WTA valuations of familiar consumer products, elicited through individuals’ buying or selling decisions at given prices. I find anchoring effects only when the anchor value is framed as a plausible price for the good for which the individual is a potential buyer or seller. Anchoring effects are stronger for WTA than for WTP. I conclude that anchoring effects can affect market behaviour, but that not all anchors are equally effective. In Chapter 2, I demonstrate a set of three experiments and find that consumers are likely to stick to defaults and achieve suboptimal outcomes. I unpack two key psychological reasons why they do this - complexity (in terms of non-linearity, number and bundling of tariffs) and consumer inattention. The complexity induced by product bundling, non-linearity and number of tariffs has an important role, but this is overstated if the explanatory power of inattention is neglected. I show that a ‘smart nudge’ policy of automatically switching default tariffs can be used to exploit inattention-based consumer inertia to achieve better consumer outcomes. In Chapter 3, I report an experiment in which participants faced purchasing decisions involving complexity and common standards. The majority of participants employed the "dominance editing" (DE) heuristic. However, for cognitively constrained participants, the DE heuristic is less efficient than an alternative shortlisting heuristic - the "largest common standard" (LCS).
Design, Synthesis and Antifungal Activity Evaluation of New Thiazolin-4-ones as Potential Lanosterol 14α-Demethylase Inhibitors

Twenty-three thiazolin-4-ones were synthesized starting from phenylthioamide or thiourea derivatives by condensation with α-monochloroacetic acid or ethyl α-bromoacetate, followed by substitution in position 5 with various arylidene moieties. All the synthesized compounds were physico-chemically characterized and the IR (infrared spectra), 1H NMR (proton nuclear magnetic resonance), 13C NMR (carbon nuclear magnetic resonance) and MS (mass spectrometry) data were consistent with the assigned structures. The synthesized thiazolin-4-one derivatives were tested for antifungal properties against several strains of Candida and all compounds exhibited efficient anti-Candida activity, two of them (9b and 10) being over 500-fold more active than fluconazole. Furthermore, the compounds’ lipophilicity was assessed and the compounds were subjected to in silico screening for prediction of their ADME-Tox properties (absorbtion, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity). Molecular docking studies were performed to investigate the mode of action towards the fungal lanosterol 14α-demethylase, a cytochrome P450-dependent enzyme. The results of the in vitro antifungal activity screening, docking study and ADME-Tox prediction revealed that the synthesized compounds are potential anti-Candida agents that might act by inhibiting the fungal lanosterol 14α-demethylase and can be further optimized and developed as lead compounds.
Central limit theorem for products of toral automorphisms

Let $(\tau_n)$ be a sequence of toral automorphisms $\tau_n : x \rightarrow A_n x \hbox{mod}\ZZ^d$ with $A_n \in {\cal A}$, where ${\cal A}$ is a finite set of matrices in $SL(d, \mathbb{Z})$. Under some conditions the method of "multiplicative systems" of Koml\`os can be used to prove a Central Limit Theorem for the sums $\sum_{k=1}^n f(\tau_k \circ \tau_{k-1} \cdots \circ \tau_1 x)$ if $f$ is a H\"older function on $\mathbb{T}^d$. These conditions hold for $2\times 2$ matrices with positive coefficients. In dimension $d$ they can be applied when $A_n= A_n(\omega)$, with independent choices of $A_n(\omega)$ in a finite set of matrices $\in SL(d, \mathbb{Z})$, in order to prove a "quenched" CLT.
Physico-chemical and microbiological characterization of spontaneous fermentation of Cellina di Nardò and Leccino table olives

Table olives are one of the most important traditional fermented vegetables in Europe and their world consumption is constantly increasing. In the Greek style, table olives are obtained by spontaneous fermentations, without any chemical debittering treatment. Evolution of sugars, organic acids, alcohols, mono, and polyphenol compounds and volatile compounds associated with the fermentative metabolism of yeasts and bacteria throughout the natural fermentation process of the two Italian olive cultivars Cellina di Nardò and Leccino were determined. A protocol was developed and applied aimed at the technological characterization of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeast strains as possible candidate autochthonous starters for table olive fermentation from Cellina di Nardò and Leccino cultivars. The study of the main physic-chemical parameters and volatile compounds during fermentation helped to determine chemical descriptors that may be suitable for monitoring olive fermentation. In both the analyzed table olive cultivars, aldehydes proved to be closely related to the first stage of fermentation (30 days), while higher alcohols (2-methyl-1-propanol; 3-methyl-1-butanol), styrene, and o-cymene were associated with the middle stage of fermentation (90 days) and acetate esters with the final step of olive fermentation (180 days).
International Journal of Computer Science and Technology 183

Testing is a process used to identify the correctness, completeness and quality of developed computer software. Testing, apart from finding errors, is also used to test performance, safety, fault-tolerance or security. Testing is the most important quality assurance measure for software. Testing is time consuming and laborious process. Therefore, techniques to automatic test data generation would be useful to reduce the cost and time. Software testing is an important and valuable part of the software development life cycle. Due to time, cost and other circumstances, exhaustive testing is not feasible that's why there is a need to automate the software testing process. Testing effectiveness can be achieved by the State Transition Testing (STT) which is commonly used in real time, embedded and web based type of software systems. The objective of this paper is to present an algorithm by applying a Genetic Algorithm Technique, for generation of optimal and minimal test sequences for behaviour specification of software. Present paper approach generates test sequence in order to obtain the complete software coverage. I. Introduction Testing is one of the most used software quality assessment methods. There are two important processes when testing object-oriented software are used. First, the software has to be initialized with a set of values. These values are used to set a number of variables that are relevant for the test case [3, 10]. The values of these variables define a single state from the possible set of states, the software can be determined. These values can either be a primitive value such as an integer or complex values such as an object. With the software testing initialized [9], its method takes one or more software specification, defines the output of the software and what is a valid input. Since the number of more objects as parameters, these objects also have to be initialized. To determine if the test case passed or fail, a software specification [8] has to be used. The number of possible states software may have is exponential [12], it is impossible to test all of them. Software testing [9, 12, 19], is one of the major and primary techniques for achieving high quality software. Software testing is done to detect presence of faults [6, 8], which cause software failure. However, software testing is a time consuming and expensive task.
Multi-objective optimization of freeway traffic flow via a fuzzy reinforcement learning method

A fuzzy approach to reinforcement learning in multi-objective optimization problem of freeway traffic flow control and dynamic route guidance is presented. The problem domain, a freeway network integration management application considers the efficiency and equity of system, is formulated as a distributed fuzzy reinforcement learning problem. The Gini coefficient is adopted in this study as an indicator of equity. The DFRL approach was implemented via a multi-agent control architecture where the decision agent was assigned to each of the on-ramp or VMS. The reward of each agent is simultaneously updating a single shared policy. The control strategy's effect is demonstrated through its application to the simple freeway network. Analyses of simulation results using this approach show the equity of the system have a significant improvement over traditional control, especially for the case of large traffic demand. Using the DFRL approach, Compared with traditional methods, the network's Gini coefficient has fallen by 30% or more.
Implicit learning of a perceptual-motor skill after stroke.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE A motor skill can be learned implicitly, without awareness of what is being learned. The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of adults who had unilateral stroke to learn implicitly a perceptual-motor task. SUBJECTS Subjects were 47 people who were poststroke and 36 control subjects. METHODS Participants performed sequences of hand movements in response to target lights in 2 conditions: a patterned sequence and a random sequence. Participants were not given explicit knowledge of the presence of the 2 conditions. Those who had stroke performed with the upper-extremity ipsilateral to the lesion. RESULTS Subjects who had stroke performed more slowly than control subjects. For both groups, times decreased with practice of the patterned sequence, increased with introduction of the random sequence, and decreased again with reintroduction of the patterned sequence. Group differences persisted in a retention test given the next day of the patterned sequence, and both groups showed decreased times over the course of the retention test. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION People with stroke are able to learn a perceptual-motor task even without explicit instructions regarding the patterned sequence embedded in the task.
Multiplicatively closed Markov models must form Lie algebras

We prove that the probability substitution matrices obtained from a continuous-time Markov chain form a multiplicatively closed set if and only if the rate matrices associated with the chain form a linear space spanning a Lie algebra. The key original contribution we make is to overcome an obstruction, due to the presence of inequalities that are unavoidable in the probabilistic application, which prevents free manipulation of terms in the Baker–Campbell–Haursdorff formula.
A SWOT Analysis of the Great Lakes Water Quality Protocol 2012: The Good, the Bad and the Opportunity

Since the signing of the Great Lakes Water Quality Protocol by Canada and the United States on September 7, 2012, there has been no review of it in the literature. This paper aims to fill that gap by conducting a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats (SWOT) analysis that will aid in deducing strategies to maximize the strengths and opportunities and minimize the weaknesses and threats to achieving the purpose of the Protocol. The review found that the Protocol has maintained the basic visionary infrastructure retaining the purpose and main objectives while broadening the scope to include three new Annexes; Aquatic Invasive Species, Habitat and Species and Climate change. Weaknesses include instances of ambiguous language, the separate treatment of groundwater, lack of Annex on Indigenous engagement and discrepancies between the principles and the Annexes. A key threat remains the lack of resources for the implementation of the Protocol.
Price earnings ratios on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange - Are they a guide to value?

This paper tests whether there is an equilibrium relationship between prices and earnings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). Such a relationship would hold if the JSE Index and index earnings were cointegrated, A full explanation of the technique of cointegration is provided. It is shown that prices and earnings on the JSE are not cointegrated, which is aconsistent with similar results obtained for the New York Stock Exchange. The paper then offers a more general explanation of prices on the JSE to include, in addition to earnings, the influence of world markets and political and exchange rate risk, on the value of the JSE as represented by its Industrial and Financial Index. It is found that the variables of these models of the JSE are in fact cointegated. This means that there have been forces driving long term equilibrium values on the JSE. Movements away from such equilibrium values have represented market beating opportunities Current prices are thus not the best estimate of future prices, sug.
Write Performance Analysis with Buffered FUSE

With the development of technology, the size of files handled by smart devices is increasing. This phenomenon can cause the storage to be the biggest bottleneck of smart devices. There is a study that presents a major factor in this phenomenon is overhead in user level filesystem (FUSE). And it proposed buffered FUSE (bFUSE) and increased size of FUSE I/O as a solution of this problem. In this paper, we reproduced it in ODROID-Q2 and measured write performance. As a result, we can raise the write performance up to 96% compared to raw device bandwidth with FUSE.
Increased high-intensity activity in elite Australian football finals matches.

BACKGROUND Australian football (AF) is a highly intermittent sport, requiring athletes to accelerate hundreds of times with repeated bouts of high-intensity running (HIR). Players aim to be in peak physical condition for finals, with anecdotal evidence of increased speed and pressure of these games. PURPOSE However, no data exists on the running demands of finals games, and therefore the aim of this study was to compare the running demands of finals to regular season games with matched players and opponents. METHODS Player movement was recorded by GPS at 5 Hz and expressed per period of the match (rotation), for total distance, high-intensity running (HIR, 4.17-10.00 m·s-1) and maximal accelerations (2.78-10.00 m·s-2). All data was compared for regular season and finals games and the magnitude of effects was analyzed with the effect size (ES) statistic and expressed with confidence intervals. RESULTS Each of the total distance (11%; ES: 0.78 ± 0.30), high-intensity running distance (9%; ES: 0.29 ± 0.25) and number of maximal accelerations (97%; ES: 1.30 ± 0.20) increased in finals games. The largest percentage increases in maximal accelerations occurred from a commencement velocity of between 3-4 (47%; ES: 0.56 ± 0.21) and 4-5 m·s-1 (51%; ES: 0.72 ± 0.26), and with <19 s between accelerations (53%; ES: 0.63 ± 0.27). CONCLUSION Elite AF players nearly double the number of maximal accelerations in finals compared with regular season games. This large increase is superimposed on requirements to cover a greater total distance and spend more time at high velocity during finals games. Players can be effectively conditioned to cope with these increased demands, even during a long competitive season.
C-Band Cross-Polarization Wind Speed Retrieval

C-band ocean backscatter observations over operational weather buoys using RADARSAT-2 fine quad mode data have resulted in new empirical relationships for the C-band co-polarization ratio and the C-band cross-polarization (cross-pol) ocean backscatter. The cross-pol relationship is independent of incidence angle and wind direction, which simplifies wind speed retrieval from synthetic aperture radar imagery for sufficiently high wind speeds.
Automated Identification of Dementia Using FDG-PET Imaging

Parametric FDG-PET images offer the potential for automated identification of the different dementia syndromes. However, various existing image features and classifiers have their limitations in characterizing and differentiating the patterns of this disease. We reported a hybrid feature extraction, selection, and classification approach, namely, the GA-MKL algorithm, for separating patients with suspected Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia from normal controls. In this approach, we extracted three groups of features to describe the average level, spatial variation, and asymmetry of glucose metabolic rates in 116 cortical volumes. An optimal combination of features, that is, capable of classifying dementia cases was identified by a genetic algorithm- (GA-) based method. The condition of each FDG-PET study was predicted by applying the selected features to a multikernel learning (MKL) machine, in which the weighting parameter of each kernel function can be automatically estimated. We compared our approach to two state-of-the-art dementia identification algorithms on a set of 129 clinical cases and improved the performance in separating the dementia types, achieving accuracy of 94.62%. There is a very good agreement between the proposed automated technique and the diagnosis made by clinicians.
Eliminating Dead Computations on Recursive

This paper describes a general and eeective method for backward dependence analysis in the presence of recursive data constructions. The goal is to identify partially dead recursive data and eliminate dead computations on them. The method uses projections based on general regular tree grammars extended with the notion of live and dead, and deenes the analysis as mutually recursive grammar transformers. To guarantee that the analysis terminates, we describe how to use nite grammar abstract domains or carefully designed approximation operations. For methods based on nite domains, we describe a new application in caching intermediate results for program improvement. For methods based on approximation operations, we describe algorithms for three such operations that together produce more precise analysis results than previous methods. Finally, the analysis results are used to identify and eliminate dead computations.