Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4 Inhibition Alleviates Shortage of Circulating Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 in Heart Failure and Mitigates Myocardial Remodeling and Apoptosis via the Exchange Protein Directly Activated by Cyclic AMP 1/Ras-Related Protein 1 Axis

Background—Ample evidence demonstrates cardiovascular protection by incretin-based therapy using dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitor (DPP4i) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) under either diabetic or nondiabetic condition. Their action on myocardium is mediated by the cyclic AMP (cAMP) signal; however, the pathway remains uncertain. This study was conducted to address the effect of DPP4i/GLP-1/cAMP axis on cardiac dysfunction and remodeling induced by pressure overload (thoracic aortic constriction [TAC]) independently of diabetes mellitus. Methods and Results—DPP4i (alogliptin, 10 mg/kg per day for 4 weeks) prevented TAC-induced contractile dysfunction, remodeling, and apoptosis of myocardium in a GLP-1 receptor antagonist (exendin [9-39])–sensitive fashion. In TAC, circulating level of GLP-1 (in pmol/L; 0.86±0.10 for TAC versus 2.13±0.54 for sham control) unexpectedly declined and so did the myocardial cAMP concentration (in pmol/mg protein; 33.0±1.4 for TAC versus 42.2±1.5 for sham). Alogliptin restored the decline in the GLP-1/cAMP levels observed in TAC, thereby augmented cAMP signaling effectors (protein kinase A [PKA] and exchange protein directly activated by cAMP 1 [EPAC1]). In vitro assay revealed distinct roles of PKA and EPAC1 in cardiac apoptosis. EPAC1 promoted cardiomyocyte survival via concomitant increase in B cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) expression and activation of small G protein Ras-related protein 1 (Rap1) in a cAMP dose–dependent and PKA–independent fashion. Conclusions—DPP4i restores cardiac remodeling and apoptosis caused by the pathological decline in circulating GLP-1 in response to pressure overload. EPAC1 is essential for cardiomyocyte survival via the cAMP/Rap1 activation independently of PKA.
Secure Coprocessors in Electronic Commerce Applications

Many researchers believe electronic wallets (secure storage devices that maintain account balances) are the solution to electronic commerce challenges. This paper argues for a more powerful model--a secure coprocessor--that can run a small operating system, run application programs, and also keep secure storage for cryptographic keys and balance information. We have built a system called Dyad, on top of a port of the Mach 3.0 microkernel to the IBM Citadel secure coprocessor. This paper describes the abstract architecture of Dyad and a general discussion of secure coprocessor implementations of a variety of electronic commerce applications: • Copy protection for software • Electronic cash (including a critique of proposed solutions for point-of-sale electronic wallet systems) • Electronic contracts • Secure postage
Performance Analysis of the Asymmetric Dual-Hop Relay Transmission With Mixed RF/FSO Links

This letter reports a performance analysis of a dual-hop relay system composed of asymmetric radio-frequency and free-space optics (RF/FSO) links. This approach is based on the fact that FSO links can provide even wider bandwidths as compared to RF ones. In particular, an exact closed-form expression for the end-to-end outage probability of the RF/FSO relay links is derived. Overall, the RF/FSO links show a slightly worse performance than the RF/RF links, but the performance gap is gradually reduced as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) increases. Our mathematical analysis results were verified by exactly matching Monte Carlo simulation results.
Modelling of microstructure evolution during precipitation processes: a population balance approach of the KWN model

In the present study a general kinetic model for phase transformations resulting in a second-phase particle precipitation in a matrix is presented. Such transformations involve simultaneous nucleation, growth and coarsening of particles resulting in a particle population that can be described from the particle size distribution (PSD). The material final mechanical properties strongly depend on particles volume fraction and radius and consequently on the shape of the PSD. A strength model was used taking into account the contributions of the lattice resistance, the solid solution hardening and the precipitation hardening, using the kinetic model results. The model can be applied to both isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. Finally, the model is validated using a variety of microstructure and hardness data for a 6XXX aluminium alloy series taken from the open literature. It is concluded that the model results are in reasonable agreement with experimental data and capable of predicting the age hardening response of aluminium alloys.
Content coverage of animal behavior data

This paper describes the results of analysis and visualization of Animal Behavior research papers pulbished in major journals. Analysis is carried out to obtain associations among the citation records for the domain. The primary goal is to observe the content coverage and the prominent research areas and describe the research activities taking place over the past decade. The methodologies used to study the domain provide a potential platform that can be extended to cover the entire publication history of the domain. The fact that the field of Animal Behavior has remained uncharted to a great extent provides immense motivation for the study.
The mucin epiglycanin on TA3/Ha carcinoma cells prevents alpha 6 beta 4- mediated adhesion to laminin and kalinin and E-cadherin-mediated cell- cell interaction

TA3/Ha murine mammary carcinoma cells grow in suspension, do not adhere to extracellular matrix molecules, but do adhere to hepatocytes and form liver metastases upon intraportal injection. Recently we showed that the integrin alpha 6 beta 4 on the TA3/Ha cells is involved in adhesion to hepatocytes. However, despite high cell surface levels of alpha 6 beta 4, TA3/Ha cells do not adhere to the alpha 6 beta 4 ligands laminin and kalinin. Here we show that this is due to the mucin epiglycanin that is highly expressed on TA3/Ha cells. Some monoclonal antibodies generated against epiglycanin induced capping of most of the epiglycanin molecules. TA3/Ha cells treated with these mAb did adhere to laminin and kalinin, and an epithelial monolayer was formed on kalinin, with alpha 6 beta 4 localized in HD1-containing hemidesmosome- like structures and E-cadherin at the cell-cell contact sites. Similar results were obtained after treatment of TA3/Ha cells with O- sialoglycoprotein endopeptidase which removes all epiglycanin. In addition, the enzyme induced E-cadherin-mediated cell-cell aggregation. Both treatments also enhanced the adhesion to hepatocytes, but given the potent antiadhesive effect of epiglycanin it is remarkable that nontreated TA3/Ha cells adhere to hepatocytes at all. We found that during this interaction, epiglycanin was redistributed. We conclude that epiglycanin can completely prevent both intercellular and matrix adhesion, but that this effect can be overcome in certain intercellular interactions because of the induced redistribution of the mucin.
Widespread Skin and Soft-Tissue Infections Due to Two Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Strains Harboring the Genes for Panton-Valentine Leucocidin

ABSTRACT Infections caused by community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) are emerging as a major public health problem. CA-MRSA has been associated previously with skin and soft-tissue infection (SSTI) and with carriage of staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) type IV and the Panton-Valentine leucocidin (PVL) virulence factor. To assess the clonal distribution of PVL-carrying strains and the association with SSTI in the San Francisco Bay area, we surveyed six collections of S. aureus isolates—671 isolates in all—collected between 1997 and 2002 originating from inpatient and outpatient clinical specimens and from a community-based sampling. Isolates were genotyped by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, multilocus restriction fragment typing, and multilocus sequence typing and assayed for the PVL virulence factor. The S. aureus populations showed a high proportion of PVL-carrying strains, with frequencies ranging up to 70% in MRSA isolated from jail inmate patients and 69% in MRSA from patients receiving surgical treatment at an outpatient clinic specializing in treating SSTIs. PVL-carrying isolates were identified in nine clonal groups, but 88.5% of the PVL-carrying MRSA isolates belonged to only two clonal groups. These two clonal groups carried the SCCmec type IV resistance determinant and were more likely than other clonal groups to be recovered from SSTI sites than from other sites (P < 0.0001). There is evidence of clonal replacement over the period from 1999 to 2002, with one of these two clonal groups being supplanted by the other.
Practical Applications of Statistical Process Control

0 7 4 0 7 4 5 9 / 0 0 / $ 1 0 . 0 0 © 2 0 0 0 I E E E Quantitative methods such as statistical process control can provide the information needed to answer this question. For a major release of Bull HN Information Systems’ GCOS 8, a mainframe operating system for enterprise computing, we used SPC to analyze inspection and test data. We found that this helped us understand and predict the release quality and the development processes controlling that quality. It also gave us the hard data we needed to justify our results.
Biological determinants of spontaneous physical activity

A decline in daily physical activity levels is clearly a major factor contributing to the current obesity epidemic affecting both developed and developing countries in the world. This escalating problem is associated with increased morbidity and mortality and reduced psychosocial health. Thus, increasing physical activity has become the strategy of choice in public health strategies to prevent obesity. Efforts to improve levels of physical activity in the population rely upon an accurate understanding of the determinants of physical activity. Most research has focused on environmental and social influences, while the potential for physical activity to be controlled by intrinsic biological processes has been largely overlooked. This review presents some of the compelling and diverse evidence that has emerged recently showing that physical activity energy expenditure is a critical factor in both the successful regulation of energy balance in normal individuals, as well as the abnormal regulation of energy balance that characterizes obesity. Although the metabolic and genetic factors involved in these regulatory processes remain mostly unidentified, some novel discoveries have been made in this area recently and these are described within this review.
THE EFFECTS OF SELECTIVE SEROTONIN REUPTAKE INHIBITORS ON AUDITORY MEASURES IN WOMEN

Kamakshi V. Gopal, Major Professor Kenneth Melnick, Minor Professor Miriam A. Henoch, Committee Member and Director of Graduate Studies in Audiology Jeffery A. Cokely, Chair of the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences C. Neal Tate, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies THE EFFECTS OF SELECTIVE SEROTONIN RE-UPTAKE INHIBITORS ON AUDITORY MEASURES IN WOMEN Kelly Anne Briley, B.A.
Marine Peptides and Their Anti-Infective Activities

Marine bioresources are a valuable source of bioactive compounds with industrial and nutraceutical potential. Numerous clinical trials evaluating novel chemotherapeutic agents derived from marine sources have revealed novel mechanisms of action. Recently, marine-derived bioactive peptides have attracted attention owing to their numerous beneficial effects. Moreover, several studies have reported that marine peptides exhibit various anti-infective activities, such as antimicrobial, antifungal, antimalarial, antiprotozoal, anti-tuberculosis, and antiviral activities. In the last several decades, studies of marine plants, animals, and microbes have revealed tremendous number of structurally diverse and bioactive secondary metabolites. However, the treatments available for many infectious diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, and viruses are limited. Thus, the identification of novel antimicrobial peptides should be continued, and all possible strategies should be explored. In this review, we will present the structures and anti-infective activity of peptides isolated from marine sources (sponges, algae, bacteria, fungi and fish) from 2006 to the present.
Ray shooting amidst convex polytopes in three dimensions

We consider the problem of ray shooting in a 3dimensional scene consisting of m (possibly intersecting) convex polyhedra with a total of n faces, i.e., we want to preprocess them into a data structure, so that the first intersection point of a query ray and the given polyhedra can be determined quickly. We present a technique that requires O((mn)2t’) preprocessing time and storage, and can answer ray shooting queries in O(logn) time. This is a significant improvement over previously known techniques (which require O(n4+‘) space and preprocessing) if m is much smaller than n, which is often the case in practice. We also present a variant of the technique that requires O(nl+‘) space and preprocessing, and answers queries in time O(m1~4n1~2+e), again a significant improvement over previous techniques when m << n. Our algorithms also work when the given polyhedra intersect, and also apply to a collection of (possibly intersecting) polyhedral terrains.
Effect of Fiber Orientation on Mode I Fracture Toughness of CFRP

The effect of fiber orientations on fracture toughness of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) in Mode I loading was investigated using double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens, based on mesoscopic mechanics. Mesoscopic interlaminar fracture toughness of 0//0 inter- phase of CFRP was evaluated with mesoscopic finite ele- ment models using experimental data. The fracture surface roughness was observed by confocal laser scanning micros- copy. Then the mesoscopic interlaminar fracture toughness of CFRP was correlated with the fracture surface rough- ness. Additionally, the change of the Mode I macroscopic fracture toughness of CFRP was experimentally measured with changing the numbers of 0 andy layers of DCB specimens. The correlation between the fracture toughness of 0//0 and y// � y interphases was discussed and a novel procedure was proposed to predict the macroscopic frac- ture toughness of y// � y interphase using finite element method (FEM). The fracture toughness of y// � y interphase analyzed by FEM was finally compared with the experi- mental results to verify the proposed prediction procedure. V C 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 000: 000-000, 2009
Isolation and Identification of a Campylobacter fetus subspecies Separated from Blood of a Colon Cancer Patient

To isolate and identify the species of a strain separated from blood of a colon cancer patient.The morphological,cultural and biochemistry characters of the bacteria were studied by routine detecting method. The bacteria genomic DNA was extracted based on alkaline lysis. 16S rDNA sequence was amplified, purified and sequenced. Multiple alignment, phylogenetic analysis were carried out by Clustal W and MEGE 4.1 program. The subspecies was identified by mean of amplification of a subspecies-specific amplicon.The morphological, cultural and biochemistry characters of the isolate, Jiaohe strain, correspond to the character of Campylobacter fetus. 16S rDNA sequence and phylogenetic analysis both confirmed the result. Depending on the result of the subspecies-specific PCR test, the isolate could be identified as C. fetus subsp. fetus.The data showed that a C. fetus subsp. fetus strain was isolated from a patient with colon cancer, which extend the clinical case of C. fetus bloodstream infections. For the morphological and cultural characters were slightly different from the type strain of C. fetus subspecies, further investigation on this organism should be proceeded.
Comparison of metabolic, temperature, heart rate and ventilatory responses to exercise at extreme ambient temperatures (0 degrees and 35 degrees C.).

Eight male subjects exercised on a bicycle ergometer for one half to one hour at loads demanding 52 to 59% of Vo2max on two separate occasions, once with ambient temperature held at 0 degrees C and once in a 35 degrees C environment. Throughout exercise and during recovery in a 25 degrees C environment, measurements were made of oxygen consumption, ventilation, heart rate, muscle-rectal-skin temperatures, and blood lactic acid. In the hot condition significant increases in heart rate, blood lactates, sweat loss, muscle, rectal and skin temperature responses were observed. At 0 degrees C Vo2 was significantly elevated during exercise over that in the 35 degrees C condition. Despite the elevated Vo2 response in the cold, higher body temperatures measured in the heat were associated with a significantly higher (P less than .025) recovery Vo2 (x = 866 ml), which was of the magnitude predicted by the van't Hoff-Arrhenius relationship.
Comparative Models of the File Assignment Problem

The optimal distribution of files among storage nodes is a major problem m computer system optimization. Differing design goals, varying system assumptions, and contrasting solution techniques yield a disparity of optimal file assignments. This paper views the differing file assignment models in a uniform manner Relative advantages and weaknesses of the various models become immediately apparent. This perspective exposes the further research which is necessary m order to provide a truly satisfactory solution to the file assignment problem
Blind Source Separation Using Maximum Entropy PDF Estimation Based on Fractional Moments

Recovering a set of independent sources which are linearly mixed is the main task of the blind source separation. Utilizing different methods such as infomax principle, mutual information and maximum likelihood leads to simple iterative procedures such as natural gradient algorithms. These algorithms depend on a nonlinear function (known as score or activation function) of source distributions. Since there is no prior knowledge of source distributions, the optimality of the algorithms is based on the choice of a suitable parametric density model. In this paper, we propose an adaptive optimal score function based on the fractional moments of the sources. In order to obtain a parametric model for the source distributions, we use a few sampled fractional moments to construct the maximum entropy probability density function (PDF) estimation . By applying an optimization method we can obtain the optimal fractional moments that best fit the source distributions. Using the fractional moments (FM) instead of the integer moments causes the maximum entropy estimated PDF to converge to the true PDF much faster . The simulation results show that unlike the most previous proposed models for the nonlinear score function, which are limited to some sorts of source families such as sub‐gaussian and super‐gaussian or some forms of source distribution models such as generalized gaussian distribution, our new model achieves better results for every source signal without any prior assumption for its randomness behavior.
Simulating Malicious Insiders in Real Host-Monitored User Data

Our task is to produce test data for a research program developing a new generation of insider threat detection technologies. Test data is created by injecting fictional malicious activity into a background of real user activity. We rely on fictional narratives to specify threats that simulate realistic social complexity, with "drama as data" as a central organizing metaphor. Test cases are scripted as episodes of a fictional crime series, and compiled into time-series data of fictional characters. Users are selected from background to perform the role of fictional characters that best match their real-world roles and activities. Fictional activity is blended into the activity of real users in the cast. The cast and unmodified background users perform dramas in test windows: performances are test cases. Performances by different casts of users, or by the same cast of users in different test windows, constitute distinct test cases.
A Comparison of the Multiscale Retinex With Other Image Enhancement Techniques

The multiscale retinex with color restoration (MSRCR) has shown itself to be a very versatile automatic image enhancement algorithm that simultaneously provides dynamic range compression, color constancy, and color rendition. A number of algorithms exist that provide one or more of these features, but not all. In this paper we compare the performance of the MSRCR with techniques that are widely used for image enhancement. Specifically, we compare the MSRCR with color adjustment methods such as gamma correction and gain/offset application, histogram modification techniques such as histogram equalization and manual histogram adjustment, and other more powerful techniques such as homomorphic filtering and ''burning and dodging''. The comparison is carried out by testing the suite of image enhancement methods on a set of diverse images. We find that though some of these techniques work well for some of these images, only the MSRCR performs universally well on the test set.
Effect of growth conditions and substratum composition on the persistence of coliforms in mixed-population biofilms

Laboratory reactors operated under oligotrophic conditions were used to evaluate the importance of initial growth rate and substratum composition on the long-term persistence of coliforms in mixed-population biofilms. The inoculum growth rate had a dramatic effect on the ability of coliforms to remain on surfaces. The most slowly grown coliforms (mu = 0.05/h) survived at the highest cell concentration. Antibody staining revealed that Klebsiella pneumoniae existed primarily as discrete microcolonies on the surface. Both coliforms and heterotrophic plate count bacteria were supported in larger numbers on a reactive substratum, mild steel, than on polycarbonate.
Automatic segmentation of newborn brain MRI using mathematical morphology

We propose a novel algorithm for the segmentation of newborn brain MRI, based on mathematical morphology. The algorithm combines image information with high-level anatomical knowledge to deal with the difficulties of newborn brain MRI segmentation (lower signal-to-noise ratio, reduced contrast and different brain structure compared to the adult brain). It robustly segments the brain globally (intracranial cavity, cerebellum, brainstem and the two hemispheres) and at tissue level (cortical gray matter, central gray matter, myelinated white matter, unmyelinated white matter and cerebrospinal fluid). Important advantages compared to existing methods are that the proposed algorithm does not require any manual interaction and that it does not require an atlas, whose construction would be tedious and time-consuming. Experimental results show good agreement with expert manual segmentations and qualitative superiority to state-of-the-art methods in the literature.