Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Osteoprotective Effect of Echinocystic Acid, a Triterpone Component from Eclipta prostrata, in Ovariectomy-Induced Osteoporotic Rats

Echinocystic acid (EA) is a natural triterpone enriched in various herbs and has been used for medicinal purposes in China. In the present study, we systematically examined the effects of EA on ovariectomy-induced osteoporosis in rats for the first time. Three-month-old female ovariectomy (OVX) Sprague–Dawley rats were used to evaluate the osteoprotective effect of EA. Results showed that administration of EA (5 or 15 mg/kg/day) for 12 weeks prevented lower levels of maximum stress and Young’s modulus of femur induced by OVX. EA also recovered bone metabolic biomarkers levels in OVX rats, including osteocalcin, alkaline phosphatese, deoxypyridinoline, and urinary calcium and phosphorus. EA (5 and 15 mg/kg/day) could prevent the alteration of total bone mineral density in the femur caused by OVX. However, only high dose (15 mg/kg/day) of EA significantly improved trabecular architecture, as evidenced by higher levels of bone volume/tissue volume, trabecula number, and trabecula thickness, and lower levels of trabecula separation and structure model index compared with OVX rats. In addition, EA treatment decresed the serum levels of IL-1β and TNF-α in OVX rats. In conclusion, EA could prevent reduction of bone mass and strength and improve the cancellous bone structure and biochemical properties in OVX rats. Hence, EA may serve as a new candidate or a leading compound for anti-osteoporosis.
Association between the metabolic syndrome and chronic kidney disease in Chinese adults.

BACKGROUND The metabolic syndrome is a common risk factor for cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Western populations. We examined the relationship between the metabolic syndrome and risk of CKD in Chinese adults. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was conducted in a nationally representative sample of 15 160 Chinese adults aged 35-74 years. The metabolic syndrome was defined as the presence of three or more of the following risk factors: elevated blood pressure, low high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, high triglycerides, elevated plasma glucose and abdominal obesity. CKD was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate<60 ml/min/1.73 m2 and elevated serum creatinine was defined as >or=1.14 mg/dl in men and >or=0.97 mg/dl in women (>or=95th percentile of serum creatinine in Chinese men and women aged 35-44 years without hypertension or diabetes, respectively). RESULTS The multivariate-adjusted odds ratios [95% confidence interval (CI)] of CKD and elevated serum creatinine in participants with compared to those without the metabolic syndrome were 1.64 (1.16, 2.32) and 1.36 (1.07, 1.73), respectively. Compared to participants without any components of the metabolic syndrome, the multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) of CKD were 1.51 (1.02, 2.23), 1.50 (0.97, 2.32), 2.13 (1.30, 3.50) and 2.72 (1.50, 4.93) for those with 1, 2, 3, and 4 or 5 components, respectively. The corresponding multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) of elevated serum creatinine were 1.11 (0.88, 1.40), 1.39 (1.07, 2.04), 1.47 (1.06, 2.04) and 2.00 (1.32, 3.03), respectively. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that the metabolic syndrome might be an important risk factor for CKD in Chinese adults.
Dynamic modeling and control of a parallel upper-limb rehabilitation robot

This paper aims at dynamic modeling and control of a new upper-limb rehabilitation robot which has a parallel structure. Dynamic modeling of parallel robot is a complicated problem, and the dynamics and voluntary force of the patient arm increase the difficulty of dynamic analysis and control in rehabilitation training. The novelties of this study are: (1) dynamics of the robot and the patient are considered together, and this human-robot interaction system is modeled as a redundantly actuated closed-chain system (2 DOFs, 4 active joints); (2) the system dynamics are derived in workspace using a new method based on the dynamics of its three serial open-chain branches, and both kinematic constrains and interaction forces are considered during the derivation. Compared with the other two previous methods reviewed in this paper, the proposed method is easier to derive, more computationally efficient, and it can be used in both redundant and non-redundant cases. Besides, a model based PD-computed torque controller is designed and the simulation of passive training task along a circular path is presented to prove the effectiveness of this method.
Plasmodium falciparum Hop (PfHop) Interacts with the Hsp70 Chaperone in a Nucleotide-Dependent Fashion and Exhibits Ligand Selectivity

Heat shock proteins (Hsps) play an important role in the development and pathogenicity of malaria parasites. One of the most prominent functions of Hsps is to facilitate the folding of other proteins. Hsps are thought to play a crucial role when malaria parasites invade their host cells and during their subsequent development in hepatocytes and red blood cells. It is thought that Hsps maintain proteostasis under the unfavourable conditions that malaria parasites encounter in the host environment. Although heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) is capable of independent folding of some proteins, its functional cooperation with heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) facilitates folding of some proteins such as kinases and steroid hormone receptors into their fully functional forms. The cooperation of Hsp70 and Hsp90 occurs through an adaptor protein called Hsp70-Hsp90 organising protein (Hop). We previously characterised the Hop protein from Plasmodium falciparum (PfHop). We observed that the protein co-localised with the cytosol-localised chaperones, PfHsp70-1 and PfHsp90 at the blood stages of the malaria parasite. In the current study, we demonstrated that PfHop is a stress-inducible protein. We further explored the direct interaction between PfHop and PfHsp70-1 using far Western and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analyses. The interaction of the two proteins was further validated by co-immunoprecipitation studies. We observed that PfHop and PfHsp70-1 associate in the absence and presence of either ATP or ADP. However, ADP appears to promote the association of the two proteins better than ATP. In addition, we investigated the specific interaction between PfHop TPR subdomains and PfHsp70-1/ PfHsp90, using a split-GFP approach. This method allowed us to observe that TPR1 and TPR2B subdomains of PfHop bind preferentially to the C-terminus of PfHsp70-1 compared to PfHsp90. Conversely, the TPR2A motif preferentially interacted with the C-terminus of PfHsp90. Finally, we observed that recombinant PfHop occasionally eluted as a protein species of twice its predicted size, suggesting that it may occur as a dimer. We conducted SPR analysis which suggested that PfHop is capable of self-association in presence or absence of ATP/ADP. Overall, our findings suggest that PfHop is a stress-inducible protein that directly associates with PfHsp70-1 and PfHsp90. In addition, the protein is capable of self-association. The findings suggest that PfHop serves as a module that brings these two prominent chaperones (PfHsp70-1 and PfHsp90) into a functional complex. Since PfHsp70-1 and PfHsp90 are essential for parasite growth, findings from this study are important towards the development of possible antimalarial inhibitors targeting the cooperation of these two chaperones.
Knowledge Creating Organization: Revisão Bibliométrica das Publicações Acadêmicas Sobre o Tema

O conhecimento passou a ser considerado como vantagem competitiva das organizacoes, impulsionando os estudos sobre as organizacoes que criam conhecimento e como elas se relacionam com o ambiente em que estao inseridas. Diante desta perspectiva, este trabalho objetiva mapear a producao cientifica do tema, disponivel nas bases de dados: Emerald Insight, Sage, Scopus e Web of Science (WoS) sobre o tema knowledge creating organization . Adotando a analise bibliometrica, com natureza exploratoria e carater descritivo como metodologia da pesquisa, utilizando o termo knowledge creating organization na pesquisa, foram obtidos 48 artigos, de onde foi possivel identificar o ano de 1994, como momento inicial da producao cientifica sobre o tema com artigo publicado pelo pesquisador japones Ikujiro Nonaka, que tambem foi o autor mais citado nos trabalhos pesquisados. Ainda se observou que existe predominância de trabalhos desenvolvidos nos Estados Unidos, Japao e Espanha e que o Journal of Knowledge Managment e periodico com maior numero de publicacoes.
A Survey on Botnet Command and Control Traffic Detection

Internet users have been attacked by widespread email viruses earlier, but now scenario has been changed. Now attackers are no more interested to just attract media attention by infecting a large number of computers on the network; in fact, their interest has been shifted to compromising and controlling the infected computers for their personal profits. This new attack trend brings the concept of botnets over the global network of computers. With the high reported infection rates, the vast range of illegal activities and powerful comebacks, botnets are one of the main threats against the cyber security. This paper provides the readers with a background on botnet life-cycle, architecture and malicious activities. It also classifies botnet detection techniques, reviews the recent research works on botnet traffic detection and finally indicates some challenges posed to future work on botnet detection.
Blazars: Clues to jet physics

Being dominated by non-thermal emission from aligned relativistic jets, blazars allow us to elucidate the physics of extragalactic jets, and, ultimately, how energy is extracted from the central black hole. Crucial information about jet structure is provided by the spectral energy distributions from radio to gamma-rays, their trends with luminosity, and correlated multifrequency variability. Since blazar jets have broad implications for all radio-loud (and possibly radio-quiet) AGNs, we also need to understand their circumnuclear structure, especially the details of the physical and dynamical conditions of the highly ionized gas on sub-pc scales, which could be directly related to jet formation and radiative power. Eventually, the bulk of information provided by blazars will help us clarify the origin of the radio-loud/radio-quiet AGN dichotomy, one of the most outstanding open issues of extragalactic astrophysics.
Ieee Ipas'14: International Image Processing Applications and Systems Conference 2014 a Robust Framework for Object Tracking Based on Corrected Background-weighted Histogram Mean Shift and Unscented Kalman Filter

— tracking objects under the presence of noise, objects with partial and full occlusions in complex environments is a challenge for classical mean shift and unscented Kalman filter algorithms. In this paper we propose a new algorithm combining mean shift algorithm with corrected background-weighted histogram (CBWH) and unscented Kalman filter (UKF). The CBWH scheme can effectively reduce background's interference in target localization. So CBWH can guarantee accurate localization of the target. Then UKF algorithm has the ability to estimate the coming state. So the proposed algorithm is used to enhance the solution of object tracking problems. The experimental results show that the proposed method is superior to the traditional tracking methods.
No strangers to adversity: Resilience-promoting practices among South African women child protection social workers

Globally the well-being of child protection social workers (CPSWs) is placed at risk by the taxing nature of their profession. In response, there have been international calls for the prioritization of CPSWs’ resilience. Despite the call to enhance the resilience of CPSWs, to date, only five research studies have explored resilience processes in CPSWs. In this article, we present findings that describe resilience-enhancing practices in the lives of 15 South African CPSWs who were considered resilient. They were recruited by means of snowball sampling and engaged in in-depth interviews. Findings reveal that the overall well-being and functioning of these 15 South African CPSWs are endangered by several occupational risk factors including work pressure, inadequate professional support, financial strain, challenges unique to CPSW such as removal of children and exposure to aggressive clients, and emotional exhaustion. Their resilience was informed by four differently weighted but interrelated resilience practices: practice- and purpose-informing creeds, support systems, constructive transactions, and accentuating the positive. These practices are potentially useful to contribute to the body of knowledge on CPSWs’ resilience as well as to the development of resilience-enhancing guidelines and subsequent intervention programmes with the purpose of protecting CPSWs globally and contributing to efficient service delivery. However, given the dynamic nature of resilience, continued explorations of CPSW resilience processes in different cultural contexts are needed.
FPGA Implementation of M-PSK Modulators for Satellite Communication

In a satellite, there exist various communication subsystem like Telecommand, Telemetry and Payload data transfer. Depending on the requirements of a particular system, different modulation techniques are being used. In general, M-PSK modulation techniques are preferable as they are power and bandwidth efficient. The paper presents the digital implementation QPSK & 8-PSK modulators for satellite communication. The modulators are realized using the concept of Direct Digital Frequency Synthesis (DDFS). The use of look up table and COrdinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) algorithm is explained in details with their comparison on the basis of spectral purity and hardware requirements. The paper describes different methods of implementations of QPSK and 8-PSK modulator with comparison in terms of hardware requirement. The design of modulators are first developed, simulated and optimized on the software tool and then coded in VHDL for hardware realization. The designs are tested on Xilinx platform.
Cones of Matrices and Set-Functions and 0-1 Optimization

It has been recognized recently that to represent a polyhedron as the projection of a higher-dimensional, but simpler, polyhedron, is a powerful tool in polyhedral combinatorics. A general method is developed to construct higher-dimensional polyhedra (or, in some cases, convex sets) whose projection approximates the convex hull of 0–1 valued solutions of a system of linear inequalities. An important feature of these approximations is that one can optimize any linear objective function over them in polynomial time.In the special case of the vertex packing polytope, a sequence of systems of inequalities is obtained such that the first system already includes clique, odd hole, odd antihole, wheel, and orthogonality constraints. In particular, for perfect (and many other) graphs, this first system gives the vertex packing polytope. For various classes of graphs, including t-perfect graphs, it follows that the stable set polytope is the projection of a polytope with a polynomial number of facets.An extension o.
GPS-CCD: A Novel Computational Program for the Prediction of Calpain Cleavage Sites

As one of the most essential post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins, proteolysis, especially calpain-mediated cleavage, plays an important role in many biological processes, including cell death/apoptosis, cytoskeletal remodeling, and the cell cycle. Experimental identification of calpain targets with bona fide cleavage sites is fundamental for dissecting the molecular mechanisms and biological roles of calpain cleavage. In contrast to time-consuming and labor-intensive experimental approaches, computational prediction of calpain cleavage sites might more cheaply and readily provide useful information for further experimental investigation. In this work, we constructed a novel software package of GPS-CCD (Calpain Cleavage Detector) for the prediction of calpain cleavage sites, with an accuracy of 89.98%, sensitivity of 60.87% and specificity of 90.07%. With this software, we annotated potential calpain cleavage sites for hundreds of calpain substrates, for which the exact cleavage sites had not been previously determined. In this regard, GPS-CCD 1.0 is considered to be a useful tool for experimentalists. The online service and local packages of GPS-CCD 1.0 were implemented in JAVA and are freely available at: http://ccd.biocuckoo. org/.
Hearing Profile of Brazilian Forestry Workers' Noise Exposure

Abstract Introduction Researchers studying the hearing health of forestry workers have revealed the presence of a noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) in this population and have concluded that the vibration of the equipment, the carbon monoxide released by motors, and pesticides might also contribute to NIHL. Objective To analyze the noise exposure in the Brazilian forestry industry workers and the effects on hearing. Methods The study sample comprised 109 employees of a company that specialized in reforestation. Their participants' mean age was 35.5 years (21 to 54 years), mean tenure at the company was 3.9 years (1 to 13 years), and mean total duration of noise exposure was 12.3 years (1 to 30 years). The existing documentation reporting on the jobs risk analysis was examined, noise level was measured, and pure tone audiometry was performed in all participants. Participants were divided into three groups according to their noise exposure levels in their current job. Results Of the participants who were exposed to noise levels less than 85 dBA (decibels with A-weighting filter), 23.8% had hearing loss, and 5.5% of the participants who were exposed to noise ranging from 85 to 89.9 dBA and 11% of the participants who were exposed to noise greater than 90 dBA had audiogram results suggestive of NIHL. Conclusion The implementation of a hearing loss prevention program tailored to forestry workers is needed.
RATIONAL INATTENTION AND MONETARY ECONOMICS RATIONAL INATTENTION AND MONETARY ECONOMICS

Everyone ignores or reacts sporadically and imperfectly to some information that they “see”. I page through the business section of the New York Times most mornings, “seeing” charts and tables of a great deal of information about asset markets. I also most days look at ft.com’s charts of within-day movements of oil prices, stock indexes, and exchange rates once or twice. But most days I take no action at all based on this information I’ve viewed. In fact, if you asked me a half hour after I looked at the paper or the web site what the numbers were I’d viewed, I would usually be able to give at best a rough qualitative answer — unless there was some strikingly unusual data. If I were continually dynamically optimizing, I would be making fine adjustments in portfolio, spending plans, bill payment delays, etc. based on this information. It is intuitively obvious why I don’t — the benefits of such continuous adjustment would be slight, and I have more important things to think about. One might think that if we were to recognize that people don’t use some freely available information, we would have to abandon optimizing-agent models of behavior. Some would be happy with this conclusion, but optimizing-agent models
Object-Based Unawareness : Theorey and Applications ∗

This paper and its companion paper, Board & Chung [3], provide foundations for applied models of unawareness as seen in Tirole [24] and Chung & Fortnow [5]. In this paper, we provided a set-theoretic description of a general class of unawareness models called object-based unawareness structures, and present two applications. The first application provide a justification for the contra proferentem doctrine of contract interpretation, under which ambiguous terms in a contract are construed against the drafter. Our second application examines speculative trade. We first generalize the classical No Trade Theorem to situations where agents are delusional but nevertheless satisfy a weaker condition called terminal non-delusion. We then introduce the concepts of living in denial (i.e., agents believe, perhaps incorrectly, that there is nothing that they are unaware of) and living in paranoia (i.e., agents believe, perhaps incorrectly, that there is something that they are unaware of). We show that both living in denial and living in paranoid, in the absense of other forms of delusion, imply terminal non-delusion, and hence the no-trade theorem result obtains.
The Human Gut Microbiome as a Screening Tool for Colorectal Cancer

Recent studies have suggested that the gut microbiome may be an important factor in the development of colorectal cancer. Abnormalities in the gut microbiome have been reported in patients with colorectal cancer; however, this microbial community has not been explored as a potential screen for early-stage disease. We characterized the gut microbiome in patients from three clinical groups representing the stages of colorectal cancer development: healthy, adenoma, and carcinoma. Analysis of the gut microbiome from stool samples revealed both an enrichment and depletion of several bacterial populations associated with adenomas and carcinomas. Combined with known clinical risk factors of colorectal cancer (e.g., BMI, age, race), data from the gut microbiome significantly improved the ability to differentiate between healthy, adenoma, and carcinoma clinical groups relative to risk factors alone. Using Bayesian methods, we determined that using gut microbiome data as a screening tool improved the pretest to posttest probability of adenoma more than 50-fold. For example, the pretest probability in a 65-year-old was 0.17% and, after using the microbiome data, this increased to 10.67% (1 in 9 chance of having an adenoma). Taken together, the results of our study demonstrate the feasibility of using the composition of the gut microbiome to detect the presence of precancerous and cancerous lesions. Furthermore, these results support the need for more cross-sectional studies with diverse populations and linkage to other stool markers, dietary data, and personal health information. Cancer Prev Res; 7(11); 1112–21. ©2014 AACR.
ST ] 1 5 A pr 2 01 6 Robust adaptive efficient estimation for a semi-Markov nonparametric regression models ∗

The paper considers the problem of robust estimating a periodic function in a continuous time regression model with the dependent semi-markov noises. An adaptive model selection procedure, based on the weighted least square estimates, is proposed. Under general moment conditions on the noise distribution, sharp non-asymptotic oracle inequalities for the robust risks have been derived and the robust efficiency of the model selection procedure has been shown. It turns out that for this model the minimax robuste rate may be as more faster and more slowly, than the classical one.