Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Attempt to Establish a Common Animal Model for Hepatorenal Fibrosis in Rats

It is already a proven fact that there exists a relationship between CLD (chronic liver disease) and kidney disease but still there is no available combined animal model of liver and kidney fibrosis on the same animal. An animal model is one of the important research tools in the field of medical science because it is important to build a model that can simulate the disease condition so that the particular disease can be studied. Therefore, the aim of this study is to build a less expensive, less time consuming, and reproducible model of hepatorenal fibrosis on rats. We administered combined intraperitoneal injection of CCl4 (Carbon Tetrachloride) and BSA (Bovine Serum Albumin) on a female Wistar rats. At the end, the liver and kidney tissues were examined under microscope to see whether we were successful in establishing the model or not. The results show that liver fibrosis was marked but the changes on the kidneys were mild. In this study, we were able to induce significant fibrosis in the liver and early stages of fibrosis in the kidneys. The result also demonstrated that the addition of BSA conferred a liver protective effect against CCl4 induced hepatotoxicity, whereas combination of CCl4 and BSA proved to be detrimental for kidneys.
Information retrieval in folktales using natural language processing

Our aim is to extract information about literary characters in unstructured texts. We employ natural language processing and reasoning on domain ontologies. The first task is to identify the main characters and the parts of the story where these characters are described or act. We illustrate the system in a scenario in the folktale domain. The system relies on a folktale ontology that we have developed based on Propp's model for folktales morphology. Index Terms—Natural language processing, ontologies, literary character, folktales.
Studying Citizenship Constellations

The papers in this special issue of JEMS illustrate how the field of citizenship studies is moving towards a much more systematic comparative approach. They also indicate that the gap between political and legal branches might be narrowing. This brief concluding contribution reflects on a perspective that goes beyond the currently dominant framework, without replacing it. For both comparative and normative purposes, we need to study not merely the citizenship traditions, laws and policies of states considered separately, but rather as part of intertwined citizenship constellations.
Assessing the “Mismatch” Hypothesis: Differences in College Graduation Rates by Institutional Selectivity

This article evaluates the “mismatch” hypothesis, advocated by opponents of affirmative action, which predicts lower graduation rates for minority students who attend selective postsecondary institutions than for those who attend colleges and universities where their academic credentials are better matched to the institutional average. Using two nationally representative longitudinal surveys and a unique survey of students who were enrolled at selective and highly selective institutions, the authors tested the mismatch hypothesis by implementing a robust methodology that jointly considered enrollment in and graduation from selective institutions as interrelated outcomes. The findings do not support the “mismatch” hypothesis for black and Hispanic (as well as white and Asian) students who attended college during 1980s and early 1990s.
Dental health behaviors and periodontal disease indicators in Danish youths. A 10-year epidemiological follow-up.

The purpose of the present study was to analyse the epidemiologic relationship between dental health behaviors and periodontal disease. Indicators of periodontal disease in terms of bleeding and calculus were measured dichotomously (absence/presence). Periodontal pockets were as follows: normal pockets (0-3 mm), shallow pockets (4-5 mm), and deep pockets (6+ mm). The indicators were measured on 4 surfaces on 6 index teeth (16, 11, 26, 36, 31, 46) in 1984-85. The highest value for each tooth of bleeding (0/1), calculus (0/1) and pockets (0/1/2) was used for calculation of the bleeding index, the calculus index and the pocket index. The participation rate in 1984-85 was 86%, and the study population involved 368 males and 388 females. Information concerning dental health behavior was obtained both in childhood (1974) when the individuals were 9-10 years of age, and in adulthood (1984-85) when the individuals were 20-21 years of age. Information concerning dental health behaviors in adulthood, i.e., regularity of dental visits, frequency of tooth brushing, and regular use of interdental aids, was obtained through a self-administered questionnaire (1984-85). Dental health behaviors in childhood (1974) was operationalized as level of plaque, gingivitis, and dmfs. The results showed that dental health behaviors in childhood and in adulthood were together responsible for 9.4-13.8% of the variance in level of periodontal disease indicators. Determinants of early dental health behaviors in terms of plaque and dmfs at age 9-10 years were significant predictors in pocket index at age 20-21. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
How Do Chinese College Students Define Sexual Harassment?

This study aimed to delineate the definitions of sexual harassment and their relation with various subject characteristics. Results showed that Chinese students demonstrated a high level of consensus in regarding overt unwelcome physical contact and coercive sexuality as sexual harassment. Only a small percentage of the students classified sexist and misogynistic behaviors, pressure for dates, and unsolicited disclosure of personal and emotional feelings as sexually harassing. Factor analyses indicated that faculty-student sexual harassment was composed of three factors: sexual coercion, physical seduction, and gender harassment. Peer sexual harassment, on the other hand, included four factors: sexual coercion, physical seduction, nonphysical seduction, and gender harassment. Individuals' intolerance toward sexual harassment was related to their support for gender equality and flexible gender roles. Compared to men, women had broader definitions of sexual harassment and were less tolerant of these behaviors.
Security Problems of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Clouds and Practical Solutions to the Problems

Cloud computing is a promising approach for the efficient use of computational resources. It delivers computing as a service rather than a product for a fraction of the cost. However, security concerns prevent many individuals and organizations from using clouds despite its cost effectiveness. Resolving security problems of clouds may alleviate concerns and increase cloud usage; in consequence, it may decrease overall costs spent for the computational devices and infrastructures. This paper particularly focuses on the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) clouds. Security of PaaS clouds is considered from multiple perspectives including access control, privacy and service continuity while protecting both the service provider and the user. Security problems of PaaS clouds are explored and classified. Countermeasures are proposed and discussed. The achieved solutions are intended to be the rationales for future PaaS designs and implementations.
Mining Software Profile across Multiple Repositories for Hierarchical Categorization

The large amounts of software repositories over the Internet are fundamentally changing the traditional paradigms of software maintenance. Efficient categorization of the massive projects for retrieving the relevant software in these repositories is of vital importance for Internet-based maintenance tasks such as solution searching, best practices learning and so on. Many previous works have been conducted on software categorization by mining source code or byte code, which are only verified on relatively small collections of projects with coarse-grained categories or clusters. However, Internet-based software maintenance requires finer-grained, more scalable and language-independent categorization approaches. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to hierarchically categorize software projects based on their online profiles across multiple repositories. We design a SVM-based categorization framework to classify the massive number of software hierarchically. To improve the categorization performance, we aggregate different types of profile attributes from multiple repositories and design a weighted combination strategy which assigns greater weights to more important attributes. Extensive experiments are carried out on more than 18,000 projects across three repositories. The results show that our approach achieves significant improvements by using weighted combination, and the overall precision, recall and F-Measure can reach 71.41%, 65.60% and 68.38% in appropriate settings. Compared to the previous work, our approach presents competitive results with 123 finer-grained and multi-layered categories. In contrast to those using source code or byte code, our approach is more effective for large-scale and language-independent software categorization.
The Effects of Playing an Advergame on Young Children's Perceptions, Preferences, and Requests

A sample (n = 295) of five- to eight-year-old children participated in an experiment, which included a control group, where the treatment group played a Froot Loops cereal advergame that made a superiority claim for the cereal compared to fresh fruit. Measures of their responses to the brand featured, as well as their level of persuasion knowledge, were collected. Although the treatment group failed to believe Froot Loops were healthier than fruit, the older children in the group reported significantly higher preference for the brand over other cereals and other food types. No differences in intentions to request the cereal were found. Children's preferences for the Froot Loops brand were not associated with their persuasion knowledge about the advergame.
Dynamics of turtle horizontal cell response

The small- and large-field (cone) horizontal cells produce similar dynamic responses to a stimulus whose mean luminance is modulated by a white-noise signal. Nonlinear components increase with an increase in the mean luminance and may produce a mean square error (MSE) of up to 15%. Increases in the mean luminance of the field stimulus bring about three major changes: the incremental sensitivity defined by the amplitude of the kernels decreases in a Weber-Fechner fashion; the waveforms of the kernels are transformed from monophasic (integrating) to biphasic (differentiating); the peak response time of the kernels becomes shorter and the cells respond to much higher-frequency inputs. The dynamics of the horizontal cell response also depend on the area of the retina stimulated. Smaller spots of light produce monophasic kernels of a longer peak response time. The presence of a steady background produces three major changes in the spot kernels: the kernel's amplitude becomes larger (incremental sensitivity increases); the peak response times become shorter; the waveform of the kernels changes in a fashion similar to that observed with an increase in the mean luminance of the field stimulus. A similar enhancement in the incremental sensitivity by a steady background has also been observed in catfish, which shows that this phenomenon is a common feature of the horizontal cells in the lower vertebrate retina.
Molecular identity of axonal sodium channels in human cortical pyramidal cells

Studies in rodents revealed that selective accumulation of Na+ channel subtypes at the axon initial segment (AIS) determines action potential (AP) initiation and backpropagation in cortical pyramidal cells (PCs); however, in human cortex, the molecular identity of Na+ channels distributed at PC axons, including the AIS and the nodes of Ranvier, remains unclear. We performed immunostaining experiments in human cortical tissues removed surgically to cure brain diseases. We found strong immunosignals of Na+ channels and two channel subtypes, NaV1.2 and NaV1.6, at the AIS of human cortical PCs. Although both channel subtypes were expressed along the entire AIS, the peak immunosignals of NaV1.2 and NaV1.6 were found at proximal and distal AIS regions, respectively. Surprisingly, in addition to the presence of NaV1.6 at the nodes of Ranvier, NaV1.2 was also found in a subpopulation of nodes in the adult human cortex, different from the absence of NaV1.2 in myelinated axons in rodents. NaV1.1 immunosignals were not detected at either the AIS or the nodes of Ranvier of PCs; however, they were expressed at interneuron axons with different distribution patterns. Further experiments revealed that parvalbumin-positive GABAergic axon cartridges selectively innervated distal AIS regions with relatively high immunosignals of NaV1.6 but not the proximal NaV1.2-enriched compartments, suggesting an important role of axo-axonic cells in regulating AP initiation in human PCs. Together, our results show that both NaV1.2 and NaV1.6 (but not NaV1.1) channel subtypes are expressed at the AIS and the nodes of Ranvier in adult human cortical PCs, suggesting that these channel subtypes control neuronal excitability and signal conduction in PC axons.
Control of Daily Transcript Oscillations in Drosophila by Light and the Circadian Clock

The transcriptional circuits of circadian clocks control physiological and behavioral rhythms. Light may affect such overt rhythms in two ways: (1) by entraining the clock circuits and (2) via clock-independent molecular pathways. In this study we examine the relationship between autonomous transcript oscillations and light-driven transcript responses. Transcript profiles of wild-type and arrhythmic mutant Drosophila were recorded both in the presence of an environmental photocycle and in constant darkness. Systematic autonomous oscillations in the 12- to 48-h period range were detectable only in wild-type flies and occurred preferentially at the circadian period length. However, an extensive program of light-driven expression was confirmed in arrhythmic mutant flies. Many light-responsive transcripts are preferentially expressed in the compound eyes and the phospholipase C component of phototransduction, NORPA (no receptor potential), is required for their light-dependent regulation. Although there is evidence for the existence of multiple molecular clock circuits in cyanobacteria, protists, plants, and fungi, Drosophila appears to possess only one such system. The sustained photic expression responses identified here are partially coupled to the circadian clock and may reflect a mechanism for flies to modulate functions such as visual sensitivity and synaptic transmission in response to seasonal changes in photoperiod.
Teaching the Information Retrieval Process Using a Web-Based Environment and Game Mechanics

Predicting the performance of individual components of information retrieval systems, in particular the complex interactions between those components, is still challenging. Therefore, professionals are needed for the implementation and configuration of retrieval systems and retrieval components. Our web-based application, called Xtrieval Web Lab, enables newcomers and learners to gain practical knowledge about the information retrieval process. They can arrange a multitude of components of retrieval systems and evaluate them with real world data without utilizing a programming language. Game mechanics guide the learners in their discovery process and motivate them.
ENHANCE—(Electronic Hydroxyurea Adherence): A Protocol to Increase Hydroxyurea Adherence in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease

Background Hydroxyurea (HU) is the only disease-modifying medication for patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). HU can reduce SCD-related complications but only 35% to 50% of pediatric patients adhere to HU at the rates achieved in clinical trials and this limits its clinical effectiveness. Mobile Directly Observed Therapy (Mobile DOT) is a pilot-tested, electronic, multidimensional, HU adherence intervention that targets many components of the Health Behavior Model. Objective The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of Mobile DOT on HU adherence in children with SCD. The objective of our study is to inform the development of future adherence interventions and pediatric SCD protocols. Methods This is a single-arm crossover study of pediatric patients with SCD. Participants self-record videos of their daily HU administrations and receive text message alerts to take HU, feedback on their HU adherence, and incentives when they achieve adherence goals during the 6-month Mobile DOT phase. Participants’ HU adherence during the Mobile DOT phase is compared with their baseline HU adherence (6 months prior to study entry) and to their HU adherence 6 months after completing the Mobile DOT phase. The primary outcome of this study is HU adherence measured by medication possession ratio. Results The trial is ongoing. Preliminary review of participant satisfaction results suggest that most participants can complete Mobile DOT in less than 5 minutes per day and are satisfied with the intervention. Conclusions If effective, the Mobile DOT strategy will increase HU adherence and this could improve patients’ clinical outcomes and reduce costs of care.
Combined use of WEB2170 and HBO therapy can reduce ischemia and reperfusion injury to the skeletal muscle in a rabbit model

Ischemia/reperfusion injury is regarded as the main cause of failure in revascularization of limbs and transfer of free flaps in the so called nonreflow phenomenon. This type of damage is caused by the production of free radicals, above all, of neutrophils that release great quantities of extracellular superoxide through the action of a membrane enzyme. In our study we used 40 white rabbits. Rabbit rectus femoris muscle is perfused by a single artery and vein and is therefore a valuable model for study of ischemia‐induced reperfusion injury of skeletal muscle. The objective of this study was to individualize a valid method of protection for the muscle from damage by ischemia‐induced reperfusion injury. We have tested the effectiveness of WEB2170, a PAF antagonist, of hyperbaric oxygen therapy one (HBO), and of combined employment of WEB2170 and HBO. The results show that both PAF and HBO play important protective roles against damage from ischemia/reperfusion injury, and that the combined employment of both therapies has a synergistic effect. We propose therefore a new therapeutic protocol for the prevention of damage resulting from ischemia/reperfusion injury with the simultaneous employment of this PAF and HBO. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. Microsurgery, 2007.
Soft computing and fuzzy logic

Discusses soft computing, a collection of methodologies that aim to exploit the tolerance for imprecision and uncertainty to achieve tractability, robustness, and low solution cost. Its principal constituents are fuzzy logic, neurocomputing, and probabilistic reasoning. Soft computing is likely to play an increasingly important role in many application areas, including software engineering. The role model for soft computing is the human mind. <<ETX>>
ect of explicit urban land surface representation on the simulation of the 26 July 2005 heavy rain event over Mumbai , India

We investigate whether explicit representation of the urban land surface improves the simulation of the record-breaking 24-h heavy rain event that occurred over Mumbai, India on 26 July 2005 as the event has been poorly simulated by operational weather forecasting models. We coupled and conducted experiments using the Regional Atmo-5 sphere modeling system (RAMS 4.3), with and without an explicit urban energy balance model-town energy budget (TEB) to study the role of urban land – atmosphere interactions in modulating the heavy rain event over the Indian monsoon region. The impact of including an explicit urban energy balance on surface thermodynamic, boundary layer, and circulation changes are analyzed. The results indicate that even for this synopti-10 cally active rainfall event, the vertical wind and precipitation are significantly influenced by urbanization, and the effect is more significant during the storm initiation. Interestingly , precipitation in the upwind region of Mumbai city is increased in the simulation, possibly as a feedback from the sea breeze – urban landscape convergence. We find that even with the active monsoon, the representation of urbanization contributes to 15 local heavy precipitation and mesoscale precipitation distribution over the Indian monsoon region. Additional experiments within a statistical dynamical framework show that an urban model by itself is not the dominant factor for the enhanced rainfall for Mumbai heavy rain event; the combination of updated SST fields using Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) data with the detailed representation of urban heat island 20 (UHI) simulated by the TEB/urban model created realistic gradients that successfully maintained the convergence zone over Mumbai. Further research will require more detailed morphology data for simulating weather events in such urban regions. The results suggest that urbanization can significantly contribute to extremes in monsoonal rain events that have been reported to be on the rise.
The Theory and Classification of Criterion Bias

IN that area of psychology concerned with the development of tests and other predictive instruments, psychologists have continually emphasized the need for validation. This insistence is sufficiently pronounced to serve as a trade mark of professional psychologists. It is consistent with this insistence upon validation, that the importance of the criterion problem has been widely recognized. This is particularly true of the many psychologists connected with the various testing programs conducted during World War II. However, little attention and less effort have been devoted to a systematic consideration of the problems involved in criterion construction. Publications by Bellows (I), Stuit (13), Toops (iS), Viteles (18) and Guilford (9) are among the few dealing particularly with these problems. Any systematic consideration of the problems involved in criterion construction inevitably leads to the problem of bias;
Correlated Action Effects in Decision Theoretic Regression

Much recent research in decision theoretic planning has adopted Markov decision processes (MDPs) as the model of choice, and has attempted to make their solution more tractable by exploiting problem structure. One particular algorithm, structured policy construction achieves this by means of a decision theoretic analog of goal regression, using action descriptions based on Bayesian networks with tree-structured conditional probability tables. The algorithm as presented is not able to deal with actions with correlated effects. We describe a new decision theoretic regression operator that corrects this weakness. While conceptually straightforward, this extension requires a somewhat more complicated technical approach.
Approach for image segmentation based on improved visual attention mechanism

The computational model of visual attention mechanism could be used to solve the deficiency of classical image segmentation algorithm such as setting parameter. In view of the Itti model has the problems that edge blur, low efficiency and the saliency map is not obvious, an improved visual attention mechanism is proposed in this paper. It introduces the edge enhancement equation, uses the combination strategy based on weight, and so on. The improved visual attention mechanism combines with the level set method. The binarization saliency map is evolved to obtain the image segmentation result. The experiments show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the SVM algorithm, the adaptive threshold algorithm and the Kmeans clustering algorithm in image segmentation, and it shows strong robustness.