Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Revised structures of avenacosides A and B and a new sulfated saponin from Avena sativa L.

The revised structures of avenacosides A and B and a new sulfated steroidal saponin isolated from grains of Avena sativa L. were elucidated. Their structures and complete NMR assignments are based on 1D and 2D NMR studies and identified as nuatigenin 3‐O‐{α‐l‐rhamnopyranosyl‐(1→2)‐[β‐D‐glucopyranosyl‐(1→4)]‐β‐d‐glucopyranoside}‐26‐O‐β‐d‐glucopyranoside (1), nuatigenin 3‐O‐{α‐l‐rhamnopyranosyl‐(1→2)‐[β‐d‐glucopyranosyl‐(1→3)‐β‐d‐glucopyranosyl‐(1→4)]‐β‐d‐glucopyranoside}‐26‐O‐β‐d‐glucopyranoside (2), and nuatigenin 3‐O‐{α‐l‐rhamnopyranosyl‐(1→2)‐[β‐d‐6‐O‐sulfoglucopyranosyl‐(1→4)]‐β‐d‐glucopyranoside}‐26‐O‐β‐d‐glucopyranoside (3). Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
IκB-Kinase-epsilon (IKKε) over-expression promotes the growth of prostate cancer through the C/EBP-β dependent activation of IL-6 gene expression

The inflammatory cytokine IL-6 has been shown to induce the nuclear translocation of androgen receptors in prostate cancer cells and to activate the androgen receptors in a ligand-independent manner, suggesting it may contribute to the development of a castrate-resistant phenotype. Elevated IL-6 serum levels have also been associated with metastasis-related morbidity in prostate cancer patients. We have previously established that over-expression of I-kappa-B-kinase-epsilon (IKKε also named IKKi or IκBKε) in hormone-sensitive prostate cancer cell lines induces IL-6 secretion. We have also reported that prostate cancer cell lines lacking androgen receptor expression exhibit high constitutive IKKε expression and IL-6 secretion. In the present study, we validated the impact of IKKε depletion on the in vitro proliferation of castrate-resistant prostate cancer cells, and characterized how IKKε depletion affects tumor growth and IL-6 tumor secretion in vivo through a mouse xenograft-based approach. We observed a significant growth delay in IKKε-silenced PC-3 cells injected in SCID mice fed with a doxycycline-supplemented diet in comparison with mice fed with a normal diet. We also found a decrease in IL-6 secretion levels that strongly correlated with tumor growth inhibition. Finally, using constructs with various IL-6-mutated promoters, we demonstrated that IKKε over-expression induces a NF-κB-independent stimulation of the IL-6 gene promoter through the activation and nuclear accumulation of the transcription factor C/EBP-β. Our study demonstrates the pro-proliferative role of the oncogene IKKε in castrate-resistant prostate cancer cell lines, involving the phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of C/EBP-β that initiates IL-6 gene expression.
High temperature x-ray diffraction camera.

A high‐temperature x‐ray powder diffraction camera has been designed and constructed. The design specifications were as follows: (1) to permit operation at temperatures up to at least 2000°C, in a high vacuum, (2) to be able to work in controlled atmosphere at somewhat lower temperatures, and (3) to permit successive exposures of the specimen held at temperature. The completed apparatus appears to meet these requirements.
10.4 A 12Gb/s 0.9mW/Gb/s wide-bandwidth injection-type CDR in 28nm CMOS with reference-free frequency capture

The consumer electronics market demands high-speed and low-power serial data interfaces. The injection locked oscillator (ILO) based clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit [1-2], is a well-known solution for these demands. The typical solution has at least two oscillators: a master and one or more slaves. The master, a replica of the data path ILO, is part of a phase locked loop (PLL) used to correct the oscillator free-running frequency (FRF). The slave ILO phase locks to the incoming data but uses the frequency control from the master. Any FRF difference between the master and slave, such as that caused by PVT or mismatch, reduces the receiver performance. One solution to the reduced performance [3] uses burst data and corrects the FRF between bursts. However, for continuous data, injection forces the recovered clock frequency to match the incoming data rate, masking any FRF error from the frequency detector. Existing solutions [4-5] use a phase detector (PD) to measure the FRF. However, any static phase offset between the PD lock point and the ILO lock point causes the frequency control algorithm to converge incorrectly. Static phase offset can be caused by mismatch, PVT, or layout. This paper describes an ILO-type CDR, called the frequency-capturing ILO (FCILO), that eliminates the master oscillator and combines the ILO and PLL [6] type CDRs, realizing the benefit of both. The ILO gives wide bandwidth and fast locking while the PLL gives wide frequency capture range. The CDR architecture, shown in Fig 10.4. 2, has a half-rate ILO, data and edge samplers making a bang-bang phase detector (BBPD), two 2:10 demuxes, and independent digital phase and frequency control. The ILO is made from current-starved inverters and driven by an edge detector. The ILO has coarse and fine frequency tuning. The strength of the unit inverter of the oscillator is adjusted for coarse tuning, keeping the normalized gain and delay constant over a wide range of frequencies. A current DAC is used for fine tuning. The edge detector shorts the ILO differential nodes together to align clock and data transitions. The BBPD outputs are used by the digital phase and frequency control to determine if ILO edges are early or late with respect to the incoming data and to correct the ILO FRF. A variable delay circuit controls the timing between data and clock inputs to the BBPD, correcting the static phase offset between the PD and ILO lock points.
Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility for Marketing in the Global Marketplace

This essay explores the relevance of ethics and corporate responsibility for marketing in the global marketplace. Structured into four chapters, it first presents the emergence of ethics and corporate social responsibility during the last 20 years. It then undertakes to clarify key ethical concepts of morality, ethics, responsibility, and marketing ethics. Subsequently, the context of ‘the global marketplace’ is characterized as a field of applied ethics with its implications for marketing ethics. To conclude, evolving perspectives are delineated for marketing ethics in the global arena.
Neutrophil marrow cellularity in neutropenia

In order to identify individuals in whom marrow abnormalities might be contributing to or responsible for neutropenia, we quantitatively examined the number and distribution of cells comprising neutrophil marrow in patients with blood neutrophils less than 2,000/μl. Neutrophil marrow cellularity was determined from ferrokinetic estimation of normoblast numbers and neutrophil‐normoblast ratios obtained from marrow biopsy sections. Only two of 30 patients exhibited the change in cellularity expected of a normal marrow responding to removal of circulating neutrophils: reduced numbers of segmented cells, an expanded mitotic pool, and a normal ratio of metamyelocytes and band forms to promyelocytes and myelocytes. Twenty‐three patients had basal mitotic pool size or increased numbers of segmented marrow cells despite neutropenia, a hypoplastic mitotic pool, or a reduction in the number of metas and bands relative to promyelocytes and myelocytes. The results in individual patients were consistent with hypoplasia, subnormal proliferative or release responses, loss of cells during ontogeny, or combinations thereof. In five cases the results could not be so classified. Clinical observations seldom predicted marrow cellularity. Diverse disorders of marrow function appear to be common among neutropenic patients. Neutropenia constitutes a rich field for study of neutrophil marrow physiology.
User authentication in securing communication using Digital Certificate and public key infrastructure

Security threats are becoming more issues of concern for e-commerce, financial institution to cloud computing and network application. These papers introduce an application of user authentication which combine Digital Certificate (DC) and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), including securing electronic transaction and data flow control. The main purpose of this paper is to solve the problems of transferring data across the network, such as phishing, eavesdropping, snooping, sniffing, modification and masquerading.
In-Stent Restenosis? The Raiders of the Magic Remedy.

The introduction of bare metal stents (BMS) over 30 years ago was a significant milestone in the evolution of percutaneous coronary intervention. Soon after, it was apparent that these stents led to a troubling phenomenon of in-stent restenosis (ISR), which requires repeat revascularization, was associated with increased morbidity and mortality, and posed a therapeutic challenge. The quest for optimal therapy for ISR has begun, but in parallel, continued efforts were devoted to improve the stent technology. These iterations included design and alloy modification, reducing strut thickness, and adding a polymer to elute an antiproliferative drug. Drug-eluting stents (DES) significantly reduced the occurrence of exuberant neointimal proliferation.1 However, in spite of the wide use and experience gained with novel stent technologies and implantation techniques, the rates of ISR in both BMS and DES are still relatively high.2 In a contemporary report on a large cohort (n=10 004), routine angiographic surveillance 6 to 8 months after stent implantation has revealed ISR rates of 30.1%, 14.6%, and 12.2% for BMS, first-generation DES, and second-generation DES, respectively.3 See Article by Alfonso et al To optimize the treatment of ISR, it is imperative to identify and understand the major etiologies for ISR that have been traditionally classified and characterized as (1) operator or technique dependent, including stent undersizing, incomplete lesion coverage, stent under expansion, and malapposition; (2) mechanical and design properties of stents that may lead to recoil because of loss of radial force, stent fractures, and altering increase in shear stress; (3) patient- and biologically related conditions, such as metal allergy, local hypersensitivity reactions with immunologic and inflammatory response to the drug or the polymer, often characterized with inflammatory cells and smooth muscle cells that transformed to rigid scar tissue within the stent. This local inflammation can lead to the development of …
A 79-GHz 2 $\times $ 2 MIMO PMCW Radar SoC in 28-nm CMOS

In this paper, the concept of phase modulated MIMO radars is explained and demonstrated with a 28-nm CMOS fully integrated 79-GHz radar SoC. It includes two transmitters, two receivers, and the mm-wave frequency generation. The receivers’ outputs are digitized by on-chip ADCs and processed by a custom designed digital core, which performs correlation and accumulation with a pseudorandom sequence used in transmission. The SoC consumes 1 W to achieve 7.5 cm range resolution. A module with antennas allows for 5° resolution over ±60° elevation and azimuth scan in 2<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula>2 code domain MIMO operation. A 4<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula>4 MIMO system is also demonstrated by means of two SoCs mounted on the same module.
An administrative intervention to improve the utilization of laboratory tests within a university hospital.

BACKGROUND Improving the appropriateness of testing behavior and reducing the number of laboratory tests have been recognized as essential parts of quality improvement. OBJECTIVE To assess the effectiveness of an administrative and a short-term educational intervention aimed at reducing clinical biochemistry laboratory utilization. DESIGN An analysis comparing utilization of laboratory tests performed on in-patients before and after the intervention. SETTING Computerized database of all laboratory tests performed in Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel during 1999-2003. INTERVENTION The administrative intervention included restricting available emergency laboratory tests and frequency of repeated orders. The educational measures included: discussion of the misuse of laboratory tests and its consequences with the hospital medical staff, and presentation of the new restrictive policy. A feedback of the intervention's results was sent to the wards and reviewed with senior medical staff. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Change in utilization (measured as rates per 100 hospital days) of clinical biochemistry tests by hospital division and by selected laboratory tests. RESULTS An overall reduction of 19% in laboratory tests (95% CI: 18.8-19.2%) was observed in the year after the intervention. Utilization decreased significantly in all the hospital's medical divisions, within a range of 14.9-43.8%. During the intervention period, utilization of hematology tests was reduced by 7.6% (P = 0.009). Statistically significant reductions were noted in the ordering of all 12 selected clinical biochemistry tests. Although the orders of total cholesterol decreased by 72.2%, the utilization of 'high-volume' tests, such as glucose and electrolytes, showed only a modest decrease (7.9% and 6.9%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS The present study included all hospital medical staff and covered all the available clinical biochemistry tests. This rather simple and low-cost intervention resulted in significant reductions in clinical biochemistry test orders as well as in the ordering of hematological blood tests.
Evaluation of discriminant analysis based on dorsoventral symmetry indices to quantify hindlimb lameness during over ground locomotion in the horse.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY Advances in gait analysis techniques have led to assessment tools that can aid in detecting and quantifying lameness; here, bilateral tubera coxae and pelvic movement during over ground locomotion are compared in order to investigate a practical method to assess hindlimb lameness in the horse. OBJECTIVES To evaluate which parameters from anatomical landmarks on trunk and proximal hindlimbs are the best indicators of degree and side of hindlimb lameness. METHODS Fifteen horses (age 11-23 years, 6 nonlame and 9 unilaterally hindlimb lame horses 1/10 to 2/10 lame) were fitted with 4 inertial sensors: tuber sacrale, left and right tubera coxae and withers; 889 strides were collected from 6 trot trials per horse. Horses were assessed for lameness by a qualified equine orthopaedic surgeon from videos. Vertical displacement data for each sensor were used to calculate symmetry indices as well as published Fourier analysis based parameters. Linear discriminant analysis was used to determine the most discriminative parameters for 2 scenarios: grading of severity of lameness and identification of the affected limb. RESULTS Pelvic energy ratio gave the best indication for the degree of lameness. Directional symmetry index of the tubera coxae sensors yielded the highest discriminative power for identification of the lame limb. CONCLUSIONS AND POTENTIAL RELEVANCE A good indication of the degree of hindlimb lameness can be obtained from vertical displacement data of the pelvic midline, collected from inertial sensors during over ground locomotion. The trunk mounted inertial sensor system allows for a time efficient collection of a representative database from horses with differing grade and site of lameness in a clinical setting. This is crucial for future work on a robust definition of the best parameters for lameness classification under practical conditions.
A miniature actively recharged single-photon detector free of afterpulsing effects with 6ns dead time in a 0.18µm CMOS technology

A CMOS single-photon detector, including a highly miniaturized active recharge circuit, achieving the highest counting rate yet reported for an afterpulsing-free Geiger-mode photodiode is introduced. Thanks to its low-noise and 6-ns dead time figure, a dynamic-range of 116dB for steady-state photon counting in a single acquisition time of 20ms was achieved.
A GaAs MMIC Digital Phase Modulator

The paper introduces a GaAs MMIC digital phase modulator based on a lumped quadrature hybrid. The quadrature coupler is implemented using two interleaved spiral inductors in a transformer-like configuration. The phase control is obtained electronically tuning two L-C resonators that load the coupled ports. The resulting phase modulator exhibits a continuous phase-shift capability of nearly 230°. The modulator can be digitally driven providing a 0°-180° or 0°-90° phase-shift, with constant insertion loss. Theoretical and experimental results are discussed.
Drug-induced hypothermia begun 5 minutes after injury with a poly(adenosine 5′-diphosphate-ribose) polymerase inhibitor reduces hypoxic brain injury in rat pups*

Objective Poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors have shown promise in hypoxic ischemic brain damage. We wished to see if GPI-6150 (1,11b-dihydro-[2H]benzopyrano[4,3,2-de]isoquinolin-3-one), a specific PARP inhibitor, would reduce brain injury in a newborn animal model. Design Randomized controlled trial. Setting University laboratory. Subjects Seven-day-old rat pups. Intervention Subjects had the right carotid artery ligated and then received either vehicle or 5, 15, or 30 mg/kg GPI-6150 intraperitoneally 5 mins after the hypoxia. Hypoxia was produced by exposing the pups to 8% oxygen for 2.5 hrs. Measurements and Main Results Twenty-two days later, the brains were scored from normal to severely damaged and were weighed by a blinded observer. Twenty-four of 53 (45%) vehicle-treated pups, 11 of 22 (50%) 5 mg/kg treated pups, 22 of 23 (96%) 15 mg/kg treated pups (p < .01 vs. vehicle), and 16 of 31 (52%) 30 mg/kg treated pups were scored as normal. Right hemisphere weight was reduced by 15 ± 2.6% in the vehicle group, 5.9 ± 2.8% in the 5 mg/kg group, −0.4 ± 1.7% in the 15 mg/kg group (p < .01 vs. vehicle), and 13.3 ± 3.1% in the 30 mg/kg group. GPI-6150 decreased rectal temperature from 33 ± 0.4 to 29 ± 0.7°C for 3 hrs after dosing, but temperatures returned to normal by 6 hrs. We maintained the body temperature at 35°C for 6 hrs after injury in a group of pups treated with 15 mg/kg. Nine of 25 (41%) vehicle-treated and 15 of 26 (58%) GPI-6150-treated pups were scored as normal (p = nonsignificant). Right hemisphere weight was reduced by 25 ± 4% in the vehicle group and 20 ± 5% in the GPI-6150 group (p = nonsignificant). Conclusions GPI-6150 at a dose of 15 mg/kg dramatically decreased the number of pups sustaining brain injury, relative to vehicle, but is dependent on an induced decrease in core temperature to produce the effect.
Effect of encapsulation of selected probiotic cell on survival in simulated gastrointestinal tract condition

The health benefits of probiotic bacteria have been led to their increasing use in foods. Encapsulation has been investigated to improve their survival. In this study, the selection, encapsulation and viability of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) with probiotic properties in simulated gastrointestinal tract (GIT) condition were investigated. One hundred and fifty isolates of LAB were obtained from 30 samples of raw cow and goat milk and some fermented foods. Nine isolates could survive under GIT condition and only 3 isolates exhibited an antimicrobial activity against all food-borne pathogenic bacteria. Among them, 2 isolates (CM21 and CM53) exhibited bile salt hydrolase activity on glycocholate and glycodeoxycholate agar plates and were identified as Lactobacillus plantarum. CM53 was selected for encapsulation using 1-3% alginate and 2% Hi-maize resistant starch by emulsion system. Viability and releasing ability of encapsulated CM53 in simulated GIT condition was increased in accordance to the alginate concentration and incubation time, respectively.
Policies for Developing Country Engagement

A successful global effort to mitigate global climate change will require substantial cooperation between developed and developing countries. Even as the bulk of the developed world is at some stage of enacting significant domestic regulations to meet global stabilization goals, growth in developing country emissions will easily thwart those goals unless a cooperative solution is found. We argue that there is a wide range of options that should be pursued, including domestic policy reforms in developing countries, expanded financing mechanisms to address incremental costs, and diplomatic efforts in a variety of forums, all aimed at increasing developing country mitgation efforts over time.
Gray-scale character recognition by Gabor jets projection

We propose a gray-scale character recognition method for video indexing. It is robust against the problems of binarization against a complex background and low resolution. Unlike a traditional character recognition scheme through image binarization, we directly extract Gabor features (called Gabor jets) from video contents. The use of the Gabor filters contributes to freeing a tricky binarization process for cluttered images, and furthermore provides localized directional edge features, which have phase-shift invariance to edge positions. To form a feature vector to be classified, we accumulate the extracted Gabor features along projection lines in local regions, and then categorize them with a standard LVQ classifier. The projective accumulation provides robustness under character deformation caused by variation of font types or imprecise segmentation. We compare the proposed method by experiments with a typical OCR method, for which correct binarization is advantageously given. The proposed method shows similar or superior performance to the other method in understanding video captions.
Commentary: predicting response to ciclosporin in acute severe ulcerative colitis

*Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Virginia Commonwealth University and McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Richmond, VA, USA. Department of Epidemiology and Community Health, Virginia Commonwealth University and McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Richmond, VA, USA. Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA. E-mail: jsbajaj@vcu.edu