Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mitochondrial oxidative stress and dysfunction induced by isoniazid: study on isolated rat liver and brain mitochondria

Abstract Isoniazid (INH or isonicotinic hydrazide) is used for the treatment and prophylaxis of tuberculosis. Liver and brain are two important target organs in INH toxicity. However, the exact mechanisms behind the INH hepatotoxicity or neurotoxicity have not yet been completely understood. Considering the mitochondria as one of the possible molecular targets for INH toxicity, the aim of this study was to evaluate the mechanisms of INH mitochondrial toxicity on isolated mitochondria. Mitochondria were isolated by differential ultracentrifugation from male Sprague–Dawley rats and incubated with different concentrations of INH (25–2000 μM) for the investigation of mitochondrial parameters. The results indicated that INH could interact with mitochondrial respiratory chain and inhibit its activity. Our results showed an elevation in mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, lipid peroxidation and mitochondrial membrane potential collapse after exposure of isolated liver mitochondria in INH. However, different results were obtained in brain mitochondria. Noteworthy, significant glutathione oxidation, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) depletion and lipid peroxidation were observed in higher concentration of INH, as compared to liver mitochondria. In conclusion, our results suggest that INH may initiate its toxicity in liver mitochondria through interaction with electron transfer chain, lipid peroxidation, mitochondrial membrane potential decline and cytochrome c expulsion which ultimately lead to cell death signaling.
Social Determinants of Late Stage HIV Diagnosis and its Distributions among African Americans and Latinos: A critical literature review

This critical literature review was conducted to identify both individualand environmentallevel social determinants of health using an ecological framework as a way to contextualize risk for, and distributions of, late HIV diagnosis among African Americans and Latinos in the United States. Background: Late diagnosis, defined as a diagnosis of AIDS simultaneously with or within one year of an initial HIV diagnosis,1 disproportionately affects African American and Latino communities;2,3 disparities in this health problem thus represent a preventable inequity. Such disparities affect not only late diagnosed individuals but also population levels of HIV incidence, as transmission is unhindered before diagnosis.4,5 Methods: A total of 26 unduplicated studies in 26 peer-reviewed articles were analyzed within a social ecological conceptual framework. Both quantitative and qualitative studies of factors influencing HIV testing were reviewed. To be included, studies had to have been conducted in the United States, published in English within the past 11 years, and to have focused on Latino or African American populations and/or on racial disparities between these and other populations. Findings: The majority of studies on racial disparities in HIV testing and diagnosis have been either cross-sectional1,2,6–11 or focused on one racial or ethnic group, often in one geographic location.12–18 In all studies that compared racial and ethnic groups (n=17), Latinos and African Americans were more likely to receive a late diagnosis3,19 than nonHispanic Whites or Asian Americans. 95.8% (n= 23) of the reviewed studies focused on individual level risk factors or investigated structural barriers via measurements at the individual level. Next Steps: Both more quantitative and qualitative studies are needed that will enhance understanding of the social determinants of HIV testing behavior among at-risk groups by measuring variables at the appropriate rung of the ecological model, and not solely on the individual level. Studies that investigate barriers to and facilitators of HIV testing in 2 Social Determinants of Late Stage HIV Diagnosis and its Distributions among African Americans and Latinos: A critical literature Review Chopel et al. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice Volume 8, Issue 4 Fall 2015 http://digitalscholarship.unlv. edu/jhdrp/ partnership with communities will help further interventions that can reduce racial/ethnic disparities in late diagnosed HIV/AIDS.
Natural Stabilizers and Nanostructured Lipid Carrier Entrapment for Photosensitive Compounds, Curcumin and Capsaicin

Capsaicin and curcumin, the active components of chili and turmeric, are prone to instability when exposed to light. Therefore, this research aimed to enhance the photostability of both extracts via the use of antioxidants, natural sunscreen, and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs). NLCs were chosen for this this study due to their advantages in terms of stability, drug loading capacity, occlusive effect, skin penetration, and controlled release. The photostability of each extract and extracts mixed with antioxidants, including grape seed extract, tea extract, and chlorogenic acid, were determined. Chlorogenic acid can enhance the photostability of capsaicin from 6.79 h to 16.50 h, while the photostability of curcumin increased from 9.63 h to 19.25 h. In addition, the use of natural sunscreen (sunflower oil) also increased the photostability of capsaicin and curcumin. The mixed extracts were then loaded into NLCs. The particle size of the formulation was 153.73 nm with a PDI value of 0.25. It exhibited high entrapment efficiency (more than 95%). In addition, it effectively reduced the decomposition of capsaicin and curcumin. Importantly, the natural stabilizers chosen for NLC fabrication significantly improved the photostability of curcumin and capsaicin by 600% and 567% compared to the unstabilized counterparts. This improvement contributes to the sustainability and bioavailability of these compounds in both cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical products.
Taking Account of the User’s View in 3D Multimodal Instruction Dialogue

While recent advancements in virtual reality technology have created a rich communication interface linking humans and computers, there has been little work on building dialogue systems for 3D virtual worlds. This paper proposes a method for altering the instruction dialogue to match the user's view in a virtual environment. We illustrate the method with the system MID-3D, which interactively instructs the user on dismantling some parts of a car. First, in order to change the content of the instruction dialogue to match the user's view, we extend the refinement-driven planning algorithm by using the user's view as a plan constraint. Second, to manage the dialogue smoothly, the system keeps track of the user's viewpoint as part of the dialogue state and uses this information for coping with interruptive subdialogues. These mechanisms enable MID-3D to set instruction dialogues in an incremental way; it takes account of the user's view even when it changes frequently.
Automatic Image Annotation by Ensemble of Visual Descriptors

Automatic image annotation systems available in the literature concatenate color, texture and/or shape features in a single feature vector to learn a set of high level semantic categories using a single learning machine. This approach is quite naive to map the visual features to high level semantic information concerning the categories. Concatenation of many features with different visual properties and wide dynamical ranges may result in curse of dimensionality and redundancy problems. Additionally, it usually requires normalization which may cause an undesirable distortion in the feature space. An elegant way of reducing the effects of these problems is to design a dedicated feature space for each image category, depending on its content, and learn a range of visual properties of the whole image from a variety of feature sets. For this purpose, a two-layer ensemble learning system, called Supervised Annotation by Descriptor Ensemble (SADE), is proposed. SADE, initially, extracts a variety of low-level visual descriptors from the image. Each descriptor is, then, fed to a separate learning machine in the first layer. Finally, the meta-layer classifier is trained on the output of the first layer classifiers and the images are annotated by using the decision of the meta-layer classifier. This approach not only avoids normalization, but also reduces the effects of dimensional curse and redundancy. The proposed system outperforms a state-of-the-art automatic image annotation system, in an equivalent experimental setup.
Biomass Densification Technologies to ObtainBriquettes for Energy Application âˆ’ A Review

Forest area of the country is depleting every year, which is an alarming situation presently. Deforestation is a major contributor to anthropogenic climate change. On the other hand surplus and substantial quantities of agricultural and agro-processing residues are being burnt in the field for quick disposal in different parts of the country, which creates negative impact on the environment. The low density of agricultural residues like straw, grasses, stalks and woody biomass limit their application as a feedstock in energy production. Prior to cost effective use of these materials in energy application, it is necessary to convert them in uniformally formatted, densified feedstock to increase their consistent physical properties like size, shape and bulk densities to reduce technical limitations associated with storage, loading and transportation. A variety of densification systems like pelleting, briquetting or extrusion processing are the commonly used methods to achieve densification of loose biomass. This study gave emphasis on the suitability of these densification systems of biomass, specific energy consumption and end product quality. Study revealed that the piston ram press type briquetting machine is more flexible in terms of feedstock variables where biomass with higher moisture content and large particle sized biomass are acceptable for making good quality briquettes while screw press type machine consumes more energy because it not only compresses but also shears and mixes the materials during process. Keywordsbriquetting technologies, pellet, biomass densification.
Re-sampling search: A seriously simple memetic approach with a high performance

In the fashion of the Ockham's Razor principle for Memetic Computing approaches, this paper proposes an extremely simple and yet very efficient algorithm composed of two operators. The proposed approach employs a deterministic local search operator that periodically perturbs by means of a stochastic search component. The perturbation occurs by re-sampling the initial solution within the decision space. The deterministic local search is stopped by means of a precision based criterion and started over by means of the stochastic re-sampling. Although the concept of multi-start local search is not new in the optimization environment the proposed algorithm is shown to be extremely efficient on a broad set of diverse problems and competitive with complex algorithms representing the-state-of-the-art in computational intelligence optimization.
Promising Secure Element Alternatives for NFC Technology

In 2004, The Near Field Communication (NFC) forum was formed to promote and supervise the use of the NFC technology. Nowadays, 150 members are taking part init and a growing number of stakeholders are fully involved in the development of this emerging technology. Consequently, many pilots have been launched worldwide in order to test and improve it. Issues related to the level of security that should be provided by the NFC handset to store personal data and application in a safe place have then arisen. Indeed, multiple secure element alternatives, depending on the position of secure element in the handset can be considered and NFC stakeholders encounter difficulties to define which of them should be favored. After giving a brief overview over the NFC technology, the role,as well as the possible position of the secure element in the NFC enabled handset will be highlighted. Then, a discussion will be engaged in order to define what could be the most promising secure element alternatives. Afterwards, by focusing on NFC pilots in which our laboratory is taking part into, this paper will describe technical architectures currently in use. Finally, a conclusion on the topic will be provided in the last section.
Integrating Ecosystem Services in Land Use Planning: Concepts and Applications

Despite the attention that research on ecosystem services has attracted in recent years, its use to support real-life decision-making processes is still very limited, especially at the planning level. Land use and spatial planning result in actions that may affect the distribution and quality of a wide range of ecosystem services. Hence, decisions in this sector would benefit from systematic considerations of their effects on ecosystem services. This working paper is structured in two parts. Part I aims at providing insights on why it is important to promote ecosystem service-inclusive land use planning processes, and on how to do it by taking advantages of existing procedures, such as Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Possible actions to include relevant information in the various planning and SEA stages are presented. The advantages are then discussed by considering both the characteristics of ecosystem services approaches and the criteria of good-quality planning and SEA. Finally, four main challenges are identified, concerning scoping, scale issues, trade-offs and indicators, respectively. To provide a contribution to meeting these challenges, Part II presents an empirical application in land use planning. Specifically, the study aims at exploring how the implementation of different land use zoning policies can affect the future provision of a set of ecosystem services (water purification, soil conservation, habitat for species, carbon sequestration and timber production). Firstly, land use scenarios associated to different policies were constructed. Subsequently, the effects of the land use scenarios on the provision of the selected ecosystem services were assessed in a spatially explicit way, by using state-of-the-art modeling tools. Finally, a set of metrics was developed to compare scenarios and assess trade-offs. The results illustrate the importance of taking into account the spatial arrangement of land uses produced by different policies. The paper concludes by discussing the potential contribution of the approach to support spatial planning.
Myths, taboos and biodiversity conservation: The case of hunters in a rural community in Ghana

Reported in this paper are the results of interviews conducted with 35 hunters in the Akposo Tradionional Area in the Volta Region of Ghana on animal myths and taboos of the people of Akposo and the awareness of the hunters on Ghana Wildlife Regulations. The taboos and myths were analysed for their significance to biodiversity conservation in the area. Approximately 94.3% and 97.1% of the hunters respectively were not aware of the close season and license requirement for hunting, contrary to high levels of awareness and compliance with many of the myths and taboos. In spite of the popularity of the myths and taboos they appeared to have played minimal role in the protection and conservation of biodiversity in the area because they either misdirect attention from real conservation problems or have a ritual as a remedy for the violation which serve as an antidote against the intrigue and fascination associated with the beliefs. Rather than integration of the myths and taboos into biodiversity management, there is the need for resource managers in the area to focus on education of the hunters and enforcement of the Wildlife Conservation Regulation to achieve set targets for species protection and conservation.
Sorting in space: multidimensional, spatial, and metric data structures for computer graphics applications

The representation of spatial data is an important issue in game programming, computer graphics, visualization, solid modeling, and related areas including computer vision and geographic information systems (GIS). A wide number of representations is currently in use. Recently, there has been much interest in hierarchical data structures such as quadtrees, octrees, and pyramids which are based on image hierarchies, as well methods that make use of bounding boxes which are based on object hierarchies. The key advantage of these representations is that they provide a way to index into space. In fact, they are little more than multidimensional sorts. They are compact and depending on the nature of the spatial data they save space as well as time and also facilitate operations such as search. In this course we provide a brief overview of hierarchical spatial data structures and related algorithms that make use of them. We describe hierarchical representations of points, lines, collections of small rectangles, regions, surfaces, and volumes. For region data, we point out the dimension-reduction property of the region quadtree and octree, as how to navigate between nodes in the same tree, thereby leading to the popularity of these representations in ray tracing applications. We also demonstrate how to use these representations for both raster and vector data. In the case of nonregion data, we show how these data structures can be used to compute nearest objects in an incremental fashion so that the number of objects need not be known in advance. We also review a number of different tessellations and show why hierarchical decomposition into squares instead of triangles or hexagons is preferred. In addition a demonstration of the SAND spatial browser based on the SAND spatial database system and of the VASCO JAVA applet illustrating these methods (found at http://www.cs. umd.edu/~hjs/quadtree/index.html is presented.
Genetic contributions to glaucoma: heritability of intraocular pressure, retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, and optic disc morphology.

PURPOSE The genetic etiology of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is still largely unknown, because of its complexity and disparities in its classification. This study was undertaken to determine the genetic contribution to various early, continuous markers of POAG by assessing the heritability of intraocular pressure (IOP), retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, and neuroretinal rim and optic disc parameters in a genetically isolated population. METHODS A total of 2620 subjects (mean age, 48 years; range 18-86) from extended pedigrees living in a small town in The Netherlands underwent an extensive ophthalmic examination. Their IOP was measured by Goldmann applanation tonometry, their RNFL thickness by scanning laser polarimetry (GDx VCC), and their optic disc parameters by confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (HRT II). Risk associations were explored by linear regression analyses and heritability estimates by variance component methods. RESULTS Inbreeding was present in 2042 (81%) participants, and was significantly associated with a higher IOP (P < 0.001). The heritability estimate for IOP was 0.35 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.27-0.43); for RNFL thickness, 0.48 (95% CI, 0.35-0.60); and for neuroretinal rim area, 0.39 (95% CI, 0.20-0.58). Nongenetic factors accounted for only a small proportion (<or=0.13) of the variance in all three traits. CONCLUSIONS Early, continuous markers of POAG are strongly determined by additive genetic effects. The results support a quantitative trait linkage strategy to discover new genes for POAG.
Prospective subjective evaluation of swallowing function and dietary pattern in head and neck cancers treated with concomitant chemo-radiation.

AIM Prospective subjective evaluation of swallowing function and dietary pattern in locally advanced head and neck cancer patients treated with concomitant chemo-radiotherapy (CRT). MATERIALS AND METHODS Prospective evaluation of swallowing function with performance status scale for head and neck cancer patients (PSSHN) at pre-CRT, CRT completion and at subsequent follow-ups in adult with loco-regionally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients. RESULTS In 47 patients (40 male, seven females; mean age 53; 72% smoker 53%, oropharyngeal cancer), the mean total PSSHN score at pre-CRT was 258.5 and decreased to 225.2 and 219.2 at two and six months respectively. Understandability of speech, normalcy in diet and eating in public at pre-CRT and six months were 91.5 and 84.4; 80.4 and 63.1; 87.3 and 76.6 respectively. In univariate analysis, pre-CRT PSSHN scores were significantly lesser in patients with severe pre-CRT dysphagia (P = 0.001), hypopharyngeal cancer (P = 0.244) and advanced T-stage (T3/4) disease (P = 0.144). At CRT completion, there was significant reduction of PSSHN scores in patients with severe pre-CRT dysphagia (P = 0.008), post-CRT weight loss (>10%) and disease progression (P = 0.039). At two months and six months, 17 (57%) and 11 (73.5%) patients respectively showed change in dietary habit. Mean increase in meal time was 13% and 21% at two and six-month follow-up. CONCLUSIONS HNSCC patients show deterioration in swallowing function after CRT with normalcy of diet in maximum and eating in public least affected. Pre-CRT severity of dysphagia, weight loss> 10% and disease progression have significant correlation with higher swallowing function deterioration after CRT.
Improvements in Symptoms and Quality of Life in Patients With Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation Treated With Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation Versus Antiarrhythmic Drugs

Background—In patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF), catheter ablation maintains sinus rhythm more effectively than antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs), but its effect on symptoms and quality of life (QOL) has not been fully characterized. Methods and Results—We evaluated symptoms and QOL in a multicenter, randomized trial comparing catheter ablation with AADs as second-line treatment for patients with paroxysmal AF. The Short Form (SF)-36 health survey and the AF Symptom Checklist were administered at baseline and 3, 6, and 9 months after a blanking or dose-titration period. The primary between-group comparisons were conducted at 3 months because of permitted crossover from AAD to ablation beyond this time. Additional analyses based on subsequent follow-up were performed, including the construction of mixed linear regression models to assess the impact of multiple factors on follow-up QOL scores.At baseline in both the ablation (n=103) and the AAD (n=56) groups, 7 of 8 SF-36 scales were well below population norms, as were the physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) summary scores. At 3 months, the same 7 SF-36 scales were significantly (P<0.01) higher in the ablation than in the AAD group, as were the PCS (52.0±7.8 versus 47.1±10.6; P<0.01) and MCS (52.4±8.1 versus 46.6±9.8; P<0.01) scores, whereas symptom frequency (9.3±9.2 versus 19.0±12.6; P<0.001) and symptom severity (7.7±7.2 versus 16.2±10.0; P<0.001) were significantly reduced. In multivariable analysis, ablation and recurrent arrhythmias most strongly correlated with QOL changes over time. Conclusions—For second-line therapy of paroxysmal AF, ablation is superior to AAD treatment at improving symptoms and QOL. Clinical Trial Registration—URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00116428.