Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative analysis of the protective effects of melatonin and vitamin E on streptozocin‐induced diabetes mellitus

There is a clearly documented link between diabetic complications and lipid peroxidation. Hyperglycemia causes a reduction in levels of protective endogenous antioxidants and increases generation of free radicals. The present study was carried out to compare the protective effects of melatonin and vitamin E against streptozocin (STZ)‐induced diabetes in rats. Melatonin was administered s.c. (100 μg/kg) whereas vitamin E was given i.p. (100 mg/kg) after induction of diabetes with STZ (60 mg/kg). Plasma total cholesterol, triglyceride and low density lipoprotein (LDL) levels were increased in STZ group while both melatonin and vitamin E injection caused a significant decrease in the levels of all these parameters. The lipid lowering effect of melatonin was greater than that of vitamin E. Melatonin caused a significant decrease in brain, liver and kidney tissue malondialdehyde (MDA) levels which were increased because of STZ‐induced diabetes. Vitamin E also reduced elevated MDA concentrations in diabetic rat tissues, but the effect of melatonin was more potent than that of vitamin E. Furthermore, treatment of diabetic rats with melatonin increased brain and kidney glutathione peroxidase (GSH‐Px) activity to the levels below that of control rats. Vitamin E was found to be less effective on GSH‐Px activity levels in brain and kidney than melatonin whereas it was more potent than melatonin in liver. In summary, melatonin prevents many diabetic complications by reducing oxidative stress and protects organisms from oxidative damage and dyslipidemia. Considering the much lower molar concentration of melatonin compared with vitamin E, melatonin seems to be a more potent antioxidant, especially in the brain and kidney.
Feed Conversion, Survival and Development, and Composition of Four Insect Species on Diets Composed of Food By-Products

A large part of the environmental impact of animal production systems is due to the production of feed. Insects are suggested to efficiently convert feed to body mass and might therefore form a more sustainable food and/or feed source. Four diets were composed from by-products of food manufacturing and formulated such as to vary in protein and fat content. These were offered to newly hatched Argentinean cockroaches, black soldier flies, yellow mealworms, and house crickets. The first two species are potentially interesting as a feed ingredient, while the latter two are considered edible for humans. Feed conversion efficiency, survival, development time, as well as chemical composition (nitrogen, phosphorus, and fatty acids), were determined. The Argentinean cockroaches and the black soldier flies converted feed more efficiently than yellow mealworms, and house crickets. The first two were also more efficient than conventional production animals. On three of the four diets yellow mealworms and house crickets had a feed conversion efficiency similar to pigs. Furthermore, on the most suitable diet, they converted their feed as efficiently as poultry, when corrected for edible portion. All four species had a higher nitrogen-efficiency than conventional production animals, when corrected for edible portion. Offering carrots to yellow mealworms increased dry matter- and nitrogen-efficiency and decreased development time. Diet affected survival in all species but black soldier flies, and development time was strongly influenced in all four species. The chemical composition of Argentinean cockroaches was highly variable between diets, for black soldier flies it remained similar. The investigated species can be considered efficient production animals when suitable diets are provided. Hence, they could form a sustainable alternative to conventional production animals as a source of feed or food.
Cytotoxicity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa internal lectin PA-I to respiratory epithelial cells in primary culture

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the most important bacterial pathogen associated with chronic airway infection, especially in cystic fibrosis. We addressed the question of whether the galactophilic internal lectin of P. aeruginosa (PA-I) could represent a virulence factor for the respiratory epithelium. PA-I lectin was localized in all the bacteria of P. aeruginosa ATCC 33347 as determined by immunofluorescence staining. We investigated the dose-dependent effect of P. aeruginosa PA-I lectin on the growth, the ciliary beating frequency, and the morphology of human respiratory cells in primary culture of nasal polyps collected from non-cystic fibrosis patients. PA-I lectin significantly (P < 0.01) inhibited the growth of respiratory cells at a concentration of > or = 10 micrograms/ml. The percentage of active ciliated cell surface of the cultures decreased significantly (P < 0.05) at a PA-I lectin concentration of 50 micrograms/ml. Exposed to a low concentration of PA-I lectin (10 micrograms/ml), respiratory epithelial cells showed intracytoplasmic vacuoles when examined by light and transmission electron microscopy. At a higher concentration of PA-I lectin (100 micrograms/ml), major cell damage and severe epithelial shedding occurred. These results demonstrate that the P. aeruginosa internal PA-I lectin has a dose-dependent cytotoxic effect on respiratory epithelial cells in vitro. The P. aeruginosa PA-I lectin may represent a virulence factor by contributing to the respiratory epithelial damage during P. aeruginosa respiratory infections.
Salmonella Produces an O-Antigen Capsule Regulated by AgfD and Important for Environmental Persistence

ABSTRACT In this study, we show that Salmonella produces an O-antigen capsule coregulated with the fimbria- and cellulose-associated extracellular matrix. Structural analysis of purified Salmonella extracellular polysaccharides yielded predominantly a repeating oligosaccharide unit similar to that of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis lipopolysaccharide O antigen with some modifications. Putative carbohydrate transport and regulatory operons important for capsule assembly and translocation, designated yihU-yshA and yihVW, were identified by screening a random transposon library with immune serum generated to the capsule. The absence of capsule was confirmed by generating various isogenic Δyih mutants, where yihQ and yihO were shown to be important in capsule assembly and translocation. Luciferase-based expression studies showed that AgfD regulates the yih operons in coordination with extracellular matrix genes coding for thin aggregative fimbriae and cellulose. Although the capsule did not appear to be important for multicellular behavior, we demonstrate that it was important for survival during desiccation stress. Since the yih genes are conserved in salmonellae and the O-antigen capsule was important for environmental persistence, the formation of this surface structure may represent a conserved survival strategy.
Predominance of a Single Restriction Endonuclease Analysis Group with Intrahospital Subgroup Diversity Among Clostridium difficile Isolates at Two Chicago Hospitals

Objective: To determine the epidemiology and relatedness of Clostridium difficile isolates in two geographically separated hospitals in a large metropolitan area, each with unique patients and personnel. Design: Observational descriptive molecular epidemiology of clinical C. difficile isolates. Setting: Two tertiary-care hospitals in Chicago. Methods: Consecutive C. difficile isolates from the clinical laboratory of a Veterans Affairs hospital during a 13-month period were typed by restriction endonuclease analysis (REA). During an overlapping 3-month period, stool specimens that tested positive for C. difficile toxin from patients at a nearby county hospital were cultured and the recovered isolates typed by the same method. Results: Nineteen (68%) of 28 nosocomial isolates at the smaller, Veterans Affairs hospital belonged to REA group K. Within this group of closely related strains, 9 distinct REA types were recognized. Twenty-one (72%) of 29 nosocomial isolates at the larger, county hospital also belonged to group K. However, the predominant REA types within group K differed markedly at each institution. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate a high degree of similarity among nosocomial C. difficile strains from different hospitals in the same city and suggest the possibility of an extended outbreak of a prototype group K strain with subsequent genetic drift at the two different institutions.
Examining Web-Based Spyware Invasion with Stateful Behavior Monitoring

Spyware infection that exploits the vulnerabilities of client-side Web application, especially browser, to install malicious programs has gain significant popularity in recent years. Unlike traditional infection vectors such as software bundling in shareware/freeware and placing Trojan in pirated version of commercial software that generally requires user consent to be successfully installed, Web-based spyware attempts exploits on browser vulnerabilities to achieve automatic installation (a.k.a. drive-by download). In this paper, we characterize the behavior of spyware instances collected from software bundling and of those collected from exploit Web pages in terms of auto-start extensibility points (ASEP) and other spyware behaviors. We use a tool called STARS (Stateful Threat-Aware Removal System) that can monitor critical areas of the system and detect advanced feature of a spyware instance such as self- healing. Experimental results show that traditional spyware and Web-based spyware used a different combination set of ASEP to resist deletion. The latter one hooks to low-level system components and loaded as services and/or drivers employing Layered Service Provider (LSP) to interpret network traffic. Our observations identify the unique behaviors performed by the Web-based spyware that are rarely found on traditional spyware.
EFFECT OF HEAVY APPLICATIONS OF GYPSUM ON PLANT GROWTH.

The owner of land adjoining the Fort Dodge plant of the United States Gypsum Co. recently ascribed the rundown condition of his farm to injury by gypsum dust from the plant. Since the areas near the plant were obviously receiving considerable deposits of dust over a period of time, we were asked to investigate the possibilities of direct or accumulative injuries. Injury from dust deposits on growing crops was considered improbable on a number of grounds: 1. Gypsum (CaSO42H20) is a stable, neutral salt with a solubility at saturation of about 0.2 per cent. A saturated solution of gypsum is frequently used as a source of Ca and SO4 in nutrient solutions, and such slight contact as might be made with the mesophyll cells through the cuticle and epidermis of the leaves could not be expected to be injurious. 2. Gypsum dust might reduce diffusion through the upper stomata of leaves, but the relatively large size of the dust particles and the readiness with which they form larger crystals when exposed to dew, together with the predominance of hypostomatal leaves, makes any important clogging improbable. 3. Dust layers would partially shade the leaves, particularly during hot, dry periods, but many published experiments indicate that 30 per cent. of full sunlight is near optimum for photosynthesis. Unpublished data for maize show little or no increase in photosynthesis above 25 per cent. of full sunlight. Since the dust would ordinarily be removed by rainfall during periods of cloudy weather, the probabilities of beneficial action from shading appear to be as good as or better than those of injury.
Crosshatch disk array for improved reliability and performance

Redundant disk array architecture provides fault tolerance against disk drive failures. However, a storage subsystem consists of more than just disk drives. There must also be controllers for interfacing with the disk drives, cabling for providing data/control paths, power supplies, etc. For the subsystem to be fault tolerant, it must also be able to tolerate failure in any one of these components. While currently known array architectures can be designed to be tolerant to single failure in the support hardware, little attention has been paid to performance in the event of such failures. The recovery procedures required after such failures have been repaired were also not fully considered. The author presents a new array architecture which outperforms other currently known array architectures when some supporting hardware such as a controller or cable has failed. Furthermore, this architecture is fault tolerant to at least double failures in the support hardware and is, therefore, a more reliable and robust architecture. <<ETX>>
LazyPIM: An Efficient Cache Coherence Mechanism for Processing-in-Memory

Processing-in-memory (PIM) architectures cannot use traditional approaches to cache coherence due to the high off-chip traffic consumed by coherence messages. We propose LazyPIM, a new hardware cache coherence mechanism designed specifically for PIM. LazyPIM uses a combination of speculative cache coherence and compressed coherence signatures to greatly reduce the overhead of keeping PIM coherent with the processor. We find that LazyPIM improves average performance across a range of PIM applications by 49.1 percent over the best prior approach, coming within 5.5 percent of an ideal PIM mechanism.
Generalizing CMAC architecture and training

The cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC) is a simple and fast neural-network based on local approximations. However, its rigid structure reduces its accuracy of approximation and speed of convergence with heterogeneous inputs. In this paper, we propose a generalized CMAC (GCMAC) network that considers different degrees of generalization for each input. Its representation abilities are analyzed, and a set of local relationships that the output function must satisfy are derived. An adaptive growing method of the network is also presented. The validity of our approach and methods are shown by some simulated examples.
14 Strategic Management Competitive Session 1 Diversification or Desynchronicity : An Organisational Portfolio Perspective to Risk Reduction

Reducing corporate risk has long been a business strategy concern. Many scholars support diversification as a method to achieve risk reduction. Building on organisational portfolio analysis, we develop the concept of ‘desynchronicity’ as a complement to existing diversification theories about risk reduction. Organisational portfolio analysis views firms as portfolios of business units, suggesting that a low level of correlation between the income streams of business units in the portfolio is the key to effective risk reduction. ‘Desynchronicity’ is a concept to understand the extent to which the income streams of business units are lowly correlated. Our results show diversification does not necessarily lead to corporate risk reduction. Instead, strategies that strength a firm’s ‘desynchronicity’ are shown to reduce corporate risk.
Enhancing the Experience of Student Teams in Large Classes

To address the increasing demand for mass undergraduate management education and, at the same time, a greater emphasis on student teamwork, this study outlines the development, delivery, and evaluation of a training intervention designed to build team-coaching skills in teaching assistants. Specifically, practice-centered and problem-centered techniques were used to provide teaching assistants with experiential learning opportunities to help them develop their skills. The authors evaluated the training intervention using a mixed-method multiple-data source design. Both the teaching assistants being trained as well as the student teams’ experiences and perceptions of their coaches’ performance were assessed. The evaluation showed that teaching assistants reported finding the program a positive experience. Importantly, students with trained coaches reported higher levels of coaching performance, team functioning, and productivity than those with untrained coaches. The implications of this intervention are discussed.
Insulin Pump Therapy in Youth With Type 1 Diabetes: A Retrospective Paired Study

OBJECTIVE. To compare by age and glycemic control continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion with multiple daily injections in youth with type 1 diabetes. METHODS. The files of 279 patients who had type 1 diabetes and switched from multiple daily injections to continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion between 1998 and 2003 were reviewed for glycemic control, body mass index standard deviation score, and adverse events. Patients were divided by age as follows: 23 prepubertal (median age: 5.4; range: 1.6–8.6 years), 127 adolescent (median age: 13.7; range 9–17 years), and 129 young adult (median age: 22.8; range: 17–40 years). The data were compared between the 12 months of multiple daily injections that preceded continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion and the period after the start of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion for the whole cohort and by age group. RESULTS. A significant decrease in hemoglobin A1c was demonstrated after the start of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion use for the entire cohort (−0.51%) and for the prepubertal (−0.48%), adolescent (−0.26%), and young adult (−0.76%) groups. There was a significant interaction between the change in hemoglobin A1c level and hemoglobin A1c value at initiation of pump therapy (−1.7% for patients with hemoglobin A1c ≥10%; 0.2% for patients with hemoglobin A1c ≤7%). The rate of severe hypoglycemic episodes decreased significantly in the adolescent group, from 36.5 to 11.1 events per 100 patient-years, and in the young adult group, from 58.1 to 23.3. There was no significant change in the rate of diabetic ketoacidosis between the 2 periods. The young adults showed a significant decrease in body mass index standard deviation scores (−0.08 ± 0.37). CONCLUSIONS. Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion improves glycemic control in youth with type 1 diabetes, especially in those with a history of poor glycemic control. This improvement is associated with a decrease in the rate of severe hypoglycemia in the absence of weight gain.
Objectivity, Reliability, and Validity for a Revised Push-Up Test Protocol

When executing a push-up an individual lowers the body to a down position and then raises it to an up position. A down position often used in recent years is a 90° angle at the elbows (90° push-up) as in FITNESSGRAM. Several researchers have found the interscorer objectivity and stability reliability for 90° push-up scores to be low. The purpose of this study was to (a) estimate the interscorer objectivity and stability reliability for scores from a revised push-up test protocol and (b) obtain evidence concerning the validity of interpretations based on revised push-up test scores. Interscorer objectivity was estimated for a score of one scorer and stability reliability was estimated for a score obtained on 1 day. Four studies were conducted. In the first study, pilot study, the revised push-up test protocol was developed and refined. In the second study, objectivity study, the push-up test was administered once to 49 female and 31 male college-aged students. Two scorers independently scored each student. Interscorer objectivity coefficients of·75 for women and ·88 for men were obtained. In the third study, objectivity and reliability study, the push-up test was administered on each of 2 days to 89 female and 63 male college-aged students. Two scorers independently scored each student on each day. Interscorer objectivity coefficients of ·97 and ·95 for women and ·98 and ·99 for men were obtained. Stability reliability coefficients of ·90 and ·93 for women and ·95 and ·95 for men were obtained. In the fourth study, validity study, validity was estimated using a logical approach, group difference approach, and criterion approach. There were 58 male and 48 female college students in the validity study. The revised push-up test protocol is very similar to protocols presently used and as expected the men scored significantly (p < .01) better than the women on the revised push-up test. The correlation between revised push-up scores and number of bench press executions with a percentage of the body weight was·80 for women and ·87 for men. The interscorer objectivity and stability reliability coefficients are very acceptable. Sufficient validity evidence was provided that the revised push-up scores relate to the amount of arm and shoulder girdle strength and endurance a person has to move the body weight.
Lipid droplet growth by fusion: insights from freeze-fracture imaging

An understanding of how lipid droplets grow in the cell is important to current human health issues. Homotypic fusion of small lipid droplets to create larger ones is one proposed mechanism though the evidence for this process continues to be debated. By applying the technique of freeze‐fracture electron microscopy to cells that have been stimulated to accumulate lipid droplets, we here present images which suggest that at least some large lipid droplets may indeed result from amalgamation of multiple smaller ones. These visual data add significantly to the notion that fusion contributes to lipid droplet growth.
Recognizing Words from Source Code Identifiers Using Speech Recognition Techniques

The existing software engineering literature has empirically shown that a proper choice of identifiers influences software understandability and maintainability. Researchers have noticed that identifiers are one of the most important source of information about program entities and that the semantic of identifiers guide the cognitive process. Recognizing the words forming identifiers is not an easy task when naming conventions (e.g., Camel Case) are not used or strictly followed and–or when these words have been abbreviated or otherwise transformed. This paper proposes a technique inspired from speech recognition, i.e., dynamic time warping, to split identifiers into component words. The proposed technique has been applied to identifiers extracted from two different applications: JHotDraw and Lynx. Results compared to manually-built oracles and with Camel Case algorithm are encouraging. In fact, they show that the technique successfully recognizes words composing identifiers (even when abbreviated) in about 90% of cases and that it performs better than Camel Case. Furthermore, it was able to spot mistakes in the manually-built oracle.
The Vδ Gene Usage by Freshly Isolated T Lymphocytes from Synovial Fluids in Rheumatoid Synovitis: a Preliminary Report

Taking advantage ofthe polymerase chain reaction we have studied the usage of variable delta‐(Vδ)) region genes in freshly isolated synovial fluid T cells from patients with rheumatoid synovitis. Amplified mRNA from one patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was cloned into an Smaleleaved pUC19 vector and colonies were screened with probes for three of the known human variable δ‐gene families (Vδ1. Vδ2. Vδ3). Of 10 clones, seven used Vδl. two Vδ2 and one Vδ3. This pattern of distribution is different from that of normal peripheral blood, where approximately 60% of Tγδ) cells are reported to use the Vδ2 gene. Furthermore, Northern blot hybridization analyses of mononuclear cells from two additional synovial fluids derived from another patient with RA and one with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) also showed significant hybridization only with Vδ I. In summary, these preliminary results suggest a usage of Vδ gene families in Tγδ lymphocytes in synovial fluid of rheumatoid patients different to that found in normal peripheral blood.