Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Radioprotective Effect of Grape Seed Proanthocyanidins In Vitro and In Vivo

We have demonstrated that grape seed proanthocyanidins (GSPs) could effectively scavenge hydroxyl radical (•OH) in a dose-dependent manner. Since most of the ionizing radiation- (IR-) induced injuries were caused by •OH, this study was to investigate whether GSPs would mitigate IR-induced injuries in vitro and in vivo. We demonstrated that GSPs could significantly reduce IR-induced DNA strand breaks (DSBs) and apoptosis of human lymphocyte AHH-1 cells. This study also showed that GSPs could protect white blood cells (WBC) from IR-induced injuries, speed up the weight of mice back, and decrease plasma malondialdehyde (MDA), thus improving the survival rates of mice after ionizing radiation. It is suggested that GSPs have a potential as an effective and safe radioprotective agent.
Color realism redux

Abstract Our reply is in three parts. The first part concerns some foundational issues in the debate about color realism. The second part addresses the many objections to the version of physicalism about color (“productance physicalism”) defended in the target article. The third part discusses the leading alternative approaches and theories endorsed by the commentators.
Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Performance of Employees

Emotional intelligence is essential factor responsible for determining success in life and psychological wellbeing seems to play an important role in shaping the interaction between managers and employees in their work environment. This study is undertaken to understand the performance level of managers and employees in educational administrations of Iran, the study focuses on understanding the emotional intelligence of the managers and employees and its link to their performance level on the job. Little research to date has examined how emotional intelligence influence manager-employee performance in organizations settings. Data (N=155) for this study were collected through questionnaires that participants were managers and employees of educational administrations of Iran Building on top of emotional intelligence theory, this paper explores how emotional intelligence manager and employee are influenced by performance. Today’s environment is global and very complex, and the association between emotional intelligence and performance in establishments of Iran remains an important area of worry for managers and employees' globally. Emotional intelligence is crucial factor for organization's performance and growth and plays an important role in performance of today’s competitive organizations. The findings of the study indicate that emotional intelligence has a positive impact on the performance level of the managers and employees in educational administrations of Iran.
Proteases from Entamoeba spp. and Pathogenic Free-Living Amoebae as Virulence Factors

The standard reference for pathogenic and nonpathogenic amoebae is the human parasite Entamoeba histolytica; a direct correlation between virulence and protease expression has been demonstrated for this amoeba. Traditionally, proteases are considered virulence factors, including those that produce cytopathic effects in the host or that have been implicated in manipulating the immune response. Here, we expand the scope to other amoebae, including less-pathogenic Entamoeba species and highly pathogenic free-living amoebae. In this paper, proteases that affect mucin, extracellular matrix, immune system components, and diverse tissues and cells are included, based on studies in amoebic cultures and animal models. We also include proteases used by amoebae to degrade iron-containing proteins because iron scavenger capacity is currently considered a virulence factor for pathogens. In addition, proteases that have a role in adhesion and encystation, which are essential for establishing and transmitting infection, are discussed. The study of proteases and their specific inhibitors is relevant to the search for new therapeutic targets and to increase the power of drugs used to treat the diseases caused by these complex microorganisms.
pH- and sodium-induced changes in a sodium/proton antiporter

We examined substrate-induced conformational changes in MjNhaP1, an archaeal electroneutral Na+/H+-antiporter resembling the human antiporter NHE1, by electron crystallography of 2D crystals in a range of physiological pH and Na+ conditions. In the absence of sodium, changes in pH had no major effect. By contrast, changes in Na+ concentration caused a marked conformational change that was largely pH-independent. Crystallographically determined, apparent dissociation constants indicated ∼10-fold stronger Na+ binding at pH 8 than at pH 4, consistent with substrate competition for a common ion-binding site. Projection difference maps indicated helix movements by about 2 Å in the 6-helix bundle region of MjNhaP1 that is thought to contain the ion translocation site. We propose that these movements convert the antiporter from the proton-bound, outward-open state to the Na+-bound, inward-open state. Oscillation between the two states would result in rapid Na+/H+ antiport. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.01412. 001
Distributed Coding of Random Dot Stereograms with Unsupervised Learning of Disparity

Distributed compression is particularly attractive for stereoscopic images since it avoids communication between cameras. Since compression performance depends on exploiting the redundancy between images, knowing the disparity is important at the decoder. Unfortunately, distributed encoders cannot calculate this disparity and communicate it. We consider a toy problem, the compression of random dot stereograms, and propose an expectation maximization algorithm to perform unsupervised learning of disparity during the decoding procedure. Our experiments show that this can achieve twice as efficient compression compared to a system with no disparity compensation and perform nearly as well as a system which knows the disparity through an oracle
The effect of N-alkyl modification on the antimalarial activity of 3-hydroxypyridin-4-one oral iron chelators.

The antimalaria effect of iron chelators is attributed to their interaction with a labile iron pool within parasitised erythrocytes, and it was postulated that increased affinity to iron as well as increased lipophilicity may improve antimalarial activity. In the present study we have examined the antimalarial effect of 3-hydroxypyridin-4-ones, a family of bidentate orally effective iron chelators whose lipophilicity may be modified by altering the length of the R2 substituent on the ring nitrogen. A significant dose-related suppression of Plasmodium falciparum cultures was observed with all drugs tested in vitro at concentrations of 5 mumol/L or higher. In contrast, there was a clear segregation of the in vivo effect on P berghei in rats (300 mg/kg/d subcutaneous) into two categories: compounds CP20, 38, and 40 failed to suppress malaria, whereas CP51, 94, and 96 had a strong antimalarial effect, similar or better than deferoxamine. There was a close linear correlation between the suppression of peak parasite counts and the reduction in hepatic nonheme iron induced by the various drugs tested (r = .9837). The most lipophilic compounds were also the most effective in suppressing malaria and in depleting hepatic iron stores. These data indicate that 3-hydroxypyrydin-4-ones are able to suppress malaria in vivo and in vitro. Because lipid solubility is an important determinant of antimalarial action, our study provides useful information regarding the selection of orally effective iron-chelating compounds that may be suitable for clinical application as antimalarial agents.
A Genetic Algorithm and Fuzzy Logic Approach for Video Shot Boundary Detection

This paper proposed a shot boundary detection approach using Genetic Algorithm and Fuzzy Logic. In this, the membership functions of the fuzzy system are calculated using Genetic Algorithm by taking preobserved actual values for shot boundaries. The classification of the types of shot transitions is done by the fuzzy system. Experimental results show that the accuracy of the shot boundary detection increases with the increase in iterations or generations of the GA optimization process. The proposed system is compared to latest techniques and yields better result in terms of F1score parameter.
In Vitro Cytotoxic Potential of Essential Oils of Eucalyptus benthamii and Its Related Terpenes on Tumor Cell Lines

Eucalyptus L. is traditionally used for many medicinal purposes. In particular, some Eucalyptus species have currently shown cytotoxic properties. Local Brazilian communities have used leaves of E. benthamii as a herbal remedy for various diseases, including cancer. Considering the lack of available data for supporting this cytotoxic effect, the goal of this paper was to study the in vitro cytotoxic potential of the essential oils from young and adult leaves of E. benthamii and some related terpenes (α-pinene, terpinen-4-ol, and γ-terpinene) on Jurkat, J774A.1 and HeLa cells lines. Regarding the cytotoxic activity based on MTT assay, the essential oils showed improved results than α-pinene and γ-terpinene, particularly for Jurkat and HeLa cell lines. Terpinen-4-ol revealed a cytotoxic effect against Jurkat cells similar to that observed for volatile oils. The results of LDH activity indicated that cytotoxic activity of samples against Jurkat cells probably involved cell death by apoptosis. The decrease of cell DNA content was demonstrated due to inhibition of Jurkat cells proliferation by samples as a result of cytotoxicity. In general, the essential oils from young and adult leaves of E. benthamii presented cytotoxicity against the investigated tumor cell lines which confirms their antitumor potential.
Uncoupling Different Characteristics of the C. elegans E Lineage from Differentiation of Intestinal Markers

In the 4-cell C. elegans embryo, a signal from P2 to its anterior sister, EMS, specifies the posterior daughter of EMS, E, as the sole founder cell for intestine. The P2-to-EMS signal restricts high level zygotic expression of the redundant GATA transcription factors, END-1 and END-3, to only the E lineage. Expression of END-1 or END-3 in early blastomeres is sufficient to drive intestinal differentiation. We show here that a number of E lineage characteristics, which are also regulated through P2-EMS signaling, can be uncoupled from intestine development, and each with a different sensitivity to specific perturbations of the P2-EMS signal. For example, we show that the extended cell cycle in Ea and Ep depends on the P2-induced high level expression of the cell cycle regulator, WEE-1.1, in E. A mutation in wee-1.1 results in shortened Ea and Ep cell cycles, but has no effect upon intestinal differentiation or embryogenesis. Furthermore, it has been shown previously that the total number of E lineage cell divisions is regulated by a mechanism dependent upon E being specified as the intestinal founder cell. We now show, however, that cell division counting can be uncoupled from intestine differentiation in the E lineage. Many mutations in P2-EMS signal genes exhibit nonfully-penetrant defects in intestinal differentiation. When embryos with those mutations generate intestinal cells, they often make too many intestinal cells. In addition, at the level of individual embryos, expression of end-1 and end-3, and another very early E-specific zygotic gene, sdz-23, exhibit stochastic and discordant defects in P2-EMS signaling mutants. We show here that sdz-23 is expressed close to wildtype levels in embryos deleted of both end-1 and end-3. sdz-23 does not appear to function in intestine development, raising the intriguing possibility that the P2-EMS interaction has downstream molecular consequences within the E lineage independent of end-1/3 and intestinal development.
Two-way clustering of gene expression profiles by sparse matrix factorization

We propose a new methodology for two-way cluster analysis of gene expression data using a novel sparse matrix factorization technique that produces a decomposition of a matrix in a set of sparse factors. This method produces a set of bases and coding matrices that are not only able to represent the original data, but they also extract important localized parts-based patterns. We applied the method to gene expression data sets in an attempt to uncover latent relationships between samples and genes in DNA microarray experiments.
An Endorectal Ultrasound Probe Comanipulator With Hybrid Actuation Combining Brakes and Motors

A robotic device, aimed at assisting a urologist in positioning an endorectal ultrasound probe to perform prostate biopsies, is presented. The proposed system is a comanipulator that holds the probe simultaneously with the urologist. This robot supports two modes of operation: the free mode, where the entire movement control is left to the urologist when he/she positions the probe with respect to the prostate thanks to the feedback provided by the ultrasound images; the locked mode, where the robot's role is to precisely maintain the targeted biopsy site at a given location, while the urologist can insert a needle through a guide mounted on the probe and proceed to biopsy. The device combines three brakes and three motors. This allows both transparent comanipulation in the free mode with six degrees of freedom liberated and stabilization of the probe in the locked mode. At the control level, a main challenge in the locked mode raises from antagonistic constraints: the needle placement shall be precise in spite of unknown external forces due to the contact between the probe and the rectum; the robot apparent impedance shall be low due to security constraints. This is solved by an inner low stiffness controller and an outer slow integration for canceling steady-state errors. Both in vitro and in cadavero experimental results show the efficiency of the system in the two modes of operation.
A DEVICE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR AN OBJECT-ORIENTED OPERATING SYSTEM BY PANAGIOTIS KOUGIOURIS Dipl

Dedication To my parents, for their support and to Aργυρ`ω, for her patience and understanding. iii Acknowledgements I want to thank my advisor Roy H. Campbell for his comments and support. I would also like to thank Bjorn A. Helgaas, Peter W. Madany and Vincent F. Russo who helped me understand Choices. Special thanks to Ralph E. Johnson who taught me object-oriented programming and extensively edited a draft of this thesis. Other members of the Choices group helped me in several occasions. I also want to thank IBM and especially my summer 1991 colleagues at Kingston, New York for their support and encouragement. Finally, I want to thank the participants in the talks I gave at Sun Microsystems and Apple Computer in Spring 1991 for their questions and comments.
Selecting Input Variables Using Mutual Informationand Nonparametric Density

In learning problems where a connectionist network is trained with a nite sized training set, better generalization performance is often obtained when unneeded weights in the network are eliminated. One source of unneeded weights comes from the inclusion of input variables that provide little information about the output variables. We propose a method for identifying and eliminating these input variables. The method rst determines the relationship between input and output variables using nonparametric density estimation and then measures the relevance of input variables using the information theoretic concept of mutual information. We present results from our method on a simple toy problem and a nonlinear time series.
Pushing the Limits of Translation Quality Estimation

Translation quality estimation is a task of growing importance in NLP, due to its potential to reduce post-editing human effort in disruptive ways. However, this potential is currently limited by the relatively low accuracy of existing systems. In this paper, we achieve remarkable improvements by exploiting synergies between the related tasks of word-level quality estimation and automatic post-editing. First, we stack a new, carefully engineered, neural model into a rich feature-based word-level quality estimation system. Then, we use the output of an automatic post-editing system as an extra feature, obtaining striking results on WMT16: a word-level FMULT1 score of 57.47% (an absolute gain of +7.95% over the current state of the art), and a Pearson correlation score of 65.56% for sentence-level HTER prediction (an absolute gain of +13.36%).
Medical Care in a Free Clinic: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Patient Experience, Incentives, and Barriers to Optimal Medical Care with Consideration of a Facility Fee

Free and charitable clinics are important contributors to the health of the United States population. Recently, funding for these clinics has been declining, and it is, therefore, useful to identify what qualities patients value the most in clinics in an effort to allocate funding wisely. In order to identify targets and incentives for improvement of patients’ health, we performed a comprehensive analysis of patients’ experience at a free clinic by analyzing a patient survey (N=94). The survey also assessed patient opinions of a small facility fee, which could be used to offset the decrease in funds. Interestingly, our patients believed it is appropriate to be charged a facility fee (78%) because it increases involvement in their care (r = 0.69, p < 0.001) and self-respect (r = 0.66, p < 0.001). Incentives to medical care include continuity of care, faith-based care, having a patient medical provider partnership, and charging a facility fee. Barriers include affordable housing, transportation, medication, and accessible information. In order to improve medical care in the uninsured population, our study suggested that we need to: 1) offer continuity of medical care; 2) offer affordable preventive health screenings; 3) support affordable transportation, housing, and medications; and 4) consider including a facility fee.
Conditional Covariances and Direct Central Bank Interventions in the Foreign Exchange Markets

In this paper, I investigate the effects of central bank interventions (CBIs) on the ex post correlation and covariance of exchange rates. Using a multivariate GARCH model with time-varying conditional covariances, we estimate the effects of CBIs on both the variances and covariance between the yen and the deutsche mark (the Euro) in terms of the U.S. dollar. Our results suggest that coordinated CBIs not only tend to increase the volatility of exchange rates but also explain a significant amount of the covariance between the major currencies. We show that this result can be useful for short-run currency portfolio management.
The membrane attack mechanism of complement. Isolation and subunit composition of the C5b-9 complex

Isolation of the C5b-9 complex from inulin-activated whole human serum was effected by molecular sieve column chromatography employing Biogel A-15 M, preparative Pevikon block electrophoresis, and removal of low density beta-lipoproteins by flotation in CsCl. The final product was homogeneous upon cellulose acetate strip electrophoresis and analytical ultracentrifugation. Ouchterlony analyses indicated that the complex reacted with antisera to C5, C6, C7, C8, and C9 to form a continuous, circular precipitin line without spurs. The C5b-9 complex was dissociated by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in the absence of reducing agents, and analytical SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed seven protein bands after straining with Coomassie Blue. Bands 1, 2, 3, and 6 were identified as C5b, C7, C6, and C9, respectively. Bands 4 and 7 were identified as two noncovalently bound subunits of C8. Molar ratios among C5b, C6, C7, C8, and C9 dissociated from the complex by SDS were estimated to be 1:1:1:1:3. Band 5 protein, which had an estimated mol wt of 88,000 and was found to occur with a molar ratio of 3, has not yet been identified. Its nature and possible biological functions are discussed.
Skeletal Muscle Growth Hormone Receptor Signaling Regulates Basal, but Not Fasting-Induced, Lipid Oxidation

Background Growth hormone (GH) stimulates whole-body lipid oxidation, but its regulation of muscle lipid oxidation is not clearly defined. Mice with a skeletal muscle-specific knockout of the GH receptor (mGHRKO model) are protected from high fat diet (HFD)–induced insulin resistance and display increased whole-body carbohydrate utilization. In this study we used the mGRHKO mice to investigate the role of muscle GHR signaling on lipid oxidation under regular chow (RC)- and HFD- fed conditions, and in response to fasting. Methodology/Principal Findings Expression of lipid oxidation genes was analyzed by real-time PCR in the muscles of RC- and HFD- fed mice, and after 24 h fasting in the HFD-fed mice. Expression of lipid oxidation genes was lower in the muscles of the mGHRKO mice relative to the controls, irrespective of diet. However, in response to 24 h fasting, the HFD-fed mGHRKO mice displayed up-regulation of lipid oxidation genes similar to the fasted controls. When subjected to treadmill running challenge, the HFD-fed mGHRKO mice demonstrated increased whole-body lipid utilization. Additionally, under fasted conditions, the adipose tissue of the mGHRKO mice displayed increased lipolysis as compared to both the fed mGHRKO as well as the fasted control mice. Conclusions/Significance Our data show that muscle GHR signaling regulates basal lipid oxidation, but not the induction of lipid oxidation in response to fasting. We further demonstrate that muscle GHR signaling is involved in muscle-adipose tissue cross-talk; however the mechanisms mediating this remain to be elucidated.
Optical and radio variability of the BL Lacertae object AO 0235+16: A possible 5-6 year periodicity

The BL Lacertae object AO 0235+16 is well known for its extreme optical and radio variability. New optical and radio data have been collected in the last four years by a wide international collaboration, which conrm the intense activity of this source: on the long term, overall variations of 5 mag in the R band and up to a factor 18 in the radio fluxes were detected, while short-term variability up to 0:5 mag in a few hours and 1: 3m ag in one day was observed in the optical band. The optical data also include the results of the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) rst-light campaign organized in November 1997, involving a dozen optical observatories. The optical spectrum is observed to basically steepen when the source gets fainter. We have investigated the existence of typical variability time scales and of possible correlations between the optical and radio emissions by means of visual inspection and Discrete Correlation Function (DCF) analysis. On the long term, the autocorrelation function of the optical data shows a double-peaked maximum at 4100{4200 days (11:2{11:5 years), while a double-peaked maximum at 3900{4200 days (10:7{11:5 years) is visible in the radio autocorrelation functions. The existence of this similar characteristic time scale of variability in the two bands is by itself an indication of optical-radio correlation. A further analysis by means of Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) technique and folded light curves reveals that the major radio outbursts repeat quasi-regularly with a periodicity of5:7 years, i.e. half the above time scale. This period is also in agreement with the occurrence of some of the major optical outbursts, but not all of them. Visual inspection and DCF analysis of the optical and radio light curves then reveal that in some cases optical outbursts seem to be simultaneous with radio ones, but in other cases they lead the radio events. Moreover, a deep inspection of the radio light curves suggests that in at least two occasions (the 1992{1993 and 1998 outbursts) flux variations at the higher frequencies may have led those at the lower ones.