Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Different Choices of Drinking Water Source and Different Health Risks in a Rural Population Living Near a Lead/Zinc Mine in Chenzhou City, Southern China

This study aimed to describe the households’ choices of drinking water sources, and evaluate the risk of human exposure to heavy metals via different drinking water sources in Chenzhou City of Hunan Province, Southern China. A cross-sectional face-to-face survey of 192 householders in MaTian and ZhuDui village was conducted. The concentrations of heavy metals in their drinking water sources were analyzed. Carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk assessment was performed according to the method recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In total, 52.60% of the households used hand-pressed well water, and 34.89% used barreled water for drinking. In total, 6.67% of the water samples exceeded the Chinese drinking water standards. The total health risk of five metals is 5.20 × 10−9~3.62 × 10−5. The total health risk of five metals was at acceptable levels for drinking water sources. However, the total risk of using hand-pressed well water’s highest value is 6961 times higher than the risk of using tap water. Household income level was significantly associated with drinking water choices. Arsenic (As) and lead (Pb) are priority controlled pollutants in this region. Using safe drinking water (tap water, barreled water and so on) can remarkably reduce the risk of ingesting heavy metals.
Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Cabbage with Minimized Pesticide Residues in Southern Benin

Cabbage (Brassicaceae) is one of the most frequently consumed exotic vegetables in Benin and also the most affected by insects. To meet growing food demand, farmers rely heavily on synthetic pesticides that are harmful for themselves, consumers and the environment. Integrated pest management has been proposed as the means to improve vegetable productivity and quality in many developing countries. One approach is to substitute pesticides with physical barriers to insects, like nets. Here, we assess consumers’ perceptions about cabbage and their purchasing behavior towards cabbage that was produced using these nets in two major cities in Benin. Results indicate that consumers are aware of the health risks associated with intensive use of pesticides but were not able to recognize the quality difference between cabbage produced under nets from those using pesticides. All consumers were willing to pay a price premium for cabbage with minimized pesticides residues compared with conventionally produced cabbage, the average premium being 38%. Women, older, highly educated consumers and those able to distinguish cabbage qualities were willing to pay the most. We suggest that farmers will obtain higher prices if their production of cabbage with preferred characteristics is accompanied by an improved marketing strategy.
Activation of cytomegalovirus-specific CD8+ T-cell response by antibody-mediated peptide-major histocompatibility class I complexes

Imposing antigenicity on tumor cells is a key step toward successful cancer-immunotherapy. A cytomegalovirus-derived peptide recombinantly fused to a major histocompatibility class I complex and a monoclonal antibody can be targeted to tumor cells by antibody-mediated delivery and activate a strong and specific CD8+ T cell response.
Phospholipase D2 Mediates Acute Aldosterone Secretion in Response to Angiotensin Ii in Adrenal Glomerulosa Cells Spironolactone Improves Glucose and Lipid Metabolism by Ameliorating Hepatic Steatosis and Inflammation and Suppressing Enhanced Gluconeogenesis Induced by High-fat and High-fructose Diet

In primary bovine adrenal glomerulosa cells, the signaling enzyme phospholipase D (PLD) is suggested to mediate priming, the enhancement of aldosterone secretion after pretreatment with and removal of angiotensin II (AngII), via the formation of persistently elevated diacylglycerol (DAG). To further explore PLD's role in priming, glomerulosa cells were pretreated with an exogenous bacterial PLD. Using this approach, phosphatidic acid (PA) is generated on the outer, rather than the inner, leaflet of the plasma membrane. Although PA is not readily internalized, the PA is nonetheless rapidly hydrolyzed by cell-surface PA phosphatases to DAG, which efficiently flips to the inner leaflet and accesses the cell interior. Pretreatment with bacterial PLD resulted in priming upon subsequent AngII exposure, supporting a role of DAG in this process, because the increase in DAG persisted after exogenous PLD removal. To determine the PLD isoform mediating aldosterone secretion, and presumably priming, primary glomerulosa cells were infected with adenoviruses expressing GFP, PLD1, PLD2, or lipase-inactive mutants. Overexpressed PLD2 increased aldosterone secretion by approximately 3-fold over the GFPinfected control under basal conditions, with a significant enhancement to about 16-fold over the basal value upon AngII stimulation. PLD activity was also increased basally and upon stimulation with AngII. In contrast, PLD1 overexpression had little effect on aldosterone secretion, despite the fact that PLD activity was enhanced. In both cases, the lipase-inactive PLD mutants showed essentially no effect on PLD activity or aldosterone secretion. Our results suggest that PLD2 is the isoform that mediates aldosterone secretion and likely priming. ABSTRACT Recent evidence suggests that treatment with mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist suppressed local inflammation in vascular tissues or cardiomyocytes; therefore, we examined the effect of spironolactone on glucose and lipid metabolism in a mouse model with diet-induced diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. C57BL/6 mice were fed either the control diet, 60% fat diet with 30% fructose water (HFFD), or HFFD with spironolactone for 8 wk. HFFD mice demonstrated apparent phenotypes of metabolic syndrome, including insulin resistance, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and fatty liver. Although treatment with spironolactone did not affect the increased calorie intake and body weight by HFFD, the increments of epididymal fat weight, blood pressure, serum triglyceride, free fatty acids, leptin, and total cholesterol levels were significantly suppressed. Elevation of blood glucose during glucose and insulin tolerance tests in HFFD mice was significantly lowered by spironolactone. Notably, increased glucose levels during pyruvate tolerance test in HFFD mice were almost completely ameliorated …
The Reverse Shock of SNR 1987A

The reverse shock of supernova remnant (SNR) 1987A emits in Hα and Lyα, and comes in two flavors: surface and interior The former is due to direct, impact excitation of hydrogen atoms crossing the shock, while the latter is the result of charge transfer reactions between these atoms and slower, post‐shock ions. Interior and surface emission are analogous to the broad‐ and narrow‐line components observed in Balmer‐dominated SNRs. I summarize a formalism to derive line intensities and ratios in these SNRs, as well as a study of the transition zone in supernova shocks; I include an appendix where I derive in detail the ratio of broad to narrow Hα emission. Further study of the reverse shock emission from SNR 1987A will allow us to predict when it will vanish and farther investigate the origins of the interior emission.
What Do Argument Diagrams Tell Us About Students ’ Aptitude Or Experience ? A Statistical Analysis In An Ill-Defined Domain ∗

In ill-defined domains, argumentation skills are essential in order to define problems and to present, justify, and evaluate solutions. In well-defined domains there exist accepted methods of characterizing student arguments as good or bad. This is not always possible in ill-defined domains, where competing arguments are often acceptable. In this paper, we use a set of statistical analysis methods to investigate whether, despite the lack of an “ideal solution,”, student-produced argument diagrams can be diagnostic in that they can be used to reliably classify students into novices and experts or high and low aptitude. Our analysis, based on data collected during three studies with the LARGO ITS, suggests that indeed, argument graphs created by different student populations differ considerably, particularly with respect to the completeness and “connectedness” of graphs, and can thus potentially be used to adapt the system to a particular student’s needs.
Sharing everyday places I go while preserving privacy

Several new location-based information applications reveal sets of places that an individual frequently visits. This practice gives rise to related privacy questions and new interface needs. For example, while electronic system users want to be in control of private data and know how those who have it will employ it [10], there are no design guidelines for garnering informed consent for using place-based information. In addition, the set of places a person frequents may reveal information such as: 1) when they are likely to go to a place, or 2) within close proximity, where they live. If a user considers this information private, they may still inadvertently disclose it: humans have difficulty comprehending aggregate effects of their actions [1]. A system could therefore deliver benefit by identifying notable risks and informing the user. This research plan will address these key issues and will ultimately inform privacy interface design.
Area and search space control for technology mapping

We present a technology mapping procedure in which an area-delay trade-off curve is constructed at each node using matches found for different decompositions of the node. This information is used effectively to find implementations that meet delay constraints while reducing area. The procedure combines state-of-the-art mapping procedures, in which a graph covering is applied to a special graph structure which succinctly encodes many representations. Major challenges were avoiding memory explosion and finding good cost estimations. The combined procedure outperforms the best result among any of the procedures used separately.
Lyα Radiation from Collapsing Protogalaxies. II. Observational Evidence for Gas Infall

We model the spectra and surface brightness distributions for the Lyα radiation expected from protogalaxies that are caught in the early stages of their assembly. We use the results of a companion paper to characterize the radiation emerging from spherically collapsing gas clouds. We then modify these spectra to incorporate the effect of subsequent resonant scattering in the IGM. Using these models, we interpret a number of recent observations of extended Lyα blobs (LABs) at high redshift. We suggest, based on the angular size, energetics, relatively shallow surface brightness profiles, and double-peaked spectra, that several of these LABs may be associated with collapsing protogalaxies. We suggest two follow-up observations to diagnose the presence of gas infall. High-S/N spectra of LABs should reveal a preferential flattening of the surface brightness profile at the red side of the line. Complementary imaging of the blobs at redshifted Hα wavelengths should reveal the intrinsic Lyα emissivity and allow its separation from radiative transfer effects. We show that Lyα scattering by infalling gas can reproduce the observed spectrum of the Steidel et al. LAB2 as accurately as a recently proposed outflow model. Finally, we find similar evidence for infall in the spectra of pointlike Lyα emitters. The presence of scattering by the infalling gas implies that the intrinsic Lyα luminosities and derived quantities, such as the star formation rate, in these objects may have been underestimated by about an order of magnitude.
Breastfeeding pattern and its effect on cognitive and physical development among toddlers

A study to correlate the breastfeeding pattern and its effect on cognitive and physical development among toddlers at selected balwadis in Trichy, 2010 – 2011. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: 1. To assess the cognitive and physical development of exclusively breastfed toddlers. 2. To assess the cognitive and physical development of partially breastfed toddlers. 3. To find out relationship between cognitive and physical development of exclusively breastfed and partially breastfed toddlers. 4. To compare cognitive and physical development of exclusively breastfed and partially breastfed toddlers. 5. To find out association of selected background variables with cognitive development of exclusively breastfed toddlers. 6. To find out association of selected background variables with cognitive development of partially breastfed toddlers. 7. To find out association of selected background variables with physical development (BMI and MAC) of exclusively breastfed toddlers. 8. To find out association of selected background variables with physical development (BMI and MAC) of partially breastfed toddlers. MAJOR FINDINGS: 1. There was a significant positive correlation between the cognitive and physical development [body mass index and mid arm circumference] of exclusively and partially breastfed toddlers. 2. The mean exclusively breastfed toddlers’ cognitive development and physical development (BMI AND MAC) was higher than the mean partially breastfed toddlers’ and the obtained ‘t’value was not significant. 3. There was no significant association between the selected background variables and cognitive development of exclusively and partially breastfed toddlers. 4. Significant association between the physical development (body mass index) of exclusively breastfed toddler and background variable only for the birth order and there is no significant association found between the selected background variable with physical development (Mid Arm Circumference) of exclusively breastfed toddler. 5. There was no significant association between the selected background variables with physical development (body mass index and Mid Arm Circumference) of partially breastfed toddlers. CONCLUSION: Adequate nutrition during early years of life is of paramount importance for growth, development and long term health through adulthood. The essential fatty acids present in breast milk are solely responsible for the cognitive development in the children . So exclusively breastfed toddlers were shown excellent cognitive functioning. The physical development (BMI and MAC) of toddlers not only depends upon breastfeeding, it mostly relies on complementary feeding introduced at the correct age. The study concluded that the longer duration of breastfeeding will improve the cognitive development and physical development.
Stimulatory effect of oral administration of green tea or caffeine on ultraviolet light-induced increases in epidermal wild-type p53, p21(WAF1/CIP1), and apoptotic sunburn cells in SKH-1 mice.

Pretreatment of SKH-1 mice with p.o. -administered 0.6% green tea (6 mg of lyophilized tea solids/ml) or 0.044% caffeine (0.44 mg/ml; concentration present in 0.6% green tea) for 2 weeks enhanced UV-induced increases in the number of p53-positive cells, p21(WAF1/CIP1)-positive cells, and apoptotic sunburn cells in the epidermis. These effects of p.o. -administered green tea or caffeine on early adaptive responses to UV provide the first demonstration of in vivo up-regulation of a tumor suppressor gene by a chemopreventive agent. The stimulatory effect of green tea and caffeine on UV-induced increases in the number of p53-positive cells, p21(WAF1/CIP1)-positive cells, and apoptotic sunburn cells may play a role in the inhibitory effects of tea and caffeine on UV-induced carcinogenesis.
Automatic Recognition of Lyrics in Singing

The paper considers the task of recognizing phonemes and words from a singing input by using a phonetic hidden Markov model recognizer. The system is targeted to both monophonic singing and singing in polyphonic music. A vocal separation algorithm is applied to separate the singing from polyphonic music. Due to the lack of annotated singing databases, the recognizer is trained using speech and linearly adapted to singing. Global adaptation to singing is found to improve singing recognition performance. Further improvement is obtained by gender-specific adaptation. We also study adaptation with multiple base classes defined by either phonetic or acoustic similarity. We test phoneme-level and word-level n-gram language models. The phoneme language models are trained on the speech database text. The large-vocabulary word-level language model is trained on a database of textual lyrics. Two applications are presented. The recognizer is used to align textual lyrics to vocals in polyphonic music, obtaining an average error of 0.94 seconds for line-level alignment. A query-by-singing retrieval application based on the recognized words is also constructed; in 57% of the cases, the first retrieved song is the correct one.
Homeobox genes and vertebrate eye development.

During eye development, tissues that begin as apparently homogeneous populations of cells become subdivided into specialized compartments. For example, the optic vesicle, which begins as an undifferentiated single layer of neuroepithelial cells, eventually forms all the cell types of the retina, the two layers of the ciliary epithelium, the retinal pigmented epithelium, the iris epithelia, and the iris sphincter and dilator muscles. Similarly, the unspecialized neural crest mesenchyme cells that surround the optic vesicle early in development later form the corneal endothelium, corneal stroma, trabecular meshwork, iris stroma, ciliary body stroma, ciliary muscle, choroid, and much of the sclera. Lens, corneal epithelium, and conjunctival epithelium are derived from a continuous layer of head ectoderm. Cell interactions responsible for the spatial specification of these ocular tissues is of central importance in normal and abnormal ocular development. Recently, homeobox genes, which encode DNAbinding regulatory proteins, have been implicated in the regional specialization of the developing brain and spinal cord, as well as other parts of the body. The mRN As for some homeobox genes are expressed early in eye development, and their distribution often defines the future location of specific ocular structures. Mutations in one homeobox gene cause the loss of certain ocular structures or the complete absence of eyes. This article describes the properties of homeobox genes and the proteins they encode and indicates their potential importance in the development and function of the eye.
On the relevance of nonlinear analysis of time series associated to CT kidney images

The goal of this paper is to present a set of algorithms — based on nonlinear time series analysis methods, use them for discrimination between normal and modified kidney tissue and conclude if this analysis is trustworthy. A set of 100 CT images of normal and benign/malign affected renal tissue was used. The classification procedure implies the association of a time series to every CT image and computation of the correlation dimensions of the reconstructed attractors over a range of embedding spaces. The paper concludes that the properties of the associated time series can be used to discriminate between normal and modified tissue. This classification tool can be utilized as diagnostic confirmation support and the results can be improved by a further added database.
A Distributed Credential Storage System

Password databases of several high pro le companies such as Sony, LinkedIn, and Adobe have been compromised in recent years. These security breaches a ect millions of users and result in millions of dollars in damage along with a lot of negative publicity. Despite the obvious security hazards, companies often store passwords in clear text or hashed but unsalted form. As computing power becomes cheaper, even salted passwords are becoming vulnerable. We designed a scalable distributed server-side password storage system with the objective of forcing adversaries to compromise multiple servers in order to obtain any sensitive information.
The Throughput Order of Ad Hoc Networks Employing Network Coding and Broadcasting

Gupta and Kumar established that the per node throughput of ad hoc networks with multi-pair unicast traffic scales as lambda(n)=Theta(l/radic(nlogn)), thus indicating that network performance does not scale well with an increasing number of nodes. However, the model of Gupta and Kumar did not allow for the possibility of network coding and broadcasting, and recent work has suggested that such techniques have the potential to greatly improve network throughput. Here, for multiple unicast flows in a random topology under the protocol communication model of Gupta and Kumar, we show that for arbitrary network coding and broadcasting in a two-dimensional random topology that the throughput scales as lambda(n)=Theta(1/nr(n)), where n is the total number of nodes and r(n) is the transmission radius. When r(n) is set to ensure connectivity, lambda(n)=Theta(1/radic(nlogn)), which is of the same order as the lower bound for the throughput without network coding and broadcasting; in other words, network coding and broadcasting at most provides a constant factor improvement in the throughput. This result is also extended to one-dimensional and three-dimensional random deployment topologies, where it is shown that lambda(n)=Theta(1/n) for the one-dimensional topology and lambda(n)=Theta(1/cube root of (nlog 2n)) for three-dimensional networks
Mitochondrial Arginase II Modulates Nitric-Oxide Synthesis through Nonfreely Exchangeable l-Arginine Pools in Human Endothelial Cells

Reduced synthesis of nitric oxide (NO) contributes to the endothelial dysfunction and may be related to limited availability of l-arginine, the common substrate of constitutive nitric-oxide synthase (NOS) and cytosolic arginase I and mitochondrial arginase II. To determine whether arginases modulate the endothelial NO synthesis, we investigated the effects of the competitive arginase inhibitor Nω-hydroxy-nor-l-arginine (Nor-NOHA) on the activity of NOS, arginases, and l-arginine transporter and on NO release at surface of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). In unstimulated cells, Nor-NOHA dose-dependently reduced the arginase activity with maximal inhibition at 20 μM. When HUVECs were stimulated by thrombin without extracellular l-arginine, Nor-NOHA dose-dependently increased the NOS activity and the NO release with maximal effects at 20 μM. Extracellular l-arginine also dose-dependently increased NO release and arginase activity. When HUVECs were stimulated by thrombin in the presence of 100 μM l-arginine, NOS activity and NO release were similar in untreated and Nor-NOHA-treated cells. However, despite activation of l-arginine uptake, the inhibition of arginase activity by Nor-NOHA was still significant. The depletion of freely exchangeable l-arginine pools with extracellular l-lysine did not prevent Nor-NOHA from increasing the NO release. This indicates the presence of pools, which are accessible to NOS and arginase, but not exchangeable. Interestingly, the mitochondrial arginase II was constitutively expressed, whereas the cytosolic arginase I was barely detectable in HUVECs. These data suggest that endothelial NO synthesis depends on the activity of arginase II in mitochondria and l-arginine carriers in cell membrane.
Steady Patterns

Skypatterns are an elegant answer to the pattern explosion issue, when a set of measures can be provided. Skypatterns for all possible measure combinations can be explored thanks to recent work on the skypattern cube. However, this leads to too many skypatterns, where it is difficult to quickly identify which ones are more important. First, we introduce a new notion of pattern steadiness which measures the conservation of the skypattern property across the skypattern cube, allowing to see which are the "most universal" skypatterns. Then, we extended this notion to partitions of the dataset, and show in our experiments that this both allows to discover especially stable skypatterns, and identify interesting differences between the partitions.