Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative efficacies of Zataria multiflora essential oil and itraconazole against disseminated Candida albicans infection in BALB/c mice

Disseminated candidiasis is a serious problem in public health that results from the invasion of Candida species, in particular Candida albicans. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacies of Zataria multiflora essential oil and itraconazole in clearing C. albicans from the visceral organs of BALB/c mice suffered from disseminated candidiasis. Zataria multiflora essential oil was extracted using Clevenger-type apparatus and analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). For clearance experiment, mice (20-25 g, N=8 per group) received essential oil at doses of 30, 48 and 64 mg/kg and itraconazole at dose of 200 mg/kg intraperitoneally (IP) 2 days before and after intravenous inoculation of 0.5 × 106 C. albicans blastospores. The treated animals were sacrificed on day 20, and 0.1 g of the tissue homogenates was plated onto specific media. In GC-Mass, the main components of the essential oil were carvacrol (61.29%) and thymol (25.18%). The results demonstrated that IP administration of 64 mg/kg of the essential oil had the highest efficacy in reducing C. albicans and produced 39.5, 21.8, 141.5, 174 and 501-fold reductions in mean CFUs per 0.1 gram in Candida infections of the liver, spleen, lungs, brain and kidneys, respectively, compared to positive control. Itraconazole showed significantly more responsiveness than the essential oil at dose of 30 mg/kg in clearing C. albicans from the kidneys (P<0.02), brain (P<0.02) and spleen (P<0.04), and less responsiveness than that of 64 mg/kg in clearing the organism from the brain (P<0.01), lungs (P<0.0005) and kidneys (P<0.0005), whereas no significant difference was observed between this drug and Z. multiflora at dose of 48 mg/kg. These data explain the increased rate of yeast clearance and reduced dissemination to the viscera of Z. multiflora treated mice.
Approximating Optimal Policies for Agents with Limited Execution Resources

An agent with limited consumable execution resources needs policies that attempt to achieve good performance while respecting these limitations. Otherwise, an agent (such as a plane) might fail catastrophically (crash) when it runs out of resources (fuel) at the wrong time (in midair). We present a new approach to constructing policies for agents with limited execution resources that builds on principles of real-time AI, as well as research in constrained Markov decision processes. Specifically, we formulate, solve, and analyze the policy optimization problem where constraints are imposed on the probability of exceeding the resource limits. We describe and empirically evaluate our solution technique to show that it is computationally reasonable, and that it generates policies that sacrifice some potential reward in order to make the kinds of precise guarantees about the probability of resource overutilization that are crucial for mission-critical applications.
Snapshot recordings provide a first description of the acoustic signatures of deeper habitats adjacent to coral reefs of Moorea

Acoustic recording has been recognized as a valuable tool for non-intrusive monitoring of the marine environment, complementing traditional visual surveys. Acoustic surveys conducted on coral ecosystems have so far been restricted to barrier reefs and to shallow depths (10–30 m). Since they may provide refuge for coral reef organisms, the monitoring of outer reef slopes and describing of the soundscapes of deeper environment could provide insights into the characteristics of different biotopes of coral ecosystems. In this study, the acoustic features of four different habitats, with different topographies and substrates, located at different depths from 10 to 100 m, were recorded during day-time on the outer reef slope of the north Coast of Moorea Island (French Polynesia). Barrier reefs appeared to be the noisiest habitats whereas the average sound levels at other habitats decreased with their distance from the reef and with increasing depth. However, sound levels were higher than expected by propagation models, supporting that these habitats possess their own sound sources. While reef sounds are known to attract marine larvae, sounds from deeper habitats may then also have a non-negligible attractive potential, coming into play before the reef itself.
Pulmonary function after laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to prospectively compare the effect of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) versus open cholecystectomy (OC) on postoperative pulmonary function. METHODS Forty consecutive patients (20 in each group) who were evenly matched in terms of pulmonary risk factors were assigned to either elective LC or OC. Pulmonary function studies, oxygen saturation, and chest radiography were performed on both groups before and after the operation until baseline levels were reached. Narcotic requirements and pulmonary complications were compared. The t test, ANOVA, and chi-squared analysis were used. RESULTS Compared to the patients who underwent OC, patients who underwent LC had a significant reduction in postoperative pulmonary impairment (30% to 38%) in all areas studied including forced vital capacity; forced expiratory volume in 1 second; forced expiratory flow, mid-expiratory phase; maximum forced expiratory flow; maximum voluntary ventilation; total lung capacity; and oxygen saturation. Pulmonary function returned to baseline levels 4 to 10 days sooner after LC. Pulmonary complications including atelectasis and hypoxia were less frequent after LC. An eight-fold decrease was noted in postoperative pain medication requirement in the LC group. CONCLUSIONS Compared to OC, laparoscopic cholecystectomy results in a significantly reduced compromise in pulmonary function and narcotic requirement leading to fewer postoperative pulmonary complications. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy should be considered the procedure of choice for elective cholecystectomy.
High illuminance light-emitting diode headlight for medical applications

High brightness light emitting diodes have been used to develop high illuminance headlight for medical applications. It provides various advantages such as high illuminance, long life time, reduced infra red light, extended operation time with battery and light weight. A 3 W LED was employed to achieve the high performance medical headlight. The optical design includes two lenses for high energy transmission and high illuminance. The LED headlight shows 42,000 lux with spot diameter of 80 mm at the distance of 300 mm. For comparison purpose, 5 W LED was also used to obtain the high illuminance headlight. However, the large divergence angle and large spot size of the 5 W LED limits the illuminance to 31,000 lux with increased burden on heat dissipation. The thermal images of the heat sinks indicate that the temperature of the headlight using a 3 W LED is below 50 degree C, which is suitable for medical applications.
Cooperative Transmission Protocols with High Spectral Efficiency and High Diversity Order Using Multiuser Detection and Network Coding

Cooperative transmission is an emerging communication technique that takes advantages of the broadcast nature of wireless channels. However, due to low spectral efficiency and the requirement of orthogonal channels, its potential for use in future wireless networks is limited. In this paper, by making use of multiuser detection (MUD) and network coding, cooperative transmission protocols with high spectral efficiency, diversity order, and coding gain are developed. Compared with the traditional cooperative transmission protocols with single-user detection, in which the diversity gain is only for one source user, the proposed MUD cooperative transmission protocols have the merits that the improvement of one user's link can also benefit the other users. In addition, using MUD at the relay provides an environment in which network coding can be employed. The coding gain and high diversity order can be obtained by fully utilizing the link between the relay and the destination. From the analysis and simulation results, it is seen that the proposed protocols achieve higher diversity gain, better asymptotic efficiency, and lower bit error rate, compared to traditional MUD and to existing cooperative transmission protocols.
Finite-time stabilization of uncertain SISO systems

Any uncertain smooth single-input single-output dynamic system of the full relative degree can be locally finite-time stabilized at its equilibrium point by means of a standard continuous feedback. High-order sliding-mode approach is modified for this sake, and a list of continuous controllers is built depending only on the given relative degree n of the system output sigma. Provided the relative degree is globally well-defined and the system growth rate is restricted, the global finite-time stabilization is possible. The asymptotic accuracies in the cases of discrete and noisy sampling are estimated. In particular, for any q > 0 the stabilization accuracy sigma (i) = O (zeta n-i+q ), i = 0, 1, . , n - 1, is obtained, where zeta is the sampling interval, and q is an arbitrarily chosen positive feedback parameter. Output-feedback controllers are constructed. Computer simulation confirms the applicability of the approach.
The Mere Exposure Effect Is Differentially Sensitive to Different Judgment Tasks

The mere exposure effect is the increase in positive affect that results from the repeated exposure to previously novel stimuli. We sought to determine if judgments other than affective preference could reliably produce a mere exposure effect for two-dimensional random shapes. In two experiments, we found that brighter and darker judgments did not differentiate target from distracter shapes, liking judgments led to target selection greater than chance, and disliking judgments led to distracter selection greater than chance. These results for brighter, darker, and liking judgments were obtained regardless of whether shape recognition was greater (Experiment 1) or not greater (Experiment 2) than chance. Effects of prior exposure to novel shapes were reliably observed only for affective judgment tasks. These results are inconsistent with general predictions made by the nonspecific activation hypothesis, but not the affective primacy or perceptual fluency hypotheses which were discussed in terms of cognitive neuroscience research.
The complex role of osteopontin in renal disease.

489–498 378: 617–620 23. Konieczny BT, Saleem SS, Lowry RP et al. Vigorous cardiac 27. Larsen CP, Elwood ET, Alexander DZ et al. Long-term acceptand skin allograft rejection in the absence of IFN-c. J Am Soc ance of skin and cardiac allografts after blocking CD40 and Nephrol 1996; 7: 1887 CD28 pathways. Nature 1996; 381: 434–438 24. Steiger J, Nickerson P, Ryffel B et al. Islet cell transplantation 28. Kirk AD, Harlan DM, Armstron NN et al. CDTLA4-Ig and in IFN-c receptor deficient mice: are Th2 cells upregulated? anti-CD40 ligand prevent renal allograft rejection in primates. J Am Soc Nephrol 1996; 7: 1896 Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1997; 94: 8789–8794 25. Schwartz RH. Costimulation of T lymphocytes: the role of
Effect of microstructure and defects on fatigue behaviour of directed energy deposited Ti–6Al–4V

The fatigue behaviour of laser engineered net shaping (LENS) deposited Ti–6Al–4V is studied in the as built condition. The fatigue properties are measured, and the influence of microstructure and physical defects on fatigue performance is analysed through microscopy and fractography. Fine basketweave microstructure is obtained using a substrate with large equiaxed grains. The presence and location of unmelted particles are observed to significantly affect fatigue life. On the other hand, smaller gas porosity is not found to have major effect on the fatigue life. Further, the fatigue properties in a ‘repair’ condition are evaluated through samples consisting of LENS deposited parts joined to a preexisting wrought part. The properties are compared with the as built LENS parts.
A PID-Controlled Power Manager for Energy Efficient Web Clusters

Large data centers using high-end processors operating continuously around the clock are major energy consumers. Long periods of idling due to low workload will cause a waste in energy because the processors are active but not doing any useful work. A cluster of low-end embedded processors could continuously match its computational capacity with the workload at a much finer granularity than a server-grade processor by changing the power states of the CPUs. This paper introduces a framework simulating a system level power manager for many-core clusters targeting server cards used in warehouse-sized data centers. The power management system uses sleep states to switch on or off processing elements in a cluster of low power boards to match the capacity of the whole system with the workload, and thus save energy. A PID-controller is implemented in the system, a component already well known with established methods in the industrial control domain. We intend to use this component to effectively determine the number of active processing elements in the used many-core cluster. The proposed power manager can save up to 62 percent in energy compared to a system which only uses dynamic voltage and frequency scaling as power management.
Depth assessment of defects in composite plates combining shearography and vibration excitation

This paper presents an investigation on the applicability of shearography to characterize the location and depth of defects in composite materials. Sets of specimens with artificial square flaws between the layers of a composite material have been used for the experiments. Flaws with different sizes were placed at different depths along the thickness of the material. Time-Average and Stroboscopic laser illumination have been applied together with vibrational loading. The resonance frequencies were related to the depths of the different faults sizes. Frequency x depth results showed good behavior for different defect sizes. These results encourages to further studies with other types of faults and composite materials.
Probabilistic Prediction of Student Affect from Hand Gestures

Affective information is vital for effective human-tohuman communication. Likewise, human-to-computer communication could be potentiated by an “affective barometer” able to infer human affect using a machine vision system. For instance, during a classroom lecture, an affective barometer might provide useful feedback that a real or virtual instructor could use to improve pedagogical strategies. In this paper, we explore the feasibility of using students’ unintentional hand gestures during a classroom lecture to predict their affective state. We propose a maximum a posteriori classifier based on a simple Bayesian network model. We then evaluate the classifier’s ability to predict one of four affective states from five hand gestures observed in video recordings of a classroom lecture. Using four-fold cross validation, we find that the model’s generalization accuracy is 100% over cases where the student reported an affective state, and 79.4% when we include cases where the student reported no affective state. The experiment demonstrates that there is a strong relationship between human affect and visually observable gestures. Future work will explore the applicability of these results in practical applications.
Light-dependent alteration of serotonin-1A receptor binding in cortical and subcortical limbic regions in the human brain

Abstract Objective. Climate, in particular sunshine, influences mood and energy levels, creating a positive upswing of mood on bright, sunny days and negative downswing in cold, dark winter seasons. Higher serotonin transporter availability in healthy human subjects in times of lesser light exposure and lower serotonin levels have been shown in winter. Methods. We examined the light-dependent variations in serotonin-1A receptor binding in limbic regions in 36 drug-naive healthy human subjects. Receptor binding was quantified using positron emission tomography and the radioligand [carbonyl-11C]WAY-100635. Binding potential values were related to the amount of individual exposure to sunlight (daily duration of sunshine) and global radiation (total light intensity). Results. We found a 20–30% lower serotonin-1A receptor binding in the group exposed to a lower amount of global light radiation. Partial correlation analysis revealed significant positive correlations between the regional postsynaptic serotonin-1A receptor binding and global radiation accumulated over a period of 5 days. Conclusions. Seasonal factors, such as daily amount of sunshine and global radiation, influence serotonin-1A receptor binding in limbic brain regions of healthy human subjects. Combined with recently demonstrated seasonal fluctuations in the serotonin transporter availability, our results underline the importance of seasonal factors in the regulation of the serotonergic transmission.
A New Multiscale Representation for Shapes and Its Application to Blood Vessel Recovery

In this paper, we will first introduce a novel multiscale representation (MSR) for shapes via level set motions and PDEs. Based on the MSR, we will then design a surface inpainting algorithm to recover three-dimensional geometry of blood vessels. Because of the nature of irregular morphology in vessels and organs, both phantom and real inpainting scenarios were tested using our new algorithm. Successful vessel recoveries are demonstrated with numerical estimation of the degree of arteriosclerosis and vessel occlusion.
Macrophage-derived foam cells impair endothelial barrier function by inducing endothelial-mesenchymal transition via CCL-4

Recently, endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) has been demonstrated to play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis, the molecular mechanisms of which remain unclear. In the present study, scanning electron microscopy directly revealed a widened endothelial space and immunohistofluorescence demonstrated that EndMT was increased in human aorta atherosclerotic plaques. M1 macrophage-derived foam cell (M1-FC) supernatants, but not M2 macrophage-derived foam cell (M2-FC) supernatants, induced EndMT. A protein array and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay identified that the levels of several cytokines, including C-C motif chemokine ligand 4 (CCL-4) were increased in M1-FC supernatants, in which EndMT was promoted, accompanied by increased endothelial permeability and monocyte adhesion. Furthermore, anti-CCL-4 antibody abolished the effects of M1-FC supernatants on EndMT. At the same time, CCL-4 activated its receptor, C-C motif chemokine receptor-5 (CCR-5), and upregulated transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) expression. Further experiments revealed that EndMT induced by CCL-4 was reversed by treatment with CCR-5 antagonist and the RNA-mediated knockdown of TGF-β. On the whole, the data of the present study suggest that M1-FCs induce EndMT by upregulating CCL-4, and increase endothelial permeability and monocyte adhesion. These data may help to elucidate the important role of EndMT in the development of atherosclerosis.
On lattice trapping of cracks

A simple analytic theory to quantify the extent of “trapping” of cracks by a crystal lattice and its dependence on the range of the interatomic force law is presented. The theory requires a priori knowledge of only one or two lattice-dependent, but force law independent, parameters and can then reproduce nearly all previous (numerically demanding) theoretical results. Moreover, the extent of lattice trapping does not decrease monotonically with increasing range of the force law. For realistic interatomic potentials, however, lattice trapping is quite small. The analysis is then extended to the case of chemical corrosion by direct chemical attack of the crack tip bond. It is shown that similar slow crack growth thresholds can be predicted by the thermodynamic Griffith approach and a fracture criterion based on a local bond instability.
Phylogeography of Rhodiola kirilowii (Crassulaceae): A Story of Miocene Divergence and Quaternary Expansion

The evolution and current distribution of the Sino-Tibetan flora have been greatly affected by historical geological events, such as the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), and Quaternary climatic oscillations. Rhodiola kirilowii, a perennial herb with its distribution ranging from the southeastern QTP and the Hengduan Mountains (HM) to adjacent northern China and central Asia, provides an excellent model to examine and disentangle the effect of both geological orogeny and climatic oscillation on the evolutionary history of species with such distribution patterns. We here conducted a phylogeographic study using sequences of two chloroplast fragments (trnL-F and trnS-G) and internal transcribed spacers in 29 populations of R. kirilowii. A total of 25 plastid haplotypes and 12 ITS ribotypes were found. Molecular clock estimation revealed deep divergence between the central Asian populations and other populations from the HM and northern China; this split occurred ca. 2.84 million year ago. The majority of populations from the mountains of northern China were dominated by a single haplotype or ribotype, while populations of the HM harbored both high genetic diversity and high haplotype diversity. This distribution pattern indicates that HM was either a diversification center or a refugium for R. kirilowii during the Quaternary climatic oscillations. The present distribution of this species on mountains in northern China may have resulted from a rapid glacial population expansion from the HM. This expansion was confirmed by the mismatch distribution analysis and negative Tajima's D and Fu's F S values, and was dated to ca. 168 thousand years ago. High genetic diversity and population differentiation in both plastid and ITS sequences were revealed; these imply restricted gene flow between populations. A distinct isolation-by-distance pattern was suggested by the Mantel test. Our results show that in old lineages, populations may harbour divergent genetic forms that are sufficient to maintain or even increase overall genetic diversity despite fragmentation and low within-population variation.
ustained proliferation in cancer : Mechanisms and novel therapeutic argets ark

ustained proliferation in cancer: Mechanisms and novel therapeutic argets ark A. Feitelsona,∗, Alla Arzumanyana, Rob J. Kulathinala, Stacy W. Blainb, andall F. Holcombec, Jamal Mahajnad, Maria Marinoe, Maria L. Martinez-Chantar f, oman Nawrothg, Isidro Sanchez-Garciah, Dipali Sharmai, Neeraj K. Saxenaj, eetu Singhk, Panagiotis J. Vlachostergios l, Shanchun Guom, Kanya Honokin, iromasa Fujiin, Alexandros G. Georgakilaso, Alan Bilslandp, Amedeo Amedeiq, lena Niccolaiq, Amr Aminr, S. Salman Ashraf s, Chandra S. Boosani t, Gunjan Guhau, aria Rosa Ciriolov, Katia Aquilanov, Sophie Chenw, Sulma I. Mohammedx, sfar S. Azmiy, Dipita Bhaktau, Dorota Halickaz, W. Nicol Keithp, Somaira Nowsheenaa
Escherichia coli Cytotoxic Necrotizing Factor 1 (CNF1): Toxin Biology, in Vivo Applications and Therapeutic Potential

CNF1 is a protein toxin produced by certain pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli. It permanently activates the regulatory Rho, Rac, and Cdc42 GTPases in eukaryotic cells, by deamidation of a glutamine residue. This modification promotes new activities in cells, such as gene transcription, cell proliferation and survival. Since the Rho GTPases play a pivotal role also in several processes in vivo, the potentiality of CNF1 to act as a new pharmacological tool has been explored in experimental animals and in diverse pathological contexts. In this review, we give an update overview on the potential in vivo applications of CNF1.