Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age-related effects of heat stress on protective enzymes for peroxides and microsomal monooxygenase in rat liver.

To evaluate the age-related response of essential cell functions against peroxidative damage in hyperthermia, we studied the biochemical response to heat stress in both young and aged rats. Passive hyperthermia was immediately observed in rats after exposure to hot environments. In aged rats, the rectal temperature maintained thermal homeostasis and increased to the same degree as in young rats. In these aged animals, the damage from heat stress was more serious than in young animals. In aged rats under normal environmental conditions, hepatic cytosolic glutathione peroxidase (GSH peroxidase) activities were markedly higher than those activities in younger rats. Hepatic cytosolic GSH peroxidase activities were induced by heat stress in young rats but were decreased by hot environments in aged rats. Hepatic catalase activities in young rats were not affected by hot environments, whereas in aged rats, hepatic catalase activities were seriously decreased. Catalase activities in the kidney of aged rats were also reduced by hot environments. Lipid peroxidation in the liver was markedly induced in both young and aged rats. Because the protective enzymes for oxygen radicals in aged rats were decreased by hot environments, lipid peroxidation in the liver was highly induced. In aged rats, lipid peroxidation in intracellular structures such as mitochondria and microsomes was also markedly induced by hot environments. In both young and aged rats, hyperthermia greatly increased the development of hypertrophy and vacuolated degeneration in hepatic cells. In aged rats, both mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum of the hepatic cells showed serious distortion in shape as a result of exposures to hot environments. Microsomal electron transport systems, such as cytochrome P450 monooxygenase activities, were seriously decreased by heat stress in aged rats but not in young rats. Although the mitochondrial electron transport systems were not affected by acute heat stress in young rats, their activities were simultaneously inhibited after long-lasting heat exposure. In isolated hepatic cells and polymorphonuclear leukocytes in animals, the 70-kDa heat shock-induced proteins were markedly increased by heat stress. In conclusion, the heat stress-inducible oxygen radical damage becomes more severe according to the age of rats. Because aging and hyperthermia have a synergistic effect on lipid peroxidation, protective enzyme activities for oxygen radicals may be essential for surviving and recovering from thermal injury in aged animals and also in humans. ImagesFigure 1.Figure 2. AFigure 2. BFigure 2. CFigure 2. DFigure 3.Figure 4.Figure 5.Figure 6. AFigure 6. BFigure 7. AFigure 7. B
Syndrome de l'X-Fragile Aspects génétiques, cliniques et suivi médical

Le syndrome de l'X-Fragile est la premiere cause de deficience intellectuelle hereditaire. Il affecte Le syndrome de l'X-Fragile est la premiere cause de deficience intellectuelle hereditaire. Il affecte les garcons mais aussi les filles, plus difficiles a diagnostiquer. Une bonne connaissance des symptomes cliniques et des specificites cognitives et comportementales permet de mieux comprendre les reactions des personnes atteintes de ce syndrome. Les connaissances physiopathologiques laissent entrevoir des approches pharmacologiques innovantes, en complement du projet educatif et de l'accompagnement des personnes.
Approximate solutions in General Relativity via deformation of embeddings

A systematic study of deformations of four-dimensional Einsteinian space-times embedded in a pseudo-Euclidean space E N of higher dimension is presented. Infinitesimal deformations, seen as vector fields in E N , can be divided in two parts, tangent to the embedded hypersurface and orthogonal to it; only the second ones are relevant, the tangent ones being equivalent to coordinate transformations in the embedded manifold. The geometrical quantities can be then expressed in terms of embedding functions z A and their infinitesimal deformations v A z A → ˜ z A = z A + e v A . The deformations are called Einsteinian if they keep Einstein equations satisfied up to a given order in e. The system so obtained is then analyzed in particular in the case of the Schwarzschild metric taken as the starting point, and some solutions of the first-order deformation of Einstein’s equations are found. We discuss also second and third order deformations leading to wave-like solutions and to the departure from spherical symmetry towards an axial one (the approximate Kerr solution) 1
Membrane Computing: The Power of (Rule) Creation

We consider a uniform way of treating objects and rules in P systems: we start with multisets of rules, which are consumed when they are applied, but the application of a rule may also produce rules, to be applied at subsequent steps. We find that this natural and simple feature is surprisingly powerful: systems with only one membrane can characterize the recursively enumerable languages, both in the case of rewriting and of splicing rules; the same result is obtained in the case of symbol-objects, for the recursively enumerable sets of vectors of natural numbers.
Parallel Changes in Global Protein Profiles During Long-Term Experimental Evolution in Escherichia coli

Twelve populations of Escherichia coli evolved in and adapted to a glucose-limited environment from a common ancestor. We used two-dimensional protein electrophoresis to compare two evolved clones, isolated from independently derived populations after 20,000 generations. Exceptional parallelism was detected. We compared the observed changes in protein expression profiles with previously characterized global transcription profiles of the same clones; this is the first time such a comparison has been made in an evolutionary context where these changes are often quite subtle. The two methodologies exhibited some remarkable similarities that highlighted two different levels of parallel regulatory changes that were beneficial during the evolution experiment. First, at the higher level, both methods revealed extensive parallel changes in the same global regulatory network, reflecting the involvement of beneficial mutations in genes that control the ppGpp regulon. Second, both methods detected expression changes of identical gene sets that reflected parallel changes at a lower level of gene regulation. The protein profiles led to the discovery of beneficial mutations affecting the malT gene, with strong genetic parallelism across independently evolved populations. Functional and evolutionary analyses of these mutations revealed parallel phenotypic decreases in the maltose regulon expression and a high level of polymorphism at this locus in the evolved populations.
Edinburgh Research Explorer Factors influencing maternal mortality among rural communities in southwestern Nigeria

Background: Maternal mortality and morbidity reflect the status of population health and quality of life across nations. Poor understanding of the interplay of many antecedent factors, including sociocultural, economic and logistic factors, combined with an overwhelming poor health services delivery, is a basic challenge in several countries, particularly in rural settings where functional health care services are relatively scarce. There are still uncertainties as to the extent of this burden, owing to current challenges with information and data collation. This study aimed at identifying nonmedical factors associated with maternal mortality in rural and semiurban communities of southwestern Nigeria. Methodology: The study was carried out in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State. A multistage sampling technique and an informant survey approach were used in the study. A total sample of 360 eligible respondents were selected randomly from 11 out of 16 political wards in the study area and interviewed through the administration of questionnaires. The data were processed using descriptive statistics and regression analyses. Results: Place of consultation ( P = 0.000), who pays the treatment costs ( P = 0.000), awareness of pregnancy complications ( P = 0.002) and knowledge of the place of antenatal care treatment ( P = 0.000) significantly influenced maternal mortality (proxy by place of delivery of last birth). The F -statistic (15.100) confirmed the hypothesis that nonmedical factors influence maternal mortality. The correlation of predictor variables was significant at both the 0.01 level and the 0.05 level (2-tailed). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that in a rural community setting with a depleted health care system, health education tailored toward community culture, subsidized maternal health care services by the government and operators of private clinics, as well as empowering and improving the status of women may reduce maternal mortality and prompt better utilization and survival chances of women in the study area as well as in all of Nigeria.
From UML Statecharts to LOTOS: A Semantics Preserving Model Transformation

Abstract—A well-founded testing theory encourages the practical application of test case generation techniques. This aims at overcoming the ever increasing complexity of software-enabled systems in the automotive industry. In this article we report on transforming UML Statecharts to the formal language LOTOS. The successful usage of UML Statecharts in our industrial setting and the availability of mature research prototypes for test case generation supporting LOTOS suggest this transformation. Our transformation manages to preserve the semantics of the UML Statechart, allows for treatment of UML-like events, addresses the communication between various models and likewise preserves the atomicity of transitions in the UML Statechart. Moreover, we present first results on the test case generation for our industrial application.
Neural Trust Model

The problems found in the existing models push the researcher to look for a better solution for computational trust and computational reputation. According the problem exposed earlier, the newly proposed model should be a systematic model which supports both trust and reputation. The model should also take the learning capability for agents into consideration because agents cannot quickly adapt to the changes without learning. The model also needs to have the ability to make decisions according to its recognition of trust. Before actually building the model, it is necessary to analyze the concept of trust. Usually when people say trust they mean human trust, however, in this research trust refers to computational trust. How human trust is different from computational trust is a very interesting question. The answers to the question helped the researcher recover many features of computational trust and built a solid theoretical foundation for the proposed model. The definitions of trust in different disciplines such as economy, sociology and psychology will be compared. A possible definition of computational trust will be made and such trust from several different perspectives will be analyzed. The description of the model is important. As a whole, it is represented as a framework that defines components and component relationships. As the concrete components, the purposes and responsibilities of the specific component are explained. This is to illustrate the static structure of the model. The dynamic structure of the model is described as the process of executing the model.
Tractable Sets of the Generalized Interval Algebra

To offer a generic frame which groups together several interval algebra generalizations, we simply define a generalized interval as a tuple of intervals. After introducing the generalized relations we focus on the consistency problem of generalized constraint networks and we present sets of generalized relations for which this problem is tractable, in particular the set of the strongly-preconvex relations.
Genetic Algorithms and permutationproblems : a comparison of recombinationoperators for neural net structurespeci cationPeter

The speciication of neural net architectures by genetic algorithm is thought to be hampered by diiculties with crossover. This is the \permutation" or \competing conventions" problem: similar nets may have the hidden units deened in diierent orders so that they have very dissimilar genetic strings, preventing successful recombination of building blocks. Previous empirical tests of a number of recombination operators using a simulated net-building task indicated the superiority of one that sorts hidden unit deenitions by overlap prior to crossover. However, simple crossover also fared well, suggesting that the permutation problem is not serious in practice. This is supported by an observed reduction in performance when the permutation problem is removed. The GA is shown to be able to resolve the permutations, so that the advantages of an increase in the number of maxima outweigh the diiculties of recombination.
Aldosterone and the Heart: Still an Unresolved Issue?

Receptors for mineralocorticoid hormones are expressed in myocardial cells and evidence obtained in animal studies suggests that activation of these receptors causes cardiac damage independent from blood pressure levels. In the last years, many of the issues related to the effects of aldosterone on the heart have received convincing answers and clinical investigation has focused on a variety of conditions including systolic and diastolic heart failure, arrhythmia, primary hypertension, and primary aldosteronism. Some issues, however, await clarification in order to obtain better understanding of what could be the role of aldosterone blockade in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. In this article, we overview the most recent findings of animal studies that have examined the contribution of aldosterone to cardiac function and clinical studies that have investigated the influence of aldosterone on left ventricular structure and function in the setting of primary hypertension and primary aldosteronism.
Managing the Morbidity Associated with Respiratory Viral Infections in Children with Congenital Heart Disease

Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at risk for increased morbidity from viral lower respiratory tract infections because of anatomical cardiac lesions than can worsen an already compromised respiratory status. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) remains an important pathogen in contributing toward the morbidity in this population. Although the acute treatment of RSV largely remains supportive, the development of monoclonal antibodies, such as palivuzumab, has reduced the RSV-related hospitalization rate in children with CHD. This review highlights the specific cardiac complications of RSV infection, the acute treatment of bronchiolitis in patients with CHD, and the search for new therapies against RSV, including an effective vaccine, because of the high cost associated with immunoprophylaxis and its lack of reducing RSV-related mortality.
IC Bridge Fault Modeling for IP Blocks Using Neural Network-Based VHDL Saboteurs

This paper presents a new bridge fault model, suitable for IP blocks, that is based on a multiple layer feedforward neural network and implemented within the framework of a VHDL saboteur cell. Empirical evidence and experimental results show that it satisfies a prescribed set of bridge fault model criteria better than any existing approach. The new model computes bridged node voltages and propagation delay times with due attention to surrounding circuit elements. This is especially significant since, with the exception of full analog defect simulation, no other technique even attempts to model the delay effects of bridge defects. Yet, compared to these analog simulations, the new approach is several orders of magnitude faster and, for a 0.35u cell library, is able to compute bridged node voltages with an average error near 0.006 volts and propagation delay times with an average error near 14 ps. Furthermore, dealing with a concept that has not previously been considered in related research, the new model is validated with respect to deep-submicron technologies for limited gate-count circuit modules.
A teleconferencing system with high-speed stream mixing for voice over IP

This paper presents a VoIP teleconferencing service that does not required expensive equipment and that can be administrated on a user level. The system is designed and developed so as to be independent of the user environment and to offer high QoS by reducing processing delay. This is achieved through the introduction of a high-speed mixing method to synchronize and mix RTP voice streams. The performance of a trial implementation of a teleconferencing server using this service is evaluated, and its effectiveness is confirmed.
SeMiNAS: A Secure Middleware for Wide-Area Network-Attached Storage

Utility computing is being gradually realized as exemplified by cloud computing. Outsourcing computing and storage to global-scale cloud providers benefits from high accessibility, flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. However, users are uneasy outsourcing the storage of sensitive data due to security concerns. We address this problem by presenting SeMiNAS---an efficient middleware system that allows files to be securely outsourced to providers and shared among geo-distributed offices. SeMiNAS achieves end-to-end data integrity and confidentiality with a highly efficient authenticated-encryption scheme. SeMiNAS leverages advanced NFSv4 features, including compound procedures and data-integrity extensions, to minimize extra network round trips caused by security meta-data. SeMiNAS also caches remote files locally to reduce accesses to providers over WANs. We designed, implemented, and evaluated SeMiNAS, which demonstrates a small performance penalty of less than 26% and an occasional performance boost of up to 19% for Filebench workloads.
Clustering-Induced Attraction in Granular Mixtures of Rods and Spheres

Depletion-induced aggregation of rods enhanced by clustering is observed to produce a novel model of attractive pairs of rods separated by a line of spheres in a quasi-2D, vertically-shaken, granular gas of rods and spheres. We show that the stability of these peculiar granular aggregates increases as a function of shaking intensity. Velocity distributions of spheres inside and outside of a pair of rods trapping a line of spheres show a clear suppression of the momentum acquired by the trapped spheres. The condensed phase formed between the rods is caused by a clustering instability of the trapped spheres, enhanced by a vertical guidance produced by the confining rods. The liberated area corresponding to direct excluded-volume pairs and indirect depletion-aggregated pairs is measured as a function of time. The stability of rod pairs mediated by spheres reveals an attraction comparable in strength to the one purely induced by depletion forces.
Balanced Population Stochastic Variational Inference

Latent variable models are important tools to infer the underlying structure of a set of data. When we condition on observed data in Bayesian inference, we implicitly assume that the modeling assumptions are true and that the data can be considered a representative draw from the model. However, realistic data rarely agrees with these modeling assumptions. Especially when the observed data is highly imbalanced, inference will commonly result in redundant latent structures representing highly populated data clusters and miss the information contained in the scarce clusters. In this work, we propose a principled and scalable way to handle imbalanced data. We call our approach Balanced Population Stochastic Variational Inference (BP-SVI). Building on SVI, we use the Determinantal Point Process (DPP) to draw diversified mini-batches from the observed data set under the assumption that the observed data are an imbalanced realization of a true population. We show that this results in a more representative latent representation. From a theoretical side, our approach can be considered an instance of population Bayesian methods which were recently proposed for Bayesian inference on streams. While BP-SVI is applicable to a broad class of latent variable models, here we demonstrate how to use BP-SVI on Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) as an example. Experiments are performed on both synthetic data and real-life news data showing clear improved performance on latent structure learning.
The Molecular Biology of Vestibular Schwannomas and Its Association with Hearing Loss: A Review

Hearing loss is the most common symptom in patients with vestibular schwannoma (VS). In the past, compressive mechanisms caused by the tumoral mass and its growth have been regarded as the most likely causes of the hearing loss associated with VS. Interestingly, new evidence proposes molecular mechanisms as an explanation for such hearing loss. Among the molecular mechanisms proposed are methylation of TP73, negative expression of cyclin D1, expression of B7-H1, increased expression of the platelet-derived growth factor A, underexpression of PEX5L, RAD54B, and PSMAL, and overexpression of CEA. Many molecular mechanisms are involved in vestibular schwannoma development; we review some of these mechanisms with special emphasis on hearing loss associated with vestibular schwannoma.
On the E ectiveness of Code Reordering Algorithms for theAlpha and IA32 Architectures

The impact of instruction cache misses and branch mispredictions on performance is becoming increasingly important for processors that issue multiple instructions per cycle. Mechanisms that address these two sources of performance degradation need to be studied and re ned. In this paper, we consider the e ects of one such mechanism, namely code reordering algorithms. We evaluate the performance improvements of three variations of the Pettis and Hansen code reordering algorithm on two instruction set architectures: RISC Alpha and CISC IA32. We show that the algorithms lead to substantial improvements in the fall-through rate of branches which results in decreases in instruction cache miss rates and branch mispredictions. We show that the improvement in fall-through rate and branch prediction is comparable in both ISA's but that the relative improvement in the instruction cache miss rate is higher on the IA32 architecture. This work was supported in part by NSF Grant CCR-9401689, by Intel Corp. and by a fellowship from National Semiconductor
OLSR power consumption reduction using Game theory

In this work, we investigate the power saving of method called Game Theoretical OLSR (gOLSR) [10] in MANET, with two types of the underlying MAC protocol namely, IEEE802.11 and Sensor Medium Access Control (SMAC). By applying gOLSR, every node has to play the game when HELLO and TC interval are expired and chooses its strategy to “Update” or “Not Update” the HELLO and TC messages in each round of game. The performance is measured using nodes' Average Power Consumption in transmission and reception states. It is found that gOLSR can reduce the nodes' Average Power Consumption in network.