Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modified nanoparticles with cell-penetrating peptide and amphipathic chitosan derivative for enhanced oral colon absorption of insulin: preparation and evaluation

Abstract Colon is an ideal absorptive site for oral protein and peptide drug (insulin), and yet it poses multiple barriers against the drug absorption, such as the barriers against the drug diffusion from colon lumen toward the absorptive mucosa and permeation across colon epithelium. In this study, modified nanoparticles (Tat-CS-NPs) with cell-penetrating peptide (Tat) and amphipathic chitosan derivative (a-CS) were used as carriers to improve colonic absorption of the drug. With a-CS as emulsifier and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) as matrix material, Tat-CS-NPs were prepared and evaluated in vitro/vivo. Using Caco-2 cell monolayers to imitate the colonic epithelial cells, it was found that the cellular uptake amount and transcellular transportation performance of Tat-CS-NPs were much enhanced compared with those of CS-NPs and PVA-NPs. The efficacy evaluation on diabetic rat models demonstrated that the hypoglycemic effect of Tat-CS-NPs loaded with insulin was 6.89 times higher than that of PVA-NPs, and 1.79 times higher than that of CS-NPs. By gavage of [99mTc] isotope labeled Tat-CS-NPs in mini-pigs and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) on pigs' gastrointestinal tract, it was further proved that the nanoparticles could reach colon and produce pharmacological effect. In conclusion, Tat-CS-NPs as vehicles for colon-specific drug delivery may be an efficient approach to improve oral bioavailability of protein and peptide drugs.
Discounting and Augmentation in Causal Conditional Reasoning: Causal Models or Shallow Encoding?

Recent research comparing mental models theory and causal Bayes nets for their ability to account for discounting and augmentation inferences in causal conditional reasoning had some limitations. One of the experiments used an ordinal scale and multiple items and analysed the data by subjects and items. This procedure can create a variety of problems that can be resolved by using an appropriate cumulative link function mixed models approach in which items are treated as random effects. Experiment 1 replicated this earlier experiment and analysed the results using appropriate data analytic techniques. Although successfully replicating earlier research, the pattern of results could be explained by a much simpler “shallow encoding” hypothesis. Experiment 2 introduced a manipulation to critically test this hypothesis. The results favoured the causal Bayes nets predictions and not shallow encoding and were not consistent with mental models theory. Experiment 1 provided qualified support for the causal Bayes net approach using appropriate statistics because it also replicated the failure to observe one of the predicted main effects. Experiment 2 discounted one plausible explanation for this failure. While within the limited goals that were set for these experiments they were successful, more research is required to account for the pattern of findings using this paradigm.
Diffusion-weighted imaging of metastatic brain tumors: comparison with histologic type and tumor cellularity.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE On diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), metastatic tumors of the brain may exhibit different signal intensities (SI) depending on their histology and cellularity. The purpose of our study was to verify the hypotheses (1) that SI on DWI predict the histology of metastases and (2) that apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values reflect tumor cellularity. MATERIALS AND METHODS We assessed conventional MR images, DWI, and ADC maps of 26 metastatic brain lesions from 26 patients, 13 of whom underwent surgery after the MR examination. Two radiologists performed qualitative assessment by consensus of the SI on DWI in areas corresponding to their enhancing portions. We measured the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) on T2-weighted images and normalized ADC (nADC) values, and compared them with tumor cellularity. RESULTS The mean SI on DWI and the CNR on T2-weighted images were significantly lower in well differentiated than in poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas and lesions other than adenocarcinoma. The mean nADC value was significantly higher in well differentiated than poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas and lesions other than adenocarcinoma. All 3 small-cell carcinomas and 1 large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma exhibited high SI on DWI. The nADC value showed a significant inverse correlation with tumor cellularity. There was no significant correlation between the CNR and tumor cellularity. CONCLUSION The SI on DWI may predict the histology of metastases; well differentiated adenocarcinomas tended to be hypointense, and small- and large-cell neuroendocrine carcinomas showed hyperintensity. Their ADC values reflect tumor cellularity.
Analysis of Injection-Backflow Tracer Tests in Fractured Geothermal Reservoirs

Tracer tests have been an important technique for determining the flow and reservoir characteristics in various rock matrix systems. While the interwell tracer tests are aimed at the characterization of the regions between the wells, single-well injection-backflow tracer tests may be useful tools of preliminary evaluation, before implementing long term interwell tracer tests. This work is concerned with the quantitative evaluation of the tracer return profiles obtained from single well injection-backflow tracer tests. First, two mathematical models of tracer transport through fractures, have been reviewed. These two models are based on two different principles: Taylor Dispersion along the fracture and simultaneous diffusion in and out of the adjacent matrix. Then the governing equations for the transport during the injection-backflow tests have been solved. Finally the results were applied to field data obtained from Raft River and East Mesa geothermal fields. In order to determine the values of the parameters of the models that define the transport mechanisms through fractures a non-linear optimization technique was employed. 26 refs., 10 figs.
Fast Near-Duplicate Image Detection Using Uniform Randomized Trees

Indexing structure plays an important role in the application of fast near-duplicate image detection, since it can narrow down the search space. In this article, we develop a cluster of uniform randomized trees (URTs) as an efficient indexing structure to perform fast near-duplicate image detection. The main contribution in this article is that we introduce “uniformity” and “randomness” into the indexing construction. The uniformity requires classifying the object images into the same scale subsets. Such a decision makes good use of the two facts in near-duplicate image detection, namely: (1) the number of categories is huge; (2) a single category usually contains only a small number of images. Therefore, the uniform distribution is very beneficial to narrow down the search space and does not significantly degrade the detection accuracy. The randomness is embedded into the generation of feature subspace and projection direction, improveing the flexibility of indexing construction. The experimental results show that the proposed method is more efficient than the popular locality-sensitive hashing and more stable and flexible than the traditional KD-tree.
Efficient Parallel Algorithms for Planar DAGs

We show that testing reachability in a planar DAG can be performed in parallel in O(log n log* n) time (O(log n) time using randomization) using O(n) processors. In general we give aparadigm for reducing a planar DAG to a constant size and then expanding it back. This paradigm is developed from a property of planar directed graphs we refer to as the Poincare'' index formula. Using this new paradigm we then "overlay" our application in a fashion similar to parallel tree contraction. We also discuss some of the changes needed to extend the reduction procedure to work for general planar digraphs. Using the strongly-connected components algorithm of Kao we can compute multiple-source reachability for general planar digraphs in O(log^3 n) time using O(n) processors. This improves the results of Kao and Klein who showed that this problem could be performed in O(log^5 n) time using O(n) processors. This work represents initial results of an effort to apply similar techniques to arbitrary planar directed graphs, and to develop efficient algorithms for certain problems encountered in parallel compilation.
Holistic approach for critical system security: Flooding prevention

Denial of Service (DoS) attacks can cause significant financial damages. Flooding is one kind of DoS attacks. This paper presents a new security approach which prevents flooding in the critical systems. A new concept of a dynamic-multi- points-communication is included to make the prevention of flooding attacks easier. In addition, dynamic key encryption technique is adapted as a part of the proposed approach to enhance its functionality.
Transcriptional activation of the testis‐specific histone H1t gene by RFX2 may require both proximal promoter X‐box elements

The rat testis‐specific linker histone H1t gene is transcribed in pachytene primary spermatocytes during spermatogenesis. Our previous work using transgenic mice demonstrated that spermatocyte‐specific transcription of the H1t gene is dependent upon a proximal promoter element designated the TE element. TE is composed of two adjacent and inverted imperfect repeat sequences designated TE1 and TE2 and both of these palindromic elements are similar in sequence to the X‐box, a DNA consensus sequence that binds regulatory factor X (RFX). RFX2 is the major enriched protein derived from rat testis nuclear extracts when using the TE1 element as an affinity chromatography probe. Co‐expression of RFX2 together with an H1t promoted reporter vector in transient expression assays activates the H1t promoter in the GC‐2spd germinal cell line, and mutation of either X‐box significantly represses activity. However, RFX2 partially reactivates the promoter when either of the X‐box elements is independently mutated. In order to totally block reactivation by RFX2, it is necessary to mutate both X‐boxes simultaneously. Therefore, RFX2 appears to be able to bind to either X‐box independently to partially activate the promoter of the testis‐specific histone H1t gene, but simultaneous binding of RFX2 to both X‐box elements may be required for maximal promoter activation. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The role of acidic organelles in the development of schistosomula of Schistosoma mansoni and their response to signalling molecules

The cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni become transformed into schistosomula during host skin penetration. We have found that large acidophilic compartments are detected in schistosomula but not in cercariae or in any other stages of the parasite by use of the fluorescent dye LysoTracker, a dye specific for mammalian lysosomes. Some of these large acidic compartments incorporated monodansylcadaverine, a specific dye for autophagosomes. We have used potent inhibitors (wortmannin and 3-methyladenine) and a potent inducer (starvation) of autophagy to show that the pathway to the formation of the acidic compartments requires specific molecular signals from the environment and from the genome. Certain doses of ultraviolet light inhibited significantly the formation of the acidic compartments, which may indicate disruption of the lysosome/autophagosome pathway. We have also defined two proteins that are commonly associated with lysosomes and autophagosomes in mammalian cells, the microtubule-associated membrane protein (MAP-LC3) and lysosome-associated membrane protein (LAMP-1), in extracts of schistosomula. We suggest that the autophagy pathway could be developed in transformed schistosomula.
Resampling Detection for Digital Image Forensics

A virtually unavoidable consequence of manipulations on digital images are statistical correlations introduced between the pixels. These correlations may not be visible to a human, but can be detected by statistical techniques. This paper presents a machine learning based approach to image resampling detection based on the detector by Popescu and Farid. We investigate ways to improve robustness and detection accuracy by using supervised learning techniques.
Dissociable brain signatures of choice conflict and immediate reward preferences in alcohol use disorders

Impulsive delayed reward discounting (DRD) is an important behavioral process in alcohol use disorders (AUDs), reflecting incapacity to delay gratification. Recent work in neuroeconomics has begun to unravel the neural mechanisms supporting DRD, but applications of neuroeconomics in relation to AUDs have been limited. This study examined the neural mechanisms of DRD preferences in AUDs, with emphasis on dissociating activation patterns based on DRD choice type and level of cognitive conflict. Heavy drinking adult men with (n = 13) and without (n = 12) a diagnosis of an AUD completed a monetary DRD task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Participant responses were coded based on choice type (impulsive versus restrained) and level of cognitive conflict (easy versus hard). AUD+ participants exhibited significantly more impulsive DRD decision‐making. Significant activation during DRD was found in several decision‐making regions, including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), insula, posterior parietal cortex (PPC), and posterior cingulate. An axis of cognitive conflict was also observed, with hard choices associated with anterior cingulate cortex and easy choices associated with activation in supplementary motor area. AUD+ individuals exhibited significant hyperactivity in regions associated with cognitive control (DLPFC) and prospective thought (PPC) and exhibited less task‐related deactivation of areas associated with the brain's default network during DRD decisions. This study provides further clarification of the brain systems supporting DRD in general and in relation to AUDs.
The Increased Circulating Plasma Levels of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes Do Not Correlate to Metabolic Control

Aim. To characterize the plasma levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) and its relation to both present and historical metabolic control and microvascular complications. Methods. Plasma levels of VEGF and routine clinical parameters were analyzed in 115 patients with long-standing T1D and 45 healthy controls (HC). All patients were under clinical routine diabetes treatment at Uppsala University Hospital. Results. The plasma levels of VEGF were increased by 37% in patients with T1D when compared to HC (18.2 ± 0.8 versus 13.2 ± 1.0 pg/ml, p < 0.001). The levels of VEGF correlated to insulin needs and BMI but not to present or historical metabolic control. The levels of VEGF were similar in patients with T1D and microvascular complications (microalbuminuria and retinopathy) when compared with patients without microvascular complications. Historical HbA1c levels were found to be the best predictor for present metabolic control. Conclusion. Circulating plasma levels of VEGF do not correlate to present or historical metabolic control in long-standing T1D and the levels are not affected by the presence of microvascular complications.
Complexity of Delaunay triangulation for points on lower-dimensional polyhedra

We show that the Delaunay triangulation of a set of points distributed nearly uniformly on a polyhedron (not necessarily convex) of dimension <i>p</i> in <i>d</i>-dimensional space is <i>O</i>(<i>n</i><sup>(d-1)/<i>p</i></sup>). For all 2 ≤ <i>p</i> ≤ <i>d</i> - 1, this improves on the well-known worst-case bound of <i>O</i>(<i>n</i><sup>⌈d/2⌉</sup>).
Planar Graphs Have Exponentially Many 3-Arboricities

It is well known that every planar or projective planar graph can be 3-colored so that each color class induces a forest. This bound is sharp. In this paper, we show that there are in fact exponentially many 3-colorings of this kind for any (projective) planar graph. The same result holds in the setting of 3-list-colorings.
Fixed-Rate Zero-Delay Source Coding for Stationary Vector-Valued Gauss-Markov Sources

We consider a fixed-rate zero-delay source coding problem where a stationary vector-valued Gauss-Markov source is compressed subject to an average mean-squared error (MSE) dis- tortion constraint. We address the problem by considering the Gaussian nonanticipative rate distortion function (NRDF) which is a lower bound to the zero-delay Gaussian RDF. Then, we use its corresponding optimal “test-channel” to characterize the stationary Gaus- sian NRDF and evaluate the corresponding information rates. We show that the Gaussian NRDF can be achieved by p-parallel fixed-rate scalar uniform quantizers of finite support with dithering signal up to a multiplicative distortion factor and a constant rate penalty. We demonstrate our framework with a numerical example.
Statistical evaluation of image quality measures

In this work we comprehensively categorize image qual- ity measures, extend measures defined for gray scale images to their multispectral case, and propose novel image quality measures. They are categorized into pixel difference-based, correlation-based, edge-based, spectral-based, context-based and human visual sys- tem (HVS)-based measures. Furthermore we compare these mea- sures statistically for still image compression applications. The sta- tistical behavior of the measures and their sensitivity to coding artifacts are investigated via analysis of variance techniques. Their similarities or differences are illustrated by plotting their Kohonen maps. Measures that give consistent scores across an image class and that are sensitive to coding artifacts are pointed out. It was found that measures based on the phase spectrum, the multireso- lution distance or the HVS filtered mean square error are computa- tionally simple and are more responsive to coding artifacts. We also demonstrate the utility of combining selected quality metrics in build- ing a steganalysis tool. © 2002 SPIE and IS&T.
Stimulation of beta1 integrins on fibroblasts induces PDGF independent tyrosine phosphorylation of PDGF beta-receptors

We report that integrin-mediated signaling induces a rapid and transient tyrosine phosphorylation of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) beta-receptors in human diploid foreskin AG 1518 fibroblasts. A transient tyrosine phosphorylation of PDGF beta-receptors was evident one and two hours after cells had been plated on collagen type I and fibronectin, as well as on immobilized anti-integrin subunit IgG, but not on poly-L-lysine. In contrast EGF or PDGF alpha-receptors were not phosphorylated on tyrosine residues under these conditions. Tyrosine phosphorylation of PDGF beta-receptors induced by plating on collagen type I was inhibited by cytochalasin D and herbimycin A, unaffected by cycloheximide and enhanced by orthovanadate. Furthermore, a transient phosphorylation of PDGF beta-receptors occurred when AG 518 fibroblasts were cultured in three-dimensional collagen lattices or exposed to external strain exerted through centrifugation. The latter effect was evident already after two minutes. Clustering of cell surface beta1 integrins led to PDGF beta-receptor phosphorylation both in suspended and firmly attached AG 1518 fibroblasts. Plating of cells on collagen type I, fibronectin, and anti-beta1-integrin IgG resulted in the formation of PDGF beta-receptor aggregates as detected by immunofluorescence. Suramin or anti-PDGF-BB IgG had no effect on the plating-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of PDGF beta-receptors. PDGF-B chain mRNA, or protein, were not detected in AG 1518 fibroblasts. Our data suggest that a ligand-independent PDGF beta-receptor activation during cell adhesion and early phases of cell spreading is involved in integrin-mediated signaling in fibroblasts, and constitutes parts of a mechanism for cells to respond during the dynamic phases of externally applied tension as well as fibroblast-mediated tension during cell adhesion and collagen gel contraction.
Experimental Investigation of a New Derived Oleochemical Corrosion Inhibitor

Most of the corrosion inhibitors that are used in industry contain chemicals that are harmful to health and environment. Corrosion inhibitors derived from green sources are, therefore, believed to be a good option for replacing the chemical corrosion inhibitors. In this work, a green oleochemical corrosion inhibitor derived from Jatropha Curcas is introduced. The paper discusses the methodology of deriving the corrosion inhibitor as well as the experimental test conducted for evaluating its corrosion inhibition efficiency. The new oleochemical corrosion inhibitor was derived via two reactions. Jatropha oil was firstly saponified with sodium hydroxide to yield gras acid and glycerol, which was then esterified with boron fluoride in presence of excess methanol to produce the oil methyl esters, which is used as oleo-chemical corrosion inhibitor. To evaluate the oleo-chemical corrosion inhibitor, the corrosion rate of mild steel in NaCl corrosive medium with CO2 is tested at static condition and two dynamic conditions, namely 500 and 1500 rpm. This is to simulate the transitional and turbulent flow in a pipeline. At each dynamic condition, the proposed corrosion inhibitor was tested at concentration dosages of 0, 50, 100, and 150 ppm. The experiments results revealed a good performance of the new oleochemical corrosion inhibitor. The inhibition efficiency was found to be highly affected by the concentration of corrosion inhibitor. Total corrosion inhibition of the mild steel was noticed by using 150 ppm at dynamic condition of 500 rpm.
Effect of scuba-diving on optic nerve and sheath diameters

Background: There is not any data available about the effect of high bar pressure condition on intracranial pressure. In this study, the effect of diving on the optic nerve and sheath diameters as non-invasive markers of intracranial pressure has been investigated. Methods: Twenty professional male divers from twenty one volunteers were chosen for this cross-sectional study. Only one person who had a history of barotraumas was excluded. Each diver then completed a questionnaire on demographic data, medical and diving history. Nineteen other volunteers were selected to represent a control group. A 10-MHz linear ultrasonic probe was used to measure the optic nerve sheath diameters of both eyes in closed and supine position and its relationship with diving history of divers was determined. Results: It was found that divers have a higher mean optic nerve sheath diameter compared to the normal population as previously reported by other studies. The mean diameter of the left and right optic nerve sheaths were 6.4±0.7, 6.5±0.9 mm respectively and a significant relationship between optic nerve sheath diameter and diving history was found. Conclusion: Results showed that divers have a higher optic nerve diameter than the general population. However, our result cannot yet be considered as a marker of intracranial pressure in divers as it was conducted on an limited number of subjects and so a bigger study should be undertaken for this purpose.