Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Market testing and market policing: illuminating the fluid micro-sociology of the illegal drug supply enterprise in liquid modernity

Understanding Scotland’s illegal drug market continues to challenge social scientists. Most evidently neglected are processes related to social supply, from supplier perspectives. When analysing illegal drug markets, demand-based approaches, customarily sourcing drug users, grossly overlook supplier perspectives. Thus, a qualitative research inquiry interviewing former drug dealers facilitated exploration of a supply-based approach that detailed processes of supply in relation to market level. Situating the findings within the disruptive lens of Chatwin and Potters ’ (2014) concept of extending drug use normalisation to embrace a dimension of market fluidity to drug supply dealing in Scotland, the researchers interviewed 35 former drug suppliers, learning about drug distribution behavioural patterns. Retail-level dealerships and higher market echelons exemplified an embodiment of the complexity of this social world. Any model aimed at characterising Scotland ’s illegal drugs market must acknowledge and incorporate aspects of social supply (e.g. recreational drugs) and recognise the fluid nature of ‘ normalisation ’ , taking account into its tacit embeddedness in a ‘local economy’ with its own history and distinctive cultural geography. Unless the nuances of these various social formations are acknowledged the potential of national policing strategies to address the crimes connected with drugs will go unrealised due to their conceptual and pragmatic inadequacies. It is ironic that a commitment to a generalised drug market conception of official enforcement is likely to sow the seeds for an unnecessary criminalisation of minor serendipitous offenders and encourage reoffending patterns.
Assessment of gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with systemic sclerosis in a UK tertiary referral centre.

OBJECTIVES The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is affected in up to 90% of patients with SSc to a variable extent and severity. We aimed to establish the frequency and range of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in SSc patients at the Royal Free Hospital, a tertiary referral centre. METHODS A 52-item, previously validated, questionnaire capturing SSc-related gut dysfunction was given to consecutive patients with SSc attending the rheumatology outpatient department. The questionnaire assesses the 'frequency' of five categories of symptoms and their 'impact' on social functioning and emotional well-being. Patients' notes were reviewed to establish disease subtype, autoantibody profile and other internal organ involvement. RESULTS We collected 402 completed questionnaires (357 females; mean age 55). Sixty-nine per cent of patients had lcSSc and 30% dcSSc with mean disease duration of 11 years. Mean questionnaire scores showed that patients have a wide range of GI symptoms. Ninety-four per cent of patients reported upper and 79% lower GI symptoms, 3% of patients reported no symptoms and 10% reported daily symptoms. There was no association between disease subtype or autoantibody profile and GI symptoms. There was a positive correlation between diarrhoea scores (high scores = best health) and pulmonary fibrosis (r = 0.134, P = 0.0068). No other association between GI symptoms and other internal organ involvement was found. CONCLUSIONS GI symptoms, both upper and lower, are common in patients with SSc. Patients should be asked specifically about GI symptoms as they may be under-reported and therefore under-treated. GI focused questionnaire is an effective way to assess gut symptoms and adjust treatment.
Explorer Placental Perivascular Cells for Human Muscle Regeneration

General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact openaccess@ed.ac. uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Perivascular multipotent mesenchymal progenitors exist in a variety of tissues, including the placenta. Here, we suggest that the abundant vasculature present in the human placenta can serve as a source of myogenic cells to regenerate skeletal muscle. Chorionic villi dissected from the mid-gestation human placenta were first transplanted intact into the gastrocnemius muscles of SCID=mdx mice, where they participated in muscle regener-ation by producing myofibers expressing human dystrophin and spectrin. In vitro-cultured placental villi released rapidly adhering and migratory CD146+CD34ÀCD45ÀCD56À cells of putative perivascular origin that expressed mesenchymal stem cell markers. CD146+CD34ÀCD45ÀCD56À perivascular cells isolated and purified from the placental villi by flow cytometry were indeed highly myogenic in culture, and generated dys-trophin-positive myofibers, and they promoted angiogenesis after transplantation into SCID=mdx mouse muscles. These observations confirm the existence of mesenchymal progenitor cells within the walls of human blood vessels, and suggest that the richly vascularized human placenta is an abundant source of perivascular myogenic cells able to migrate within dystrophic muscle and regenerate myofibers.
Medicinal properties of Moringa oleifera: An overview of promising healer

Moringa oleifera Lam. (MO) is a small size tree with approximately 5 to 10 m height. It is cultivated all over the world due to its multiple utilities. Every part of Moringa is used for certain nutritional and/or medicinal propose. Besides being a good source of protein, vitamins, oils, fatty acids, micro-macro minerals elements and various phenolics, it is also reported as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, cardiovascular, hepatoprotective, anti-ulcer, diuretic, antiurolithiatic, and antihelmintic. Its multiple pharmaceutical effects are capitalized as therapeutic remedy for various diseases in traditional medicinal system. Further research on this charismatic healer may lead to the development of novel agents for various diseases. This study provides a brief overview about medicinal potential of Moringa and its future as a component of modern medicinal system. This study concludes that Moringa needs legitimate appraisal to establish its pharmaceutical knack in modern medicine. Key word: Moringa oleifera, medicinal plant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, antioxidant, antiulcer, diuretic.
Overlay Construction within Diffserv Domains for QoS-Aware Multicasting

We propose DIRA as an overlay multicast routing algorithm to support QoS-aware multicast applications. Its basic idea is to construct overlay multicast trees within Diffserv domains and try to find an overlay tree spanning all member nodes at a cost as low as possible. The proposed algorithm exploits the special relationship between the edge routers and the core routers in the Diffserv domain to adapt its overlay tree topology for a least cost gain when accepting a new node. Through a large amount of simulations, we have shown that DIRA has a superior performance in terms of tree cost and flexibility.
Study and Implementation of Chinese Intelligent Question Answering System Based on Restricted Domain

The current status of Chinese question answering system (QA) was introduced in the paper firstly. QA is the study on the methodology that returns exact answers to natural language questions. This paper attempts to increase the speed of the system responding to the users and accuracy of QA systems. To achieve this objective, the processing includes: Firstly, it introduces the conceptual theory and parts of intelligent question-answering system in detail. Secondly, it researches the Chinese word segmentation algorithm and its relevant technology. Thirdly, it puts forward the method of calculating sum of word frequency based on the whole sentence. It makes a better improvement for processing the problems. Fourthly, it brings forward the classification problem of specific fields, which is convenient for result matching according to the kind of problem of the system. In the end, this system completes the results extraction by calculating the weight. On the basis of theory and algorithm mentioned above, a question-answering system in the course ASP.Net field is implemented.
Synchronization of Different Chaotic Fractional-Order Systems via Approached Auxiliary System the Modified Chua Oscillator and the Modified Van der Pol-Duffing Oscillator

In this paper we propose the study of synchronization between two different chaotic fractional-order systems via approached auxiliary system, we choose the modified Chua oscillators as a master system and the modified Van der Pol-Duffing oscillator (MVDPD) as a slave system, this method is also detected for both well known systems Chen and Lu. RouthHurwitz criterion is used for the study of stability of error system between the master-slave systems. Numerical results show the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis. c © Electronic Journal of Theoretical Physics. All rights reserved.
DECOUPLING APPLICATION PARAMETERS IN WSN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF Y-THREADS IN LITEOS

This paper proposes methodologies for better utilization of sensor nodes for large scale applications that requires good time sensitivity, memory utilization and adaptability. In realtime applications such as motion sensing, the operating system of sensor nodes needs to be reprogrammable to accommodate sudden variations in the environment. In this project, we have decoupled application parameters for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and have developed a library for the LiteOS (a fairly recent WSN operating system) kernel to provide an interface to the user to make applications reactive to the changing environment. We have also implemented a stack sharing mechanism in LiteOS that supports Y-Threads, a combination of events and threads. Current WSN operating systems support either event-driven or thread-based approach which can sometimes be inadequate. The implementation of shared-stack and decoupling application parameters from the kernel on LiteOS shows significant performance improvement over a class of applications that might otherwise over-burden the low-power sensor nodes.
Sensitization to the Effects of Tumor Necrosis Factor-α: Neuroendocrine, Central Monoamine, and Behavioral Variations

Consistent with the proposition that cytokines act as immunotransmitters between the immune system and the brain, systemic administration of the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α; 1.0–4.0 μg) induced mild illness in CD-1 mice, increased plasma corticosterone concentrations, and altered central norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin turnover. The actions of TNF-α were subject to a time-dependent sensitization effect. After reexposure to a subeffective dose of the cytokine (1.0 μg) 14–28 d after initial treatment, marked illness was evident (reduced consumption of a palatable substance and diminished activity and social exploration), coupled with an elevation of plasma corticosterone levels. In contrast, cytokine reexposure 1–7 d after initial treatment did not elicit illness, and at the 1 d interval the corticosterone response to the cytokine was reduced. The increase of norepinephrine release within the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, as reflected by elevated accumulation of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol, was augmented at the longer reexposure intervals. In contrast, within the central amygdala and the prefrontal cortex TNF-α reexposure at the 1 d interval was associated with a pronounced sensitization-like effect, which was not apparent at longer intervals. Evidently, systemic TNF-α proactively influences the response to subsequent treatment; however, the nature of the effects (i.e., the behavioral, neuroendocrine, and central transmitter alterations) vary over time after initial cytokine treatment. It is suggested that the sensitization may have important repercussions with respect to cognitive effects of TNF-α and may also be relevant to analyses of the neuroprotective or neurodestructive actions of cytokines.
Protein Aggregation in the Aging Retina

The age-related altered expression of neuron-related proteins as seen in other regions of the central nervous system is expected in the aging retina. Using immunohistochemical techniques, we characterized the distribution and aggregation of tau, &bgr;A4-amyloid, &agr;-synuclein, and ubiquitin in human retina obtained from 19 enucleated eyes of patients aged 49 to 87 years and correlated the findings with the ages. Using a phosphorylation-independent antibody, tau aggregates were observed within the cytoplasm of several photoreceptor cells, and there was a positive correlation between age and the number of tau-positive ganglionic cells. Tau deposits were immunonegative with a phosphorylation-dependent antibody. We did not observe &bgr;A4-amyloid in subretinal pigment epithelium deposits or in neuroepithelial layers. &agr;-Synuclein and ubiquitin inclusions were found in the inner nuclear layer, and there was colocalization of these proteins. The proportion of patients displaying such &agr;-synuclein and/or ubiquitin intracytoplasmic inclusions was significantly higher with aging. The presence of ubiquitin deposits within drusen was remarkable, but diffuse ubiquitin aggregates between the retinal pigment epithelium and Bruch membrane were also noticed. These results indicate that protein aggregation in the retina increases with aging and that tau, &agr;-synuclein, and ubiquitin should be the subjects of future investigations.
OXADM restoration schemes in CWDM metropolitan ring network

We demonstrate a newly invented device named as optical cross add and drop multiplexer (OXADM) which designed with a combined concept of optical cross connect (OXC) and optical add drop multilexer (OADM). It is designed by improving all drawbacks appear in the previous device with some interesting features added. The OXADM node focuses on providing functionalities of transport, multiplexing, routing, supervision, termination and survivability in the optical layer for both ring and mesh topologies. The main function of OXADM is to reconfigure the optical channel path while implementing add and drop function simultaneously. The accumulation function offers by OXADM enable all transmitted signals to be multiplexed and routed in a single path. Meanwhile the 'U turn mechanism' can be implemented without the need of drop and re-add function. Hence, OXADM provide survivability in physical layer through restoration against failures by means of linear, multiplex and ring protection to both configurations. Hybrid restoration technique with OXADM enables the linear, ring and multiplex protection mechanism to be integrated in single optical network, and it will be activated according to the degree and types of failure. The paper calculates the OSNR according to the percentage of network failures and span variation. The method of this study involves the building and characterizing of two OXADMs, simulating by using Optisystem and modeling them analytically. Loss characterization and measured OSNR are compared with the analytical values. We also demonstrate OXADM optical switch mechanism with detail experimental set up explanation. Finally, the OSNR measurement of OXADM with respect of its function is also discussed.
Interleukin 6 and Rheumatoid Arthritis

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a representative cytokine featuring pleiotropic activity and redundancy. A transient synthesis of IL-6 contributes to host defense against infectious agents and tissue injuries by inducing acute phase reactions and immunological and hematopoietic responses. However, uncontrolled persistent production of IL-6 may lead to the development of several immune-mediated diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease with joint and systemic inflammation resulting from immunological abnormalities and it has been found that IL-6 plays a key role in the development of this disease. Clinical trials in various parts of the world of tocilizumab, a humanized anti-IL-6 receptor antibody, have proved its efficacy and tolerable safety either as monotherapy or in combination with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. As a result, it is currently used as a first-line biologic for the treatment of moderate-to-severe RA in more than 100 countries. Clarification of the mechanism(s) through which tocilizumab exerts its effect on RA and of the reason(s) why IL-6 is continuously produced in RA can be expected to lead to the best use of this agent for RA patients and aid in investigations into the pathogenesis of RA.
Constructing Optimal Rank-Decomposition Trees of Biconnected Outerplanar Graphs

A graph G is called an outerplanar graph if it has an embedding in the plane such that every vertex lies on the boundary of the exterior face. In this paper, we show that the rankwidth of a biconnected outerplanar graph is at most two. Further, we propose a linear-time algorithm to construct an optimal rank-decomposition tree for a biconnected outerplanar graph.
Cancer Testis Antigen Vaccination Affords Long-Term Protection in a Murine Model of Ovarian Cancer

Sperm protein (Sp17) is an attractive target for ovarian cancer (OC) vaccines because of its over-expression in primary as well as in metastatic lesions, at all stages of the disease. Our studies suggest that a Sp17-based vaccine can induce an enduring defense against OC development in C57BL/6 mice with ID8 cells, following prophylactic and therapeutic treatments. This is the first time that a mouse counterpart of a cancer testis antigen (Sp17) was shown to be expressed in an OC mouse model, and that vaccination against this antigen significantly controlled tumor growth. Our study shows that the CpG-adjuvated Sp17 vaccine overcomes the issue of immunologic tolerance, the major barrier to the development of effective immunotherapy for OC. Furthermore, this study provides a better understanding of OC biology by showing that Th-17 cells activation and contemporary immunosuppressive T-reg cells inhibition is required for vaccine efficacy. Taken together, these results indicate that prophylactic and therapeutic vaccinations can induce long-standing protection against OC and delay tumor growth, suggesting that this strategy may provide additional treatments of human OC and the prevention of disease onset in women with a family history of OC.
Spectral Image Unmixing From Optimal Coded-Aperture Compressive Measurements

Hyperspectral remote sensing often captures imagery where the spectral profiles of the spatial pixels are the result of the reflectance contribution of numerous materials. Spectral unmixing is then used to extract the collection of materials, or endmembers, contained in the measured spectra and a set of corresponding fractions that indicate the abundance of each material present at each pixel. This paper aims at developing a spectral unmixing algorithm directly from compressive measurements acquired using the coded-aperture snapshot spectral imaging (CASSI) system. The proposed method first uses the compressive measurements to find a sparse vector representation of each pixel in a 3-D dictionary formed by a 2-D wavelet basis and a known spectral library of endmembers. The sparse vector representation is estimated by solving a sparsity-constrained optimization problem using an algorithm based on the variable splitting augmented Lagrangian multipliers method. The performance of the proposed spectral unmixing method is improved by taking optimal CASSI compressive measurements obtained when optimal coded apertures are used in the optical system. The optimal coded apertures are designed such that the CASSI sensing matrix satisfies a restricted isometry property with high probability. Simulations with synthetic and real hyperspectral cubes illustrate the accuracy of the proposed unmixing method.
Extended stellar kinematics of elliptical galaxies in the Fornax cluster

We present extended stellar kinematics for a sample of elliptical galaxies in the Fornax cluster. Out of the 13 galaxies presented here, five (FCC 119, FCC 136, NGC 1373, NGC 1428, FCC 335) have no previously published kinematical data. Major-axis velocity dispersion profiles (VDPs) and rotation curves (RCs) are given for 12 of the galaxies. A major feature of this data is the spatial extension: for 8 galaxies the data extends beyond 1 R e , and for 5 it extends beyond 2 R e . Compared to the previously available data, this corresponds to an increase in spatial coverage by a factor from 1 to 5. The present sample represents 86% of the ellipticals in Fornax brighter than B T = 15 mag. Five of the ellipticals in the sample turn out to be ro ta tio nal ly-supported systems, having positive rotation parameter . One of these five, and another 3 galaxies from the remaining sample, display evidence for bar-like kinematics. The data indicate that the true number of "dynamically hot” stellar systems, is much lower than previously thought: of the Es in the present sample only 1/4 are confirmed as "pressure-supported” systems. The data reveal a host of individual peculiarities, like: wiggles, strong gradients, and asymmetries in the rotation curve and/or in the velocity dispersion profile, thus showing that the presence of kinematically distinct components and/or triaxiality is a common characteristic of this class of object.
Virtual reality: A human centered tool for improving Manufacturing

Manufacturing is using Virtual Reality tools to enhance the product life cycle. Their definitions are still in flux and it is necessary to define their connections. Thus, firstly, we will introduce more closely some definitions where we will find that, if the Virtual manufacturing concepts originate from machining operations and evolve in this manufacturing area, there exist a lot of applications in different fields such as casting, forging, sheet metalworking and robotics (mechanisms). From the recent projects in Europe or in USA, we notice that the human perception or the simulation of mannequin is more and more needed in both fields. In this context, we have isolated some applications as ergonomic studies, assembly and maintenance simulation, design or training where the virtual reality tools can be applied. Thus, we find out a family of applications where the virtual reality tools give the engineers the main role in the optimization process. We will illustrate our paper by several examples where virtual reality interfaces are used and combined with optimization tools as multi-agent systems.
A novel algorithm to model the queue limit

The performance of web-based software systems is one of the most important and complicated consideration. These systems access some resources while executing the requests of the clients, typically several requests arrive at the same time, thus, competitive situation is established for the resources. In case of modeling such situation queueing model-based approaches are widely recognized. The goal of our work is to model the queue limit performance factor. The proposed algorithms modeling the global and application queue limits can be applied to performance prediction. The response time and throughput performance metrics can be correctly predicted with the novel algorithms.