Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The changing face of nutraceuticals – An overview

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food" were the words said around 2500 years ago by Hippocrates. Since ancient times mankind has believed in the role played by the appropriate amount of nutrition in maintaining proper health. The increasing concern of consumers regarding the potential toxic effects of synthetic drugs has helped the nutraceutical market to grow enormously in the past few years as consumers feel that it is a relatively safer way to good health. The market for these products is anticipated to increase even further in the years to come. However, there still exists ambiguity about the regulatory requirements related to nutraceuticals worldover. Stringent regulations related to the safety and efficacy of these products is imperative to create a conducive environment for the sustainable growth of the nutraceutical industry. This article attempts to trace the evolution of nutraceuticals over the years and a sneak peek into what may be the future of the nutraceutical industry.
X-matrices provide a lower bound of concurrence

By focusing on the X-matrix part of a density matrix of two qubits we provide an algebraic lower bound for the concurrence. The lower bound is generalized for cases beyond two qubits and can serve as a sufficient condition for non-separability for bipartite density matrices of arbitrary dimension. Experimentally, our lower bound can be used to confirm non-separability without performing a complete state tomography.
Phase noise measurement on IF analog signals using standard digital ATE resources

This paper introduces a low-cost technique for phase noise measurement on IF analog signals. The technique is based on signal acquisition from a digital Automated Test Equipment (ATE) and a dedicated post-processing algorithm that permits to reconstruct the time-domain phase of the IF analog signal from the digital capture. An experimental setup is developed to validate the proposed technique and measurements on actual analog signals demonstrate a very good agreement with conventional phase noise measurements.
Analog decimator IC in direct-form polyphase structure

An integrated implementation of a switched-capacitor decimation filter for video specifications, using a low-sensitivity direct-form structure, is presented in this paper. It is based on the polyphase decomposition of a transfer function with unequal numerator and denominator orders, using a reduced number of opamps. It has been designed for an AMS 0.8 /spl mu/m CMOS process, taking the advantages of differential OTA structures, incorporating dynamical common-mode feedback circuits, and has been carefully considered in order to reduce the non-idealities, such as charge injection and process gradients. Results, obtained by simulation with the extracted parameters, are provided in order to verify the performance of the proposed implementation.
Influence of magnetization on performance of SPM machine with 3rd harmonic injected rotor

The influence of magnetization on the electromagnetic performance in the surface-mounted permanent magnet (SPM) machine with sinusoidal+3rd harmonic shaped rotor is investigated in this paper. The flux density, cogging torque, phase back-EMF, torque and loss are analyzed by finite element (FE) method. The differences of electromagnetic performance between the machines with parallel and radial magnetization manners are illustrated. It is found that the machine with parallel magnetization can produce high torque but also accompanied by high torque ripple compared to that with radial magnetization.
Similarity between the Cue for Judgments of Learning (JOL) and the Cue for Test Is Not the Primary Determinant of JOL Accuracy

Abstract Eventual memory performance is predicted more accurately when a person's judgment of learning (JOL) is delayed until shortly after studying an item than when made immediately after studying the item. According to the transfer-appropriate-monitoring hypothesis, this delayed-JOL effect arises because of the contextual similarity between the cue for the JOL and the cue for the memory test. In three paired-associate learning experiments, delayed JOLs were cued by the stimulus alone or by the stimulus-response pair, and the eventual test was associative recognition of stimulus-response pairs. Recognition of stimulus-response pairs was predicted more accurately when JOLs had been cued by the stimulus alone than when they had been cued by the stimulus-response pair, even though the latter was more similar than the former to the cue for the recognition test. Implications of these results, especially the lack of support for the class of theories emphasizing transfer-appropriate monitoring, are discussed for theories of the accuracy of JOLs.
Within-rhythm Class Native Language Discrimination Abilities of Basque-Spanish Monolingual and Bilingual Infants at 3.5 Months of Age

Language rhythm determines young infants' language discrimination abilities. However, it is unclear whether young bilingual infants exposed to rhythmically similar languages develop sensitivities to cross-linguistic rhythm cues to discriminate their dual language input. To address this question, 3.5-month-old monolingual Basque, monolingual Spanish and bilingual Basque-Spanish infants' language discrimination abilities (across low-pass filtered speech samples of Basque and Spanish) have been tested using the visual habituation procedure. Although falling within the same rhythmic class, Basque and Spanish exhibit significant differences in their distributions of vocalic intervals (within-rhythmic class variation). All infant groups in our study successfully discriminated between the languages, although each group exhibited a different pattern. Monolingual Spanish infants succeeded only when they heard Basque during habituation, suggesting that they were influenced by native language recognition. The bilingual and the Basque monolingual infants showed no such asymmetries and succeeded irrespective of the language of habituation. Additionally, bilingual infants exhibited longer looking times in the test phase as compared with monolinguals, reflecting that bilingual infants attend to their native languages differently than monolinguals. Overall, results suggest that bilingual infants are sensitive to within-rhythm acoustic regularities of their native language(s) facilitating language discrimination and hence supporting early bilingual acquisition.
A Randomized Trial for the Study of the Elective Surgical Treatment of Portal Hypertension in Mansonic Schistosomiasis

From 1977 to 1983, 94 patients with esophageal varices and gastrointestinal bleeding secondary to mansonic schistosomiasis were entered into a prospective randomized trial comparing the three operations mainly used in Brazil: esophagogastric devascularization associated with splenectomy (EGDS, 32 patients), classical splenorenal shunt (SRS, 32 patients), and distal splenorenal shunt (DSRS, 30 patients). The randomization was interrupted because of a significant incidence of portosystemic encephalopathy (PSE) in the SRS group (26%), as compared to the DSRS (7%) and EGDS (0%) groups. The rate of rebleeding was the same in the three groups, but the rate of failure, as defined by the presence of technical problems, postoperative complications, or death, was significantly higher in the SRS group. This 2-year follow-up shows that SRS should be abandoned in hepatosplenic schistosomiasis and that a comparison between DSRS and EGDS with a longer follow-up is urgently needed.
PAA1, a P-Type ATPase of Arabidopsis, Functions in Copper Transport in Chloroplasts Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.011817.

Copper (Cu) is an essential trace element with important roles as a cofactor in many plant functions, including photosynthesis. However, free Cu ions can cause toxicity, necessitating precise Cu delivery systems. Relatively little is known about Cu transport in plant cells, and no components of the Cu transport machinery in chloroplasts have been identified previously. Cu transport into chloroplasts provides the cofactor for the stromal enzyme copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (Cu/ZnSOD) and for the thylakoid lumen protein plastocyanin, which functions in photosynthetic electron transport from the cytochrome b6f complex to photosystem I. Here, we characterized six Arabidopsis mutants that are defective in the PAA1 gene, which encodes a member of the metal-transporting P-type ATPase family with a functional N-terminal chloroplast transit peptide. paa1 mutants exhibited a high-chlorophyll-fluorescence phenotype as a result of an impairment of photosynthetic electron transport that could be ascribed to decreased levels of holoplastocyanin. The paa1-1 mutant had a lower chloroplast Cu content, despite having wild-type levels in leaves. The electron transport defect of paa1 mutants was evident on medium containing <1 μM Cu, but it was suppressed by the addition of 10 μM Cu. Chloroplastic Cu/ZnSOD activity also was reduced in paa1 mutants, suggesting that PAA1 mediates Cu transfer across the plastid envelope. Thus, PAA1 is a critical component of a Cu transport system in chloroplasts responsible for cofactor delivery to plastocyanin and Cu/ZnSOD.
MMPI: A flexible and efficient multiprocessor message passing interface for NoC-based MPSoC

A flexible and efficient programming model for NoC-Based MPSoC, MMPI (Multiprocessor Message Passing Interface) is proposed. To improve the efficiency of design exploration, MMPI separates parallel-programming from the iterative exploration process by introducing a “mapping file” mechanism and defining a layered communication protocol stack. Both spacial parallelism and temporal parallelism are supported to improve resource utilization and performance. The results demonstrate that MMPI achieves small memory and execution footprints, and resolves the problems of task loading and message reordering efficiently.
Information contained in sensory nerve recordings made with intrafascicular electrodes

Multiunit recordings were made in anesthetized cats with chronically implanted intrafascicular electrodes over a period of six months. Neural signals recorded with these electrodes consisted of activity in sensory fibers innervating a variety of cutaneous mechanoreceptors. Mechanical stimuli were used to selectively activate individual nerve fibers, and the receptive field and receptor type were identified for each unit. Over a period of six months, there was a net shift in the recorded population, but the electrodes contained to provide a representative sample of the activity in the fascicle as a whole. The total number of units from which activity could be recorded remained roughly constant with time, and individual units persisted in the recordings for up to six months. These results indicate that intrafascicular electrodes could be used to sample information carried by individual somatosensory fibers on a long term basis. <<ETX>>
Functional Role of Monocytes and Macrophages for the Inflammatory Response in Acute Liver Injury

Different etiologies such as drug toxicity, acute viral hepatitis B, or acetaminophen poisoning can cause acute liver injury or even acute liver failure (ALF). Excessive cell death of hepatocytes in the liver is known to result in a strong hepatic inflammation. Experimental murine models of liver injury highlighted the importance of hepatic macrophages, so-called Kupffer cells, for initiating and driving this inflammatory response by releasing proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines including tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-1beta, or monocyte-chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1, CCL2) as well as activating other non-parenchymal liver cells, e.g., endothelial or hepatic stellate cells. Many of these proinflammatory mediators can trigger hepatocytic cell death pathways, e.g., via caspase activation, but also activate protective signaling pathways, e.g., via nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB). Recent studies in mice demonstrated that these macrophage actions largely depend on the recruitment of monocytes into the liver, namely of the inflammatory Ly6c+ (Gr1+) monocyte subset as precursors of tissue macrophages. The chemokine receptor CCR2 and its ligand MCP-1/CCL2 promote monocyte subset infiltration upon liver injury. In contrast, the chemokine receptor CX3CR1 and its ligand fractalkine (CX3CL1) are important negative regulators of monocyte infiltration by controlling their survival and differentiation into functionally diverse macrophage subsets upon injury. The recently identified cellular and molecular pathways for monocyte subset recruitment, macrophage differentiation, and interactions with other hepatic cell types in the injured liver may therefore represent interesting novel targets for future therapeutic approaches in ALF.
Xenobiotic Compounds Degradation by Heterologous Expression of a Trametes sanguineus Laccase in Trichoderma atroviride

Fungal laccases are enzymes that have been studied because of their ability to decolorize and detoxify effluents; they are also used in paper bleaching, synthesis of polymers, bioremediation, etc. In this work we were able to express a laccase from Trametes (Pycnoporus) sanguineus in the filamentous fungus Trichoderma atroviride. For this purpose, a transformation vector was designed to integrate the gene of interest in an intergenic locus near the blu17 terminator region. Although monosporic selection was still necessary, stable integration at the desired locus was achieved. The native signal peptide from T. sanguineus laccase was successful to secrete the recombinant protein into the culture medium. The purified, heterologously expressed laccase maintained similar properties to those observed in the native enzyme (Km and kcat and kcat/km values for ABTS, thermostability, substrate range, pH optimum, etc). To determine the bioremediation potential of this modified strain, the laccase-overexpressing Trichoderma strain was used to remove xenobiotic compounds. Phenolic compounds present in industrial wastewater and bisphenol A (an endocrine disruptor) from the culture medium were more efficiently removed by this modified strain than with the wild type. In addition, the heterologously expressed laccase was able to decolorize different dyes as well as remove benzo[α]pyrene and phenanthrene in vitro, showing its potential for xenobiotic compound degradation.
Transnasal Humidified Rapid-Insufflation Ventilatory Exchange (THRIVE): a physiological method of increasing apnoea time in patients with difficult airways

Emergency and difficult tracheal intubations are hazardous undertakings where successive laryngoscopy–hypoxaemia–re‐oxygenation cycles can escalate to airway loss and the ‘can't intubate, can't ventilate’ scenario. Between 2013 and 2014, we extended the apnoea times of 25 patients with difficult airways who were undergoing general anaesthesia for hypopharyngeal or laryngotracheal surgery. This was achieved through continuous delivery of transnasal high‐flow humidified oxygen, initially to provide pre‐oxygenation, and continuing as post‐oxygenation during intravenous induction of anaesthesia and neuromuscular blockade until a definitive airway was secured. Apnoea time commenced at administration of neuromuscular blockade and ended with commencement of jet ventilation, positive‐pressure ventilation or recommencement of spontaneous ventilation. During this time, upper airway patency was maintained with jaw‐thrust. Transnasal Humidified Rapid‐Insufflation Ventilatory Exchange (THRIVE) was used in 15 males and 10 females. Mean (SD [range]) age at treatment was 49 (15 [25–81]) years. The median (IQR [range]) Mallampati grade was 3 (2–3 [2–4]) and direct laryngoscopy grade was 3 (3–3 [2–4]). There were 12 obese patients and nine patients were stridulous. The median (IQR [range]) apnoea time was 14 (9–19 [5–65]) min. No patient experienced arterial desaturation < 90%. Mean (SD [range]) post‐apnoea end‐tidal (and in four patients, arterial) carbon dioxide level was 7.8 (2.4 [4.9–15.3]) kPa. The rate of increase in end‐tidal carbon dioxide was 0.15 kPa.min−1. We conclude that THRIVE combines the benefits of ‘classical’ apnoeic oxygenation with continuous positive airway pressure and gaseous exchange through flow‐dependent deadspace flushing. It has the potential to transform the practice of anaesthesia by changing the nature of securing a definitive airway in emergency and difficult intubations from a pressured stop–start process to a smooth and unhurried undertaking.
Protein kinase C activation potentiates gating of the vanilloid receptor VR1 by capsaicin, protons, heat and anandamide

1 The effects of activation of protein kinase C (PKC) on membrane currents gated by capsaicin, protons, heat and anandamide were investigated in primary sensory neurones from neonatal rat dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and in HEK293 cells (human embryonic kidney cell line) transiently or stably expressing the human vanilloid receptor hVR1. 2 Maximal activation of PKC by a brief application of phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate (PMA) increased the mean membrane current activated by a low concentration of capsaicin by 1.65‐fold in DRG neurones and 2.18‐fold in stably transfected HEK293 cells. Bradykinin, which activates PKC, also enhanced the response to capsaicin in DRG neurones. The specific PKC inhibitor RO31‐8220 prevented the enhancement caused by PMA. 3 Activation of PKC did not enhance the membrane current at high concentrations of capsaicin, showing that PKC activation increases the probability of channel opening rather than unmasking channels. 4 Application of PMA alone activated an inward current in HEK293 cells transiently transfected with VR1. The current was suppressed by the VR1 antagonist capsazepine. PMA did not, however, activate a current in the large majority of DRG neurones nor in HEK293 cells stably transfected with VR1. 5 Removing external Ca2+ enhanced the response to a low concentration of capsaicin 2.40‐fold in DRG neurones and 3.42‐fold in HEK293 cells. Activation of PKC in zero Ca2+ produced no further enhancement of the response to capsaicin in either DRG neurones or HEK293 cells stably transfected with VR1. 6 The effects of PKC activation on the membrane current gated by heat, anandamide and low pH were qualitatively similar to those on the capsaicin‐gated current. 7 The absence of a current activated by PMA in most DRG neurones or in stably transfected HEK293 cells suggests that activation of PKC does not directly open VR1 channels, but instead increases the probability that they will be activated by capsaicin, heat, low pH or anandamide. Removal of calcium also potentiates activation, and PKC activation then has no further effect. The results are consistent with a model in which phosphorylation of VR1 by PKC increases the probability of channel gating by agonists, and in which dephosphorylation occurs by a calcium‐dependent process.
On incorporating an on-line strip packing algorithm into elastic Grid reservation-based systems

In grid systems, users may require assurance for completing their jobs on shared resources. Such guarantees can only be provided by reserving resources in advance. In this paper, we introduce an elastic reservation model, where users can query about a resource availability on a given time interval. They can also provide a reservation duration time and/or number of compute nodes needed as soft constraints to the query. Next, we provide an adapted version of an on-line strip packing algorithm, that takes into a consideration of resource utilization when processing reservation requests. We evaluate our algorithm with a real workload trace and show that the proposed algorithm manages a higher resource utilization and number of acceptance compared to an ad-hoc rigid approach.
Polyincestuous Families

Forty-eight polyincestuous families were examined to determine the characteristics of this type of sexual abuse and subcategories of polyincest. The mean number of perpetrators per family was 3.3, and the mean number of victims 2.7. Almost 40% of perpetrators were female. Five families had only male victims, 19 only female, and 24 both male and female victims. In 71% of cases, there were offenders from both within the nuclear family and the extended family. In approximately 60% of cases, there were victims or offenders from outside the family who were involved in the sexual abuse. In more than a third of cases, there appeared to be a belief system supporting incest, and in about 40% victims seemed to find something positive in the sexual abuse. Forty-five of the cases could be classified into one of three categories, based on some perpetrator characteristics: (a) offenders: a mother and a father figure; (b) offenders: male relatives; and (c) offenders: a mother figure, a father figure, and others.
Pediatricians' management practices for chronic pain.

OBJECTIVE While research has established that pediatric pain is undertreated, it is unclear who should have primary responsibility for its management. This study asks pediatricians who they believe should treat pain and how pain should be assessed and managed. METHODS We administered a mail and online survey about pediatric chronic pain and palliative care to a random sample of 800 U.S. pediatricians, and performed descriptive and multivariate analyses on 303 respondents. RESULTS Most pediatrician responders were white, non-Hispanic (55.8%), and had been in practice 10 or more years (68.0%). Only one third of pediatricians (32.3%) felt it was their primary responsibility to treat chronic pain; most believed pain specialists (58.1%), other specialists, (39.6%), or hospice providers (26.1%) should be responsible. For pain assessments, most report using parent (87.1%) or patient (84.2%) verbal reports and one half (49.5%) use pain diaries, although multivariate analyses showed that inpatient pediatricians were significantly less likely to use these modalities. Acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were commonly cited medications to usually or always treat pain (61.7% and 66.9%, respectively) and 19.3% report never or rarely prescribing intermittent opiates in their practice. Multivariate analyses showed that there were no consistent physician qualities that predicted the use of opiate prescriptions. CONCLUSIONS Our findings illustrate that pediatricians' theoretical approaches to chronic pain management are more collaborative than independent. Future research must test if pediatricians could benefit from supplemental pain education, increased emphasis on clinical guidance, and an increased awareness of hospice to be included in the pain management team for children.
Asymptotic properties of certain diffusion ratchets with locally negative drift

We consider two reflecting diffusion processes (Xt)t≥0 with a moving reflection boundary given by a non-decreasing pure jump Markov process (Rt)t≥0. Between the jumps of the reflection boundary the diffusion part behaves as a re- flecting Brownian motion with negative drift or as a reflecting Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. In both cases at rate (Xt −Rt) for some ≥ 0 the reflection boundary jumps to a new value chosen uniformly in (Rt−,Xt). Since after each jump of the reflection boundary the diffusions are reflected at a higher level we call the processes Brownian ratchet and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck ratchet. Such diffusion ratchets are bio- logically motivated by passive protein transport across membranes. The processes considered here are generalisations of the Brownian ratchet (without drift) studied in Depperschmidt and Pfaffelhuber (2010). For both processes we prove a law of large numbers, in particular each of the ratchets moves to infinity at a positive speed which can be computed explicitly, and a central limit theorem.