Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Green Tea Polyphenols and Sulfasalazine have Parallel Anti-Inflammatory Properties in Colitis Models

Background: There is no cure for autoimmune chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD patients commonly use complementary and alternative medications of which the safety, efficacy, and interaction with standard-of-care therapies are not fully known. Thus the consequences can become life-threatening. Sulfasalazine commonly used in IBD, potentially has severe adverse effects, including infertility, pulmonary fibrosis, lack of response, and ultimately patients may require intestinal resection. We hypothesized that green tea polyphenols (GrTP, EGCG) and sulfasalazine have similar anti-inflammatory properties. Methods: BALB/c mice received Dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) to induce colitis (ulcerative colitis model). Exposure of IL-10 deficient mice (BALB/c-background) to normal microbiota provoked enterocolitis (mimics Crohn’s disease). Animals were treated with agents incorporated into daily diets. Control animals received sham treatment. Results: DSS-treated animals developed severe bloody diarrhea and colitis (score 0–4, 3.2 ± 0.27). IL-10 deficient mice developed severe enterocolitis as manifested by diarrhea, rectal prolapse, and colonic lesions. Animals tolerated regimens (GrTP, EGCG, sulfasalazine) with no major side effects, and further developed less severe colitis. IL-10 deficient animals became moribund on high dose, while tolerated low and Mid doses with significant improved symptoms of enterocolitis. GrTP, EGCG, and sulfasalazine significantly ameliorated colonic damage and histological scores in treated animals in a similar manner (GrTP vs. DSS p < 0.05; EGCG, sulfasalazine vs. DSS p < 0.01). The inflammatory markers TNFα (3-fold), IL-6 (14-fold), and serum amyloid A (40-fold) increased in colitic animals and significantly decreased with treatment regiments. In contrast, circulatory leptin levels decreased in colitic animals (twofold). EGCG additionally reduced leptin levels (p < 0.01) while GrTP and sulfasalazine had no effect on leptin levels (p < 0.05). Hepatic and colonic antioxidants were significantly depleted in colitic animals and treatment regiments significantly restored antioxidants levels. Conclusion: GrTP and EGCG improved antioxidants levels and attenuated severity of colitis analogous to sulfasalazine. Future studies will reveal whether polyphenols can become an alternative/additive therapy for IBD therapy in humans.
Adaptive Key Frames Selection Algorithms for Summarizing Video Data

As multimedia applications are rapidly spread at an ever-increasing rate, the call for efficient and effective methodologies for organizing and manipulating these data becomes a necessity. One of the basic problems that encounters such systems is to find efficient ways to summarize the huge amount of data involved. In this work two sets of algorithms are proposed in order to effectively select key frames from segmented video shots. The algorithms in both sets apply a two-level adaptation mechanism. The first level is done based on the size of the input MPEG file while the second level is performed on a shot-by-shot basis in order to account for the fact that different shots have different levels of activity inside them. Experimental results show the efficiency and robustness of the proposed algorithms in selecting the near optimal set of key frames required to represent each shot in the video stream.
Prenatal Stress, Glucocorticoids and the Programming of Adult Disease

Numerous clinical studies associate an adverse prenatal environment with the development of cardio-metabolic disorders and neuroendocrine dysfunction, as well as an increased risk of psychiatric diseases in later life. Experimentally, prenatal exposure to stress or excess glucocorticoids in a variety of animal models can malprogram offspring physiology, resulting in a reduction in birth weight and subsequently increasing the likelihood of disorders of cardiovascular function, glucose homeostasis, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activity and anxiety-related behaviours in adulthood. During fetal development, placental 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (11β-HSD2) provides a barrier to maternal glucocorticoids. Reduced placental 11β-HSD2 in human pregnancy correlates with lower birth weight and higher blood pressure in later life. Similarly, in animal models, inhibition or knockout of placental 11β-HSD2 lowers offspring birth weight, in part by reducing glucose delivery to the developing fetus in late gestation. Molecular mechanisms thought to underlie the programming effects of early life stress and glucocorticoids include epigenetic changes in target chromatin, notably affecting tissue-specific expression of the intracellular glucocorticoid receptor (GR). As such, excess glucocorticoids in early life can permanently alter tissue glucocorticoid signalling, effects which may have short-term adaptive benefits but increase the risk of later disease.
Risk Factors for HIV Infection among Young Thai Men during 2005–2009

Background Thailand is one of several countries with a continuing generalized HIV epidemic. We evaluated the risk factors for HIV prevalence among 17–29 year old men conscripted by a random process into the Royal Thai Army (RTA) in 8 cohorts from 2005–2009. Methods A series of case-cohort studies were conducted among the male RTA conscripts who had been tested for HIV seroprevalence after they were inducted. Men who were HIV positive were compared with a systematic random sample (1 in 30–40) of men from the total population of new conscripts. Each subject completed a detailed risk factor questionnaire. Results A total of 240,039 young Thai men were conscripted into the RTA and were screened for HIV seroprevalence between November 2005 and May 2009. Of 1,208 (0.5%) HIV positive cases, 584 (48.3%) men were enrolled into the study. There were 7,396 men who were enrolled as a comparison group. Among conscripts who had an education lower than a college-level, the independent risk factors for HIV infection were age in years (AOR 1.38, 95% CI 1.28–1.48), a history of sex with another man (AOR 3.73, 95% CI 2.70–5.13), HCV infection (AOR 3.89, 95% CI 2.56–5.90), and a history of sex with a female sex worker (FSW) (AOR 1.35, 95% CI 1.10–1.66). Among conscripts who had a college degree, the independent risk factor for HIV infection was a history of sex with another man (AOR 23.04, 95% CI 10.23–51.90). Numbers of sexual partners increased and the age at first sex, as well as the use of condoms for sex with a FSW decreased in successive cohorts. Conclusion The HIV seroprevalence among cohorts of 17–29 years old men has remained at about 0.5% overall during 2005–2009. The most significant behavior associated with HIV prevalence was a history of sex with another man. Our data indicate continuing acquisition of HIV among young men in Thailand in recent years, especially among men with a history of same sex behavior.
Increased hyaluronidase levels in breast tumor metastases

Hyaluronidase, a matrix‐degrading enzyme, was assayed in extracts from breast primary tumors and regional metastases using a pool of human sera as a standard. Optimal activities of tumor extracts and serum were found for concentrations of 0.15–0.20 M NaCl in pH 3.8–4.0 buffer. In evaluating contamination by serum due to vascular proliferation, we expressed our results as the ratio of the entire activity (mU/l extract) on serum albumin content of tumors (g/l). Median (interquartile range) activities were 9.02 (6.04–14.34) for primary tumors and 37.36 (24.06–99.63) mU/g albumin for metastases. The difference was significant. Zymographic analysis showed that 3 bands of activity were detected which corresponded to 68, 53 and 49 kDa for tumoral hyaluronidase. The same pattern was observed for cellular extracts of breast cancer cell line CAL51, demonstrating that hyaluronidase detected in tumor extracts had mainly a cellular origin. Our results suggest that hyaluronidase may be involved in the metastatic process. Int. J. Cancer 73:327–331, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Dis per sion and Shear Modulus Mea sure ments of Por cine Liver M

A nar row-band ul tra sonic shear-wave im ag ing tech nique for es ti mat ing phase speed was ap plied to fresh and ther mally dam aged por cine liver in vi tro. Two con sti tu tive mod els were ap plied to the mea sure ments to rep re sent rhe o log i cal be hav ior of the tis sue and es ti mate the com plex shear modulus at fre quen cies be tween 50 and 300 Hz. Our re sults were com pared to sim i lar val ues from the lit er a ture to as sess how well mod els rep re sent liver mea sure ments over a range of shear-wave fre quen cies, ex per i men tal con di tions and mam ma lian spe cies. We found re mark able con sis tency in some pa ram e ters but not in oth ers, sug gest ing that the Kel vin-Voigt model com monly ap plied in elas tic ity-im ag ing sit u a tions is rep re sen ta tive of tis sue dis per sion but the de scrip tion it of fers is in com plete. Data are con sis tent with the the ory that viscoelastic con trast is more likely due to changes in pro tein and other biomolecular-scale struc tures than from tis sue anat omy larger than a cell. Dis per sion mea sure ments at fre quen cies be tween 0.5-1000 kHz are needed to more com pletely eval u ate mod els for the viscoelastic be hav ior liver.
Dependability Analysis of Asynchronous Radio Duty Cycling Protocols

Radio duty cycling (RDC) is a method for making resource constrained Internet-of-Things devices more energy efficient. RDC protocols achieve energy efficiency by keeping their radio off most of the time. Asynchronous RDC (ARDC) forms a subclass in which devices are not synchronized. ARDC behavior may lead to reliability and predictability problems for broadcast and unicast message transmissions in the MAC layer when the parameters of the protocol are not carefully selected, which we demonstrate by concrete examples. We investigate the dependability issues of generic ARDC protocols and provide analytical results for parameter settings that enhance dependability, while maintaining performance of the ARDC protocols in terms of energy efficiency and link delay. We also provide an analytical comparison of two widely accepted protocols, ContikiMAC and IEEE 802.15. 4e Coordinated Sampled Listening.
Data mining in insurance claims (DMICS) two-way mining for extreme values

In insurance claims extreme values are inevitable and cannot be discarded for predictive model building. Moreover, settling insurance claims involves many objections, human sentiments and unseen factors which are hard to be estimated. This simple fact presents the greatest challenge to analysts working on such problems. This paper presents an optimal approach to minimize the effects of this problem on predictive analysis. The data in question includes insurance settlement cases. The proposed approach firstly deals with extreme values by classifying them separately and then applies machine learning models for predicting settlement amount for each claim. This two way mining increases the overall accuracy in predicting settlement amount for insurance claims.
Adenovirus-Mediated Expression of Antisense Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor and Antisense Cathepsin B Inhibits Tumor Growth, Invasion, and Angiogenesis in Gliomas

We have shown previously that urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) and cathepsin B are overexpressed during glioma progression, particularly at the leading edge of the tumor. In the present study, we simultaneously down-regulated uPAR and cathepsin B in SNB19 glioma cell monolayer or SNB19 spheroids using an adenoviral vector carrying antisense uPAR and antisense cathepsin B and a combination of these genes as determined by Western blot analysis. The Ad-uPAR-Cath B-infected cells revealed a marked reduction in tumor growth and invasiveness as compared with the parental and vector controls. In vitro and in vivo angiogenic assays demonstrated inhibition of capillary-like structure formation and microvessel formation after Ad-uPAR-Cath B infection of SNB19 cells when compared with Ad-cytomegalovirus (CMV)-infected or mock-infected controls. Furthermore, using a near infrared fluorescence probe, in vivo imaging for cathepsin B indicated low/undetectable levels of fluorescence after injection of the Ad-uPAR-Cath B construct into pre-established s.c. tumors as compared with Ad-CMV-treated and untreated tumors. The effect with bicistronic construct (Ad-uPAR-Cath B) was much higher than with single (Ad-uPAR/Ad-Cath B) constructs. These results indicate that the down-regulation of cathepsin B and uPAR plays a significant role in inhibiting tumor growth, invasion, and angiogenesis. Hence, the targeting of these two proteases may be a potential therapy for brain tumors and other cancers.
Effect of the surface treatment in polyurethane and natural leather for the footwear industry

This aim of this paper is to analyse the peel strength of an adhesive joint with various types of surface treatments in order to contribute to the research and development of adhesives for the footwear industry. In the shoe industry, the adhesive properties are very important to ensure the quality of manufacture of the shoe. To better understand the behaviour of the adhesive joint, it is important to measure the peel resistance of the adhesive and use it to adjust the manufacturing process. For this work, joints were manufactured using natural leather, polyurethane (PU) and a solvent based polyurethane non structural adhesive. The influences of the application of physical surface treatments and/or primer on substrates in the peel strength of a T joint were analyzed. Several tests were used to characterize the surfaces of the substrates, including Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and contact angle measurements. It was found that certain surface treatments are required to obtain an adhesive joint capable of satisfying the minimum requirements of the shoes manufacturing sector.
A Mutually-Dependent Hadamard Kernel for Modelling Latent Variable Couplings

We introduce a novel kernel that models input-dependent couplings across multiple latent processes. The pairwise joint kernel measures covariance along inputs and across different latent signals in a mutually-dependent fashion. A latent correlation Gaussian process (LCGP) model combines these non-stationary latent components into multiple outputs by an input-dependent mixing matrix. Probit classification and support for multiple observation sets are derived by Variational Bayesian inference. Results on several datasets indicate that the LCGP model can recover the correlations between latent signals while simultaneously achieving state-of-the-art performance. We highlight the latent covariances with an EEG classification dataset where latent brain processes and their couplings simultaneously emerge from the model.
Carbon Cycling in Wetland Forest Soils

Introduct ion 3 1 1 Carbon Cycling in Forested Wetland So i l s . 3 12 Carbon Fluxes Inputs . 3 13 Aboveground Organic Matter Production. 3 13 Belowground Organic Matter Product ion . 3 15 Soil C Pools in Wetland Forests . 315 Morphology a n d Distribution. 3 16 Forest-Soil C Pool Calculations. 3 17 Large-scale Estimates of Forested Wetland Soil C pools . 318 Carbon Fluxes Outputs. 319 Organic Matter Decomposition. 3 19 Carbon Losses as CO2. ,321 Carbon Losses a s CH,. 322 Dissolved Organic Carbon . 323 Soil C Balance in M a n a g e d and Restored Wetland Forests. 323 Silviculture. 324 Restorat ion . 325 Perspectives 326 References 328
Localization of alpha 2-adrenergic receptor subtypes in the anterior segment of the human eye with selective antibodies.

PURPOSE To develop antibodies that selectively recognize each of the alpha 2-adrenergic receptor (AR) subtypes and to determine the expression and localization of these subtypes in the anterior segment of the human eye. METHODS Recent studies have shown that there are three subtypes of the alpha 2-ARs, termed alpha 2-C10 (alpha 2A), alpha 2-C2 (alpha 2B), and alpha 2-C4 (alpha 2C). Polymerase chain reaction was used to amplify portions of these receptors fused (in-frame) to a cDNA encoding glutathione-S-transferase (GST). The expressed fusion proteins were used to immunize chickens, and antibodies were generated. Immunofluorescence microscopy was used to localize the alpha 2-AR subtypes in sections of human and rabbit ciliary body. Polymerase chain reaction and dot blot hybridization were used to determine which subtypes were present in RNA from primary cultures of human nonpigmented epithelium (NPE) and rabbit iris-ciliary body (ICB). RESULTS Immunofluorescence microscopy of COS cells transfected with the alpha 2-AR subtypes showed that the antibodies raised against the GST-receptor fusion proteins specifically recognized their respective receptor subtypes. In the human ciliary body, alpha 2 B and alpha 2C immunoreactivity were present in the NPE and ciliary muscle. In the rabbit ciliary body, alpha 2A immunoreactivity also was present. Polymerase chain reaction and dot blot hybridization indicated that RNA encoding the alpha 2B and alpha 2C subtypes was present in human NPE and that RNA encoding all three subtypes was present in the rabbit ICB. CONCLUSIONS Multiple alpha 2-adrenergic subtypes are expressed in the ciliary body. In the human, alpha 2B and alpha 2C predominate, whereas all three are present in the rabbit. This could be important with respect to animal models of glaucoma and to the development of drugs for lowering intraocular pressure.
Spinal infections: diagnostic tests and imaging studies.

UNLABELLED Clinical signs and symptoms caused by spinal infections often are subtle and insidious; therefore, clinical suspicion in patients with nonmechanical pain is important in making the correct diagnosis in the early stage of disease. Serologic tests such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein are quite sensitive, but specificity is relatively low. Imaging tests include plain radiographs, radionuclide studies, computed tomography scan, and magnetic resonance imaging. Changes on plain radiographs appear at least 3 to 4 weeks after the onset of disease. Bone scan is a sensitive but not a specific test. Computed tomography provides structural details in the bone and intervertebral disc but magnetic resonance imaging is a superior imaging test for diagnosing infections earlier and more accurately. In many patients, percutaneous or open biopsy is required to make the definitive diagnosis of discitis or osteomyelitis and the organism responsible for the infection. Early and accurate diagnosis of spinal infections will lead to less invasive treatment for the patient. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Level V (Expert Opinion). Please see the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Influence of the frequency parameter on extracellular glutamate and γ‐aminobutyric acid in substantia nigra and globus pallidus during electrical stimulation of subthalamic nucleus in rats

High‐frequency stimulation (HFS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) proves to be an efficient treatment for alleviating motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the mechanisms of HFS underlying these clinical effects remain unknown. Using intracerebral microdialysis, we previously reported that HFS induces, in normal rats, a significant increase of extracellular glutamate (Glu) in the globus pallidus (GP in rats or GPe in primates) and the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr), whereas γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) was increased only in the SNr. Bradykinesia can be improved by STN stimulation in a frequency‐dependent manner, a plateau being reached around 130 Hz. The aim of the present study was to determine whether neurochemical changes are also frequency dependent. Electrical STN stimulation was applied at various frequencies (10, 60, 130, and 350 Hz) in normal rats. The results show that, for Glu, the amplitude of increase detected in GP and SNr is maximal at 130 Hz and is maintained at 350 Hz. No modifications of GABA were observed in GP whatever the frequency applied, whereas, in SNr, GABA increased from 60 to 350 Hz. Our results provide new neurochemical data implicating STN target structures in deep‐brain‐stimulation mechanisms. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Functional Significance of Type 1 Insulin-like Growth Factor-mediated Nuclear Translocation of the Insulin Receptor Substrate-1 and β-Catenin*

Previous work has shown that the transcriptional regulator β-catenin can translocate to the nuclei when cells are stimulated with the type 1 insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1). We show by immunocoprecipitation and by confocal microscopy that β-catenin binds to and co-localizes with the insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1), a docking protein for both the insulin and the IGF-1 receptors. IRS-1 is required for IGF-1-mediated nuclear translocation of β-catenin, resulting in the activation of the β-catenin target genes. IGF-1-mediated nuclear translocation of β-catenin is facilitated by the nuclear translocation of IRS-1. Both IRS-1 and β-catenin are recruited to the cyclin D1 promoter, an established target for β-catenin, but only IRS-1 is recruited to the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) promoter. UBF proteins (known to interact with both IRS-1 and β-catenin) are also detectable in the cyclin D1 and rDNA promoters. These results indicate that IRS-1 (activated by the IGF-1 receptor) is one of several proteins that regulate the subcellular localization and activity of β-catenin. The ability of IRS-1 to localize to both RNA polymerase II (with β-catenin) and RNA polymerase I-regulated promoters suggest an explanation for the effect of IRS-1 on both cell growth in size and cell proliferation. This possibility is supported by the demonstration that enforced nuclear localization of IRS-1 causes nuclear translocation of β-catenin and transformation of normal mouse embryo fibroblasts (colony formation in soft agar).
Label Distribution Learning

Although multi-label learning can deal with many problems with label ambiguity, it does not fit some real applications well where the overall distribution of the importance of the labels matters. This paper proposes a novel learning paradigm named label distribution learning (LDL) for such kind of applications. The label distribution covers a certain number of labels, representing the degree to which each label describes the instance. LDL is a more general learning framework which includes both single-label and multi-label learning as its special cases. This paper proposes six LDL algorithms in three ways: problem transformation, algorithm adaptation, and specialized algorithm design. In order to compare their performance, six evaluation measures are suggested for LDL algorithms, and the first batch of real-world label distribution datasets are prepared. Experimental results on the ten real-world datasets show clear advantage of the specialized algorithms, which indicates the importance of special design for the characteristics of the LDL problem.
Exact Isosurfaces for Marching Cubes

In this paper we study the exact contours of a piecewise trilinear scalar field. We show how to represent these contours exactly as trimmed surfaces of triangular rational cubic Bézier patches. As part of this, we introduce an extension of the marching cubes algorithm which gives a topologically exact triangular approximation of the contours for any case. Finally, we modify the exact contours to be globally G1 continuous without changing their topologies. We test the algorithm on both theoretical and practical data sets.