Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Erythrocytes Possess an Intrinsic Barrier to Nitric Oxide Consumption*

It has been reported that free hemoglobin (Hb) reacts with NO at an extremely high rate (K Hb∼107 m −1 s−1) and that the red blood cell (RBC) membrane is highly permeable to NO. RBCs, however, react with NO 500–1000 times slower. This reduction of NO reaction rate by RBCs has been attributed to the extracellular diffusion limitation. To test whether additional limitations are also important, we designed a competition test, which allows the extracellular diffusion limitation to be distinguished from transmembrane or intracellular resistance. This test exploited the competition between free Hb and RBCs for NO generated in a homogenous phase by an NO donor. If the extracellular diffusion resistance is negligible, then the results would follow a kinetic model that assumes homogenous reaction without extracellular diffusion limitation. In this case, the measured effective reaction rate constant,K RBC, would remain invariant of the hematocrit, extracellular-free Hb concentration, and NO donor concentration. Results show that the K RBC approaches a constant only when the hematocrit is greater than 10%, suggesting that at higher hematocrit, the extracellular diffusion resistance is negligible. Under such a condition, the NO consumption by RBCs is still 500–1000 times slower than that by free Hb. This result suggests that intrinsic RBC factors, such as transmembrane diffusion limitation or intracellular mechanisms, exist to reduce the NO consumption by RBCs.
Tumour hypoxia induces a metabolic shift causing acidosis: a common feature in cancer

• Introduction • Intracellular pH regulation controls energy balance and cell proliferation: chemical and biological proof of principle ‐ Chemical proof of principle ‐ Biological proof of principle: the role of the Na+/H+ exchanger‐1 • Oncogene activation and transformation cause acidosis ‐ Warburg effect (aerobic glycolysis) ‐ Inhibition of tumour suppressor genes and oncogene activation drive the ‘Warburg effect’ and cause acidosis ‐ Neoplastic transformation drives intracellular alkalinization and extracellular acidification through the activation and up‐regulation of pHi‐regulating systems • Hypoxia promotes acidosis by shifting from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolytic metabolism ‐ HIF mediates cellular adaptation to low oxygen availability ‐ HIF‐induced metabolic reprogramming in response to tumour hypoxia causes acidosis ‐ Acidosis may affect HIF‐α stabilization and on HIF‐induced gene regulation • Hypoxia enhances the expression and activity of pHi‐regulating systems to promote cell survival and invasion ‐ Hypoxia increases NHE‐1 expression and activity ‐ The hypoxia‐induced membrane‐associated carbonic anhydrases are key enzymes involved in pH homeostasis, cell survival and migration in a hypoxic/acidic microenvironment ‐ CAIX regulation and expression ‐ CAXII regulation and expression ‐ The activity and functions of CAIX and CAXII ‐ The hypoxia‐induced monocarboxylate transporter MCT4, the constitutively expressed MCT1 and their chaperone CD147 are key plasma‐membrane proteins involved in pH regulation, energy balance, tumour progression and metastasis ‐ MCT regulation, expression, structure and implication of their chaperone CD147 ‐ The MCT1, MCT4 and CD147 activity and functions • Strategies taking advantage of changes in the oxygen level, energy balance and pH homeostasis to target primary tumours and metastases ‐ Decreasing the pHi of hypoxic cells of the primary tumour by inhibiting key pHi‐regulating systems to collapse ATP production ‐ Increasing pHo and the extracellular buffering capacity in targeting metastasis and reducing multidrug resistance • Conclusion
Block-level RAID Is Dead

The common storage stack as found in most operating systems has remained unchanged for several decades. In this stack, the RAID layer operates under the file system layer, at the block abstraction level. We argue that this arrangement of layers has fatal flaws. In this paper, we highlight its main problems, and present a new storage stack arrangement that solves these problems.
Onboard flight control of a micro quadrotor using single strapdown optical flow sensor

This paper considers autonomous onboard hovering flight control of a micro quadrotor using a strapdown optical flow sensor which is conventionally used for desktop mice. The vehicle considered in this paper can carry only a few dozen grams of payload, therefore conventional camera-based optical flow methods are not applicable. We present autonomous hovering flight control of the micro quadrotor using a single-chip optical flow sensor, implemented on an 8-bit microprocessor without external positioning sensors. Detailed description of all the system components is provided along with evaluation of the accuracy. Experimental results from flight tests are validated with the ground-truth data provided by a high-accuracy motion capture system.
Management accounting systems design and company performance in Nigerian manufacturing companies: A contingency theory perspective

This study, aimed at providing information to help address the lingering problem of poor performance of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria, investigated the relationships between the Management accounting systems (MAS) design, company’s context and company performance. Adopting the contingency theory framework, the study proposed three contingency variables; perceived environmental uncertainty, technology and decentralization as major influences on the relationship between MAS designs and company performance. The propositions were tested using empirical data collected through a questionnaire survey of chief accounting officers/ management accountants of one hundred and forty-four randomly selected Nigerian manufacturing companies from the Nigerian Stock Exchange listing. Statistical tools used in analysing the data are correlations and moderated regression analyses. The results provided support for the expectation that level of sophistication in MAS design has a positive relationship with performance and that contingency variables constitute significant moderating influences on the relationship in the companies sampled. It is suggested that adopting MAS designs tailored to the specific context of businesses will help improve performance of the Nigerian manufacturing companies.
Land Characterization Analysis of Surface Temperature of Semi-Arid Mountainous City Abha, Saudi Arabia Using Remote Sensing and GIS

This knowledge of land surface temperature and its spatial variations within a city environment is of prime importance to the study of urban climate and human-environment interactions. Few studies have examined the influence of land use and terrain on the surface temperature effects of semi-arid mountainous urban areas. This study investigates the urban environment characterization and its effects on surface temperature using remote sensing. The methodologies adapted for this study are geometric and radiometric corrections of satellite data, extraction of land use/land cover and digital elevation model, estimation of vegetation density using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and estimation of surface temperature and emissivity using temperature emissivity separation (TES) algorithm. Finally geospatial model and statistical techniques are used for assessing the overall impact of urban environmental characterization on urban climate of semi-arid region of Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Herein, results reveal that the spatial distribution of surface temperature was affected by land use/land cover (LULC) and topography. The high dense built-up and commercial/industrial areas display higher surface temperature in comparison with surrounding lands. There is gradual decrease of LULC classes’ surface temperature with the increase in altitude. The cooling effect towards the surrounding urban built-up area is found increasing at the hill located vegetated area, the downward slope and valley terrain inside the recreational park. Therefore the spatial variation in surface temperature also reflected the effects of topography on LULC classes. Suitable mountainous land use utilization would help to expand the cooling effect. In the future, the outcomes of this study could be used to build environmentally sustainable urban planning suitable to semi-arid regions and to create practices that consider the local weather environment in urban planning.
Effect of instrument power setting during ultrasonic scaling upon treatment outcome.

Ultrasonic scalers may be operated at different power settings which may influence the final therapeutic result. The displacement amplitude of the scaling tip may affect scaling efficiency or the degree of root surface damage. This investigation aimed to determine whether there was any difference in periodontal healing, as assessed by standard clinical methods, when an ultrasonic scaler was operated at full or half power in patients suffering from mild to moderate adult periodontitis. Seventeen patients with chronic adult periodontitis were entered into the study and a split mouth design utilized. Quadrant allocation was randomized, 2 quadrants being treated at full power and 2 at half power. At baseline, probing attachment levels, bleeding and plaque indices (BI and PI) were recorded and oral hygiene instruction given. Two weeks later all measurements were repeated and further recordings made at 1, 3, and 6 months post-therapy. Statistical analysis demonstrated no differences between groups at baseline (P > 0.3) for all parameters. At the post-oral hygiene stage, there were significant attachment gains for both experimental groups (P < 0.04), but no differences were found between the groups (P > 0.6). At 6 months, mean attachment gains for the half power and full power groups over baseline measures were 0.5 +/- 0.5 mm and 0.4 +/- 0.3 mm, respectively (P < 0.002), and there were no significant differences between the groups (P > 0.5). The results show that the use of the half power setting was as effective as using the ultrasonic scaler at full power. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Non-commercial Research and Educational Use including without Limitation Use in Instruction at Your Institution, Sending It to Specific Colleagues That You Know, and Providing a Copy to Your Institution's Administrator. All Other Uses, Reproduction and Distribution, including without Limitation Comm

A system that extracts knowledge from texts is presented. It is also indicated how the inferences necessary for the extraction of knowledge can be acquired by the system from sentences entered by users. The knowledge acquisition component is grounded on a semantic interpreter of English based on an enhanced WordNet. An evaluation of the system performance is included.
Multi-objective switching control via LMI optimization

Multi-objective design problem is the optimization of various and often conflicting objectives for a complex system. In this paper, optimization is performed using Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI's). A switching strategy is proposed in order to improve the multi-objective control performance. Each controller design is based on a set of performance specifications. Instead of considering all the specifications defined by respective LMI sets simultaneously, only relevant objectives are included in the control design procedure. Then, switching is performed to meet multiple objectives. Assurance of the overall stability of the closed-loop is acknowledged via specific controller realization. Multi-objective designs are prone to conservatism, which is greatly reduced by the switching approach. The efficiency of the proposed methodology is illustrated through an example.
Explaining soil moisture variability as a function of mean soil moisture: A stochastic unsaturated flow perspective

Understanding soil moisture variability and its relationship with water content at various scales is a key issue in hydrological research. In this paper we predict this relationship by stochastic analysis of the unsaturated Brooks‐Corey flow in heterogeneous soils. Using sensitivity analysis, we show that parameters of the moisture retention characteristic and their spatial variability determine to a large extent the shape of the soil moisture variance‐mean water content function. We demonstrate that soil hydraulic properties and their variability can be inversely estimated from spatially distributed measurements of soil moisture content. Predicting this relationship for eleven textural classes we found that the standard deviation of soil moisture peaked between 0.17 and 0.23 for most textural classes. It was found that the β parameter, which describes the pore‐size distribution of soils, controls the maximum value of the soil moisture standard deviation.
Osteocyte Shape Is Dependent on Actin Filaments and Osteocyte Processes Are Unique Actin‐Rich Projections

Osteocytes are derived from a select group of osteoblasts that have undergone a final differentiation. Due to their inaccessibility when embedded in the bone matrix, very little is known about the osteocyte cytoskeleton. This study provides an extensive analysis of the osteocyte cytoskeleton, based on the successful isolation of osteocytes from 16‐day embryonic chick calvariae. We used OB7.3, a chicken osteocyte‐specific monoclonal antibody, to confirm the osteocytic phenotype of the isolated cells and established culture conditions to promote growth of cells that most resemble osteocytes in vivo. Immunofluorescence staining with antitubulin, antivimentin, and antiactin showed the relative distribution of the microtubules, intermediate filaments, and actin filaments in both osteocyte cell body and processes. Field emission scanning electron microscopy revealed the three‐dimensional relationships of the cytoskeletal elements and a unique organization of actin bundles that spanned the cell body and osteocyte processes. When combined with drug studies, these experiments demonstrate that actin filaments are crucial for the maintenance of osteocyte shape. Furthermore, we identified two actin‐bundling proteins, alpha‐actinin and fimbrin, in osteocyte processes. The prominence and unique distribution of fimbrin in osteocyte processes provides the possibility of its use as an intracellular marker to distinguish osteocytes from osteoblasts.
Biomass and leaf-area index maps derived from SPOT images for Toolik Lake and Imnavait Creek areas, Alaska

Abstract A new emphasis on understanding natural systems at large spatial scales has led to an interest in deriving ecological variables from satellite reflectance images. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is a measure of canopy greenness that can be derived from reflectances at near-infrared and red wavelengths. For this study we investigated the relationships between NDVI and leaf-area index (LAI), intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (IPAR), and biomass in an Arctic tundra ecosystem. Reflectance spectra from a portable field spectrometer, LAI, IPAR, and biomass data were collected for 180 vegetation samples near Toolik Lake and Imnavait Creek, Alaska, during July and August 1993. NDVI values were calculated from red and near-infrared reflectances of the field spectrometer spectra. Strong linear relationships are seen between mean NDVI for major vegetation categories and mean LAI and biomass. The relationship between mean NDVI and mean IPAR for these categories is not significant. Average NDVI values for major vegetation categories calculated from a SPOT image of the study area were found to be highly linearly correlated to average field NDVI measurements for the same categories. This indicates that in this case it is appropriate to apply equations derived for field-based NDVI measurements to NDVI images. Using the regression equations for those relationships, biomass and LAI images were calculated from the SPOT NDVI image. The resulting images show expected trends in LAI and biomass across the landscape.
The Shrinkage Geometry Factor of a Soil Layer

Recently, the approach was applied to ex- plain the microrelief origin of a heavy clay soil surface The shrinkage geometry factor connects the changes of subsidence (Chertkov, 2005). The effect of shrink-swell anisotropy and the total crack volume at the shrinkage of a soil layer matrix. An was also considered to generalize flow equations in the available approach for estimating the factor does not account for the crack volume in samples, the stretching of a shrinking soil layer, and case of the axially symmetric two-dimensional deforma- a possible change of the factor with water content. A recent new tionofshrink-swellsoilsampleswithoutcracks(Garnier approach for estimation of the factor enables one to account for the et al., 1997a, 1997b). factor's dependence on water content and the impact of cracks in a A general feature of all the above works is the impor- sample. The present work also accounts for the stretching of a shrink- tantroleoftheshrinkagegeometryfactor,rs(Bronswijk, ing soil layer. Corrected value of the factor is described in terms of 1988,1989,1990,1991a,1991b)inconsideringtheeffects the shrinkage curves of: a layer including unconnected solid cubes of both the crack network geometry and shrink-swell from the available approach, a stretched layer with cracks, a sample anisotropy. In addition, the rs factor is used for experi- with cracks, and the soil matrix without cracks. This correction leads mental estimation of the total crack volume (Baer and to changes in the soil subsidence and total crack volume compared Anderson, 1997). with those obtained from the available approach. Two known physical conditions are used: the specific soil matrix volume without cracks is Important applications of the rs concept are based on the same for the sample and the layer; and, the matrix deformations Bronswijk'sknownpresentation(Bronswijk,1988,1989, of an unlimited shrinking soil layer are longitudinal those of a thin 1991a, 1991b) and measurement method (Bronswijk, quasi-elastic plate. Two available experimental examples are consid- 1990) of the rs value. According to this presentation, ered. The former relates to clay paste samples. The latter relates to the shrinkage geometry factor determines the relation an aggregated clay soil in situ and in samples. The geometry factor betweenthe variationsof soilsubsidence (z)and those from the available approach, and that obtained after correction, differ of the matrix volume (V) of a soil layer in field condi- significantly. The corrected factor also shows the appreciable change tions to be with water content.
Revisiting cartography: towards identifying and developing a modern and comprehensive framework

Developments in production, sharing and use of spatial data and information involve revisiting the role and scope of cartography. Cartography is a core discipline for spatially modelling, investigating and mapping natural and cultural environments, developing location-aware applications, establishing spatial data infrastructures and forming spatially enabled societies. In this context, spatial data handling provides key tools for creating spatial databases, integrating spatial data, producing geographic information and maps and so on. Although cartography plays a key role in many phases of such activities, it tends to be introduced only as visualization phase of spatial data handling. On the other hand, it is sometimes regarded to encompass entire phases of spatial data handling. So this article investigates the relationships between cartography and spatial data handling, management and use, and on this basis, proposes a modern and comprehensive framework for cartography to contribute to restoring the full conceptual breadth of the discipline.
The Synergistic Effect of Combination Progesterone and Temozolomide on Human Glioblastoma Cells

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and most aggressive malignant brain tumor. Despite optimal treatment and evolving standard of care, the median survival of patients diagnosed with GBM is only 12–15 months. In this study, we combined progesterone (PROG) and temozolomide (TMZ), a standard chemotherapeutic agent for human GBM, to test whether PROG enhances the antitumor effects of TMZ and reduces its side effects. Two WHO grade IV human GBM cells lines (U87MG and U118MG) and primary human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) were repeatedly exposed to PROG and TMZ either alone or in combination for 3 and 6 days. Cell death was measured by MTT reduction assay. PROG and TMZ individually induced tumor cell death in a dose-dependent manner. PROG at high doses produced more cell death than TMZ alone. When combined, PROG enhanced the cell death-inducing effect of TMZ. In HDFs, PROG did not reduce viability even at the same high cytotoxic doses, but TMZ did so in a dose-dependent manner. In combination, PROG reduced TMZ toxicity in HDFs. PROG alone and in combination with TMZ suppressed the EGFR/PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and MGMT expression in U87MG cells, thus suppressing cell proliferation. PROG and TMZ individually reduced cell migration in U87MG cells but did so more effectively in combination. PROG enhances the cytotoxic effects of TMZ in GBM cells and reduces its toxic side effects in healthy primary cells.
Complete mitochondrial genome of the marine red alga Grateloupia angusta (Halymeniales)

Abstract The first complete mitochondrial genome (27,943 bp) of the halymenialean red alga, Grateloupia angusta, was sequenced. The circular mitogenome contains 47 genes, including 26 protein-coding, 19 tRNA and 2 rRNA genes. The rps3 and rpl16 genes are overlapped by 7 bp. The majority of protein-coding genes (17 of 26 genes) use typical ATG start codon, however, 9 genes use alternative start codons such as ATT, AAT, TTA and TTG. The G. angusta mitogenome shows a significant difference to that of Chondrus crispus (Gigartinales) in gene synteny and tRNA compositions.
Achieving modular dynamic partial reconfiguration with a difference-based flow (abstract only)

Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (DPR) of Xilinx FPGAs in cases where there is significant logic difference between subsequent configurations is made possible by Xilinx module-based PR flow. Xilinx supports this flow only for high-end FPGAs and requires paid license, without which Xilinx PlanAhead software disables the related knobs and features. This poster presents a unique methodology (called DPR-LD) that enables DPR of low-end and high-end Xilinx FPGAs and requires no paid license. DPR-LD stands for DPR for Large Differences. DPR-LD uses the free Xilinx difference-based bit file generation software (bitgen), which normally is meant only for small differences between subsequent configurations. DPR-LD can be realized through either FPGA Editor or PlanAhead. Our FPGA Editor flow requires several physical constraints to ensure contention-free implementation of static and dynamic modules. We use implementation, floorplanning, and placement constraints to partition the design into several physical regions (one per module) for mapping, packing, placement, and routing. In order to avoid routing of a module to cross over another module, "fortress block"s are used to isolate the modules from each other. However, fortress blocks lead to wasted FPGA resources. On the other hand, in our PlanAhead flow, the physical constraints are entered via a GUI, and the corresponding actual physical constraints are generated automatically and without wasting FPGA resources. To evaluate the two approaches, a proof-of-concept application with a single dynamic region was implemented using both flows. In addition, a multiple dynamic region design was implemented with our PlanAhead flow.