Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ellagic Acid Derivatives from Terminalia chebula Retz. Downregulate the Expression of Quorum Sensing Genes to Attenuate Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 Virulence

Background Burgeoning antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa has necessitated the development of anti pathogenic agents that can quench acylhomoserine lactone (AHL) mediated QS with least risk of resistance. This study explores the anti quorum sensing potential of T. chebula Retz. and identification of probable compounds(s) showing anti QS activity and the mechanism of attenuation of P. aeruginosa PAO1 virulence factors. Methods and Results Methanol extract of T. chebula Retz. fruit showed anti QS activity using Agrobacterium tumefaciens A136. Bioactive fraction (F7), obtained by fractionation of methanol extract using Sephadex LH20, showed significant reduction (p<0.001) in QS regulated production of extracellular virulence factors in P. aeruginosa PAO1. Biofilm formation and alginate were significantly (p<0.05) reduced with enhanced (20%) susceptibility to tobramycin. Real Time PCR of F7 treated P. aeruginosa showed down regulation of autoinducer synthase (lasI and rhlI) and their cognate receptor (lasR and rhlR) genes by 89, 90, 90 and 93%, respectively. Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry also showed 90 and 64% reduction in the production of 3-oxo-C12HSL and C4HSL after treatment. Decrease in AHLs as one of the mechanisms of quorum quenching by F7 was supported by the reversal of inhibited swarming motility in F7-treated P. aeruginosa PAO1 on addition of C4HSL. F7 also showed antagonistic activity against 3-oxo-C12HSL-dependent QS in E. coli bioreporter. C. elegans fed on F7-treated P. aeruginosa showed enhanced survival with LT50 increasing from 24 to 72 h. LC-ESI-MS of F7 revealed the presence of ellagic acid derivatives responsible for anti QS activity in T. chebula extract. Conclusions This is the first report on anti QS activity of T. chebula fruit linked to EADs which down regulate the expression of lasIR and rhlIR genes with concomitant decrease in AHLs in P. aeruginosa PAO1 causing attenuation of its virulence factors and enhanced sensitivity of its biofilm towards tobramycin.
Application of PQS for Image Quality Analysis at Visible Spectral Imaging

An image quality investigation in visible spectral imaging was performed. Spectral images were simulated using different number of imaging channels, wavelength steps, and noise levels based on practical spectral imaging systems. A mean opinion score (MOS) was determined from a subjective visual assessment scale experiment for image quality of spectral images rendered to a three-channel display. A set of partial image distortion measures, including color difference for color images, were defined based on classified and quantified actual distortions produced by spectral imaging systems. Principal components analysis was then carried out to quantify the correlation between distortion factors. Finally, a multiple regression analysis (MRA) was carried out between the principal component vectors and the measured MOS values to determine the picture quality scale (PQS). The obtained quality metric, PQS, had high correlation with the subjective measure, MOS. The importance of contribution of the distortion factors in the image quality metric was also evaluated.
Use of magnetic resonance imaging in tracking the course and treatment of schizophrenia

Confirming the early conceptualization of Bleuler (1911) and Kraepelin (1919), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have demonstrated structural and functional brain abnormalities, predominantly involving the frontal and temporal lobes, in schizophrenia. Most of the abnormalities are already present at illness onset. However, there is, growing evidence for treatment-related neural changes in schizophrenia, such as enlargement of the caudate nucleus (neurotoxic effect) with the use of typical antipsychotics and increases in cortical volumes and improved functional responses (neurotrophic effect) with the use of atypical antipsychotics. More recently, brain changes during the prodrome and transition-to-illness stages of schizophrenia have begun to be characterized. Another area of importance is the use of MRI, as a biological marker, to monitor and define partial or full resistance to medication. Understanding the trait- and state-related influences of brain abnormalities during the course of the illness is critical for developing effective treatment and possibly prevention strategies in schizophrenia.
Comparison of Human and Machine Scoring of Essays: Differences by Gender, Ethnicity, and Country

Essay scores generated by machine and by human raters are generally comparable; that is, they can produce scores with similar means and standard deviations, and machine scores generally correlate as highly with human scores as scores from one human correlate with scores from another human. Although human and machine essay scores are highly related on average, this does not eliminate the possibility that machine and human scores may differ significantly for certain gender, ethnic, or country groups. Such differences were explored with essay data from two large-scale high-stakes testing programs: the Test of English as a Foreign Language and the Graduate Record Examination. Human and machine scores were very similar across most subgroups, but there were some notable exceptions. Policies were developed so that any differences between humans and machines would have a minimal impact on final reported scores.
Language ideologies in English learner classrooms: critical reflections and the role of explicit awareness

This paper draws on fieldwork conducted over the course of one academic year in two urban high-school English learner (EL) classrooms located in the south-western part of the United States. As part of a larger interest in how language ideologies mediate classroom discourse practices, this paper analyses the role of awareness in language ideological (LI) inquiry, its methodological implications, as well as pedagogy in second language learning. Classroom surveys, observations and teacher interviews were conducted and analysed using content and discourse analysis. When probed for language issues within their classrooms and over their lives, students were able to articulate explicit awareness of how rules of language use mediated their lives. More importantly, they were able to articulate issues of status and difference vis a vis language which points to a critical view of LI inquiry. Teachers also expressed explicit rules regarding language use for instructional purposes. While explicit articulations of language ideologies were rare, especially within everyday classroom practices, they provide a valuable and necessary reference point for understanding the implicit ways in which language ideologies frame interactions within EL classrooms. This dimension enhances the empirical validity of LI inquiry in classroom settings.
Equivalence trial of melarsoprol and nifurtimox monotherapy and combination therapy for the treatment of second-stage Trypanosoma brucei gambiense sleeping sickness.

BACKGROUND Treatment of second-stage sleeping sickness relies mainly on melarsoprol. Nifurtimox has been successfully used to cure melarsoprol-refractory sleeping sickness caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense infection. METHODS An open, randomized trial was conducted to test for equivalence between the standard melarsoprol regimen and 3 other regimens, as follows: standard melarsoprol therapy (3 series of 3.6 mg/kg/day intravenously [iv] for 3 days, with 7-day breaks between the series); 10-day incremental-dose melarsoprol therapy (0.6 mg/kg iv on day 1, 1.2 mg/kg iv on day 2, and 1.8 mg/kg iv on days 3-10); nifurtimox monotherapy for 14 days (5 mg/kg orally 3 times per day); and consecutive 10-day melarsoprol-nifurtimox combination therapy (0.6 mg/kg iv melarsoprol on day 1, 1.2 mg/kg iv melarsoprol on day 2, and 1.2 mg/kg/day iv melarsoprol combined with oral 7.5 mg/kg nifurtimox twice a day on days 3-10). Primary outcomes were relapse, severe adverse events, and death attributed to treatment. RESULTS A total of 278 patients were randomized. The frequency of adverse events was similar between the standard melarsoprol regimen and the other regimens. Encephalopathic syndromes occurred in all groups and caused all deaths that were likely due to treatment. Relapses (n=48) were observed only with the 3 monotherapy regimens. CONCLUSION A consecutive 10-day low-dose melarsoprol-nifurtimox combination is more effective than the standard melarsoprol regimen.
Chronic Cardiovascular and Renal Actions of Leptin: Role of Adrenergic Activity

Abstract—This study was designed to determine the role of changes in adrenergic activity in mediating the chronic cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic actions of leptin. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were implanted with catheters for mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) measurements and IV infusions of either vehicle (n= 7) or &agr;- and &bgr;-adrenergic receptor antagonists, terazosin and propranolol (10 mg/kg/d; n= 8) throughout the study. After control measurements, murine leptin was infused IV (1.0 &mgr;g/kg/min) for 7 days along with vehicle or adrenergic antagonists, followed by a 7-day recovery period. Leptin infusion significantly reduced food intake in control rats from 22.6±0.8 to 10.6±0.4 g/d and, in adrenergic blockade rats, from 22.6±0.8 to 13.2±0.8 g/d. Fasting plasma insulin decreased from 48±10 to 5±2 &mgr;U/mL in control rats and from 51±9 to 9±2 &mgr;U/mL in adrenergic blockade rats during leptin infusion. Leptin infusion did not significantly alter glomerular filtration rate in either group. MAP and HR increased by 6±1 mm Hg and 23±7 bpm after 7 days of leptin infusion in control rats. However, in adrenergic blockade rats, leptin infusion did not significantly alter MAP (−1±1 mm Hg) and decreased, rather than increased, HR (−23±8 bpm). These results indicate that leptin-induced increases in blood pressure and tachycardia are mediated by increased adrenergic activity and support the concept that leptin may be an important link between obesity, increased sympathetic activity, and hypertension. However, the chronic effects of leptin on insulin and glucose regulation do not appear to be altered by &agr;- and &bgr;-adrenergic receptor blockade.
Graph Color Extensions: When Hadwiger's Conjecture and Embeddings Help

Suppose $G$ is $r$-colorable and $P \subseteq V(G)$ is such that the components of $G[P]$ are far apart. We show that any $(r+s)$-coloring of $G[P]$ in which each component is $s$-colored extends to an $(r+s)$-coloring of $G$. If $G$ does not contract to $K_5$ or is planar and $s \geq 2$, then any $(r+s-1)$-coloring of $P$ in which each component is $s$-colored extends to an $(r+s-1)$-coloring of $G$. This result uses the Four Color Theorem and its equivalence to Hadwiger's Conjecture for $k = 5$. For $s=2$ this provides an affirmative answer to a question of Thomassen. Similar results hold for coloring arbitrary graphs embedded in both orientable and non-orientable surfaces.
Enhanced Expression of Transcription Factor E2F in Helicobacter pylori‐infected Gastric Mucosa

Objective. Helicobacter pylori is implicated in gastric carcinogenesis through increased gastric epithelial cell turnover. In fact, high proportions of proliferating and apoptotic epithelial cells are found in H. pylori‐infected gastric mucosa. E2F, a transcription factor, induces coordinated transactivation of a set of genes involved in cell cycle progression. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of E2F in H. pylori‐infected gastric mucosa and examine the correlation between such expression and gastric epithelial cell proliferation and apoptosis.
What Makes Schools Effective? A Comparison between School Communities in Australia and the USA∗

ABSTRACT This paper reports on findings related to the perceptions held by members of school communities with respect to the factors which most help schools to be effective. The data are from a study conducted in Melbourne, Australia and in seven states of the United States of America. Findings from this research indicate that members of school communities: principals, teachers, parents and students believe that the most critical elements that contribute to the development of an effective school are dedicated and qualified staff, clear school purposes, strong academic and administrative leadership, a safe school environment and a positive school climate.
In vitro suppression of a nonsense mutant of Drosophila melanogaster.

When RNA isolated from the Drosophila melanogaster alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) negative mutant CyOnB was translated "in vitro" in the presence of yeast opal suppressor tRNA, a wild type size ADH protein was obtained in addition to the mutant gene product. This identifies the CyOnB mutant as an opal (UGA) nonsense mutant. From the molecular weight of the mutant protein, and from the known sequence of the ADH gene (Benyajati et al., Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci. USA 78, 2717-2721, 1981), we conclude that the tryptophan codon UGG in position 234 has been changed into a UGA nonsense codon in the CyOnB mutant. Furthermore, we show that the UAA stop codon of the wild type ADH gene is resistant to suppression by a yeast ochre suppressor tRNA. This is in contrast to the high efficiency of suppression of the CyOnB UGA nonsense codon, despite an almost identical codon context.
Die kleine House-Apotheke: Reception of the American, German and Polish Gregory House and Varied Translations of the Pronoun you

Abstract Two audiovisual translations of the American hit medical drama, House M.D., German dubbing and Polish voiceover, and the analysis of translation strategies of the pronominal form of address you are the point of departure for choosing the right strategy for translation of the German book written by Michael Reufsteck and Jochen Stöckle Diekleine House-Apotheke. Ein Beipackzettel zur Kultserie which is the first German guide to the hit medical drama, providing unique insight into making of each episode of the first three series. The comparison of the two translation strategies - the German and the Polish one - shows that translation of the pronoun you determined the reception of the main protagonist. The reduced pronominal paradigm in English which does not distinguish between a formal and an informal address pronoun has created two different protagonists.
Distributed adaptive scheme for reliable data collection in fault tolerant WSNs

Reliable data packet transfer is an essential facet of quality of service in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). WSNs require pertinent and reliable data collection schemes to provide dependable information. We analyze the factors that affect reliability, and design efficient combinations of the possible options. While many researchers have tackled this issue by focusing on particular layers of the embedded communication stack (e.g., Medium Access Control (MAC) or routing layer), we propose a layer-independent transmission rate adaptive scheme, where no additional control messages are required. We focus on packet loss avoidance along prone-to-failure paths to the sink with the main objective being the efficient queue management of a sensor node. Based on certain factors (e.g., application or queue requirements) nodes will consequently take adjustment decisions. Our thorough simulation experiments demonstrate that DRAS reduces the packet drops and improves the data collection procedure in an energy efficient manner.
Cell cycle-related changes in nuclear chromatin of stimulated lymphocytes as measured by flow cytometry.

Flow cytometric techniques have been developed to assay lymphocyte stimulation as reflected by the increase in the cell transcriptional activity and cell progression through the cell cycle. The metachromatic fluorescent dye, acridine orange, is used to (a) stain DNA and RNA differentially in individual cells, and (b) stain nuclear chromatin after removal of cellular RNA BY RNase and cell pretreatment at acidic pH. Stimulated cells with diploid DNA content (G1) have an increased content of stainable RNA that makes it possible to distinguish them from nonstimulated (G0) cells. G0 cells can also be distinguished from G1 cells based on differences in stainability of their nuclear chromatin after treatment with acid. Mitotic indices can be scored automatically, inasmuch as the metaphase chromatin stains differently than does chromatin in the interphase cells. Altogether, the numbers of cells in the G0, G1, S, G2, and M phases may be obtained rapidly and with great accuracy. The cell transciptional activity can be correlated with changes in nuclear chromatin (e.g., during the transition from G0 to G1). The two independent techniques may also prove to be useful in recognizing and quantitating noncycling cells in other cell systems. The possible mechanisms responsible for differential stainability of nuclear chromatin in cells at different phases of the cell cycle are discussed.
Alternate checking criteria for reachable controllability of rectangular descriptor systems

Contrary to state space systems, there are diﬀerent notions of controllability for linear time invariant descriptor systems due to the non smooth inputs and inconsistent initial conditions. A comprehensive study of diﬀerent notions of controllability for linear descriptor systems is performed. Also, it is proved that reachable controllability for general linear time invariant descriptor system is equivalent to the controllability of some matrix pair under an assumption milder than impulse controllability. The whole theory has been developed by coining two new decompositions for system matrices. Examples are given to illustrate the presented theory
The Architectural Style of Adaptive Object-Models Presented for ECOOP 2001 Workshop on Adaptive Object-Models and Metamodeling Techniques

Many object-oriented information systems share an architectural style that emphasizes flexibility and dynamically configurable. Business rules are stored in a database instead of in code. The object model that the user cares about is part of the database, and the object model of the code is just an interpreter of the users’ object model. We call these systems “Adaptive Object-Models”, because the users’ object model is interpreted at runtime and can be changed with immediate (but controlled) effects on the system interpreting it. Adaptive Object-Models: With Application to Medical Observations 05/21/01
Alcohol and Casualties in the Emergency Room: A Us-Italy Comparison of Weekdays and Weekend Evenings

This paper examines similarities and differences in associations of alcohol and casualties with time of arrival in the emergency room (weekdays vs weekend evenings) in probability samples of patients from two cultures where typical patterns of alcohol use vary greatly-Trieste, Italy (N=475) and Contra Costa County, California (USA) (N=l 482). In Contra Costa, but not in Trieste, those sampled on weekend evenings were more likely to have positive breathalyzer readings and to report drinking prior to the event than those sampled on weekdays. Rates for both positive breathalyzer readings and self-reported drinking prior to the event were lower in Contra Costa than in Trieste. These and other findings reported here point to differences in the relationship of alcohol and casualties in a culture where alcohol consumption is a routine part of life's daily activities as compared to the U.S. pattern of drinking primarily during leisure times.Presented at the Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium, sponsored by the Kettil .
Preservation of Security Configurations in the Cloud

The dynamic and elastic nature of cloud computing introduces new security challenges when it comes to maintaining consistent security configurations. This is emphasized by the fact that virtual machines are abruptly migrated between physical hosts, in the same or even in different data centers under different security policies. If security is not correctly enforced at the destination locations, and not properly updated in the source locations, security of the migrating virtual machine as well as the co-located machines can be compromised. In this paper, we intend to tackle this problem, specifically for intrusion detection/prevention and VPN/IPsec as main security mechanisms. More precisely, we propose a systematic verification approach to check the compliance of security configurations. To this end, we first elaborate on two properties, namely intrusion monitoring configuration preservation and VPN/IPsec protection configuration preservation. Then, we derive a set of formulas that compare security configurations before and after migration. This allows reasoning on whether the aforementioned security properties hold. To this end, we encode these formulas as constraint satisfaction problems. The obtained constraints are then submitted to a constraint solver, namely Sugar, in order to verify the properties and to pinpoint potential misconfiguration problems.
Simplified File Assured Deletion (SFADE) - A user friendly overlay approach for data security in cloud storage system

The dependency on cloud storage has been growing immensely with the use of public cloud storage facilities. However, this has given rise to security concerns involved in data confidentiality even after deletion of data. As multiple copies of the same data are kept in the storage server for reliability, some copies of the data remain in the cloud storage though a user deletes the data. To address this issue, a technique termed as File Assured DEletion (FADE) was proposed that encrypts the data before storing in the cloud storage. This technique involves the use of a third party key manager to store the keys which involves a relatively complex system architecture. Moreover, the requirement of simultaneous multiple network connections makes it suitable for the corporate clients. In this paper, we proposed a technique, Simplified File Assured DEletion (SFADE) which is easy to implement and friendlier to the ordinary users. We introduced a new model which eradicates the reliance on the key manager system, and at the same time it ensures assured deletion. The new system has not only been suggested theoretically but we have also implemented a prototype to validate the model. This proposed work will benefit the cloud storage users by helping them maintain their own data confidentiality.
Regulating sociology: Threshold learning outcomes and institutional isomorphism

This article examines the adoption of threshold learning outcomes (TLOs) for academic disciplines in Australia as an example of institutional isomorphism. It is argued that the type of sociology embedded in the TLOs values the sociology of the metropole and that, while the TLOs are broad enough to allow for individual sociology departments to continue to teach their own version of sociology, they further institutionalise the norm that sociology is about metropolitan theory and methods. Nevertheless, these isomorphic processes may serve to positively legitimise and institutionalise sociology, potentially enhancing the discipline’s position in higher education.