Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Antioxidative and cytotoxic properties of diarylheptanoids isolated from Zingiber officinale].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the antioxidant and cytotoxic properties of five diarylheptanoids (1-5) isolated from the rhizomes of Zingiber officinale. METHOD Various models such as scavenging superoxide anions and 1,1-diphenyl-2- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals, inhibiting lipid peroxidation, as well as protecting of rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells induced by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) were employed to assay the antioxidative effects of the diarylheptanoids. The cytotoxicities of compounds 1-5 were measured with MTT assays. RESULT The test compounds (1-5) showed promising DPPH inhibitory activities, and compound 5 exhibited the strongest DPPH scavenging activity with an IC50 value of (22.6+/-2.4) micromol x L(-1). Compounds 1, 3 and 4 showed potential anti-peroxidative effects with inhibitory rates of (66.3+/-15.4)%, (68.7+/-15.8)% and (72.2+/-10.6)%, respectively, at 100 microg x mL(-1). It could be observed that compounds 1, 3 and 4 demonstrated significant neuroprotective activities in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, compound 3 exhibited certain cytotoxicities against human chronic myelogenous leukemia cells (K562) and its adriamycin-resistant cells (K562/ADR) with IC50 values of (34.9+/-0.6), (50.6+/-23.5) micromol x L(-1), respectively. CONCLUSION In vitro results demonstrated that five diarylheptanoids (1-5) isolated from the roots of Z. officinale were capable of scavenging radicals, inhibiting lipid peroxidation and protecting PC12 cells against the insult by H2O2. Additionally, compound 3 could inhibit the growth of K562 and K562/ADR cells.
Heat and social stress effects on pig immune measures.

Forty-eight domestic pigs were used to evaluate the effects of heat and social stress on immune indices. Pigs were brought together in groups of three per pen and video-taped for the first 72 h. Video tapes were viewed to determine time spent in aggressive and submissive behaviors. Social status of each pig was determined from outcomes of agonistic interactions. Pens of pigs were housed in either a thermoneural (control, 24 degrees C) or heat-stress (33 degrees C) air temperature. Immune measures were determined from blood samples obtained on d 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 after grouping. Social status had an effect (P < .05) on lymphocyte proliferation in response to pokeweed mitogen: socially intermediate pigs had a higher proliferative response than socially dominant or subordinate pigs. Many immune measures showed a significant interaction between heat and social stress over days of the study. Generally, socially dominant or submissive pigs had alterations in immune function (elevated numbers of neutrophils, decreased antibody production) compared with socially intermediate pigs. In conclusion, heat and social stress interact in their effect on the pig's immune system. Although one might have predicted immunosuppression among submissive pigs, there also seemed to be immunological costs to dominant pigs as well. These data also have implications in design of stressor research in that social behavior should be measured or controlled.
Input Differential-Mode EMI of CRM Boost PFC Converter

In this paper, the differential-mode (DM) electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise of a single-phase boost power factor correction converter operating in critical current mode was analyzed. The DM noise spectra are calculated based on the mathematical model of EMI receiver and the required corner frequencies of DM filter are obtained. It can be seen that the minimum corner frequencies are determined by the maximum noises at 150 kHz. With the relation between the magnitude of the inductor current ripple and the DM noise, the characteristics of noise at 150 kHz are obtained by analyzing the current ripple magnitude at 150 kHz; thus, the worst conditions which have the maximum noise value are figured out. Meanwhile, the maximum noises at 150 kHz for different input voltages are identical, so the DM filter can be designed based on one worst spectrum at one input voltage without testing the spectra in other conditions.
Prognostic molecular markers in women aged 35 years or younger with breast cancer: is there a difference from the older patients?

Background Women aged ≤35 years with breast cancer have a poor prognosis, but their prognostic factors have not been clearly defined. Aims To evaluate whether the molecular markers used in age-unspecified breast cancer could also be applied to women ≤35 years. Methods Archival tumours from patients aged ≤35 years with stage I–III breast cancer were collected. Oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), HER2, Ki67 and P53 protein expression profiles in paraffin-embedded tissue sections were determined by immunohistochemistry. Tumours with an HER2 score of 2+ were further evaluated by fluorescence in situ hybridisation. Mutational analysis of exons 4–9 of the TP53 gene and exons 9 and 20 of the PIK3CA gene was carried out using direct sequencing analysis. Results 116 patients with a median follow-up duration of 62.7 months were included. In addition to tumour size and axillary lymph node status, univariate analysis showed that high Ki67 expression, ER-negative, HER2 overexpression, and TP53 mutations were associated with shorter overall survival. Multivariate analysis showed that high Ki67 expression (HR=3.93, p=0.005), HER2 overexpression (HR=3.21, p=0.013) and TP53 mutations (HR=4.44, p=0.005) were associated with shorter overall survival. PR expression and PIK3CA mutations were not associated with survival. Conclusions For women ≤35 years, TP53 mutations, Ki67 and HER2 expressions are strong prognostic factors. The limited prognostic value of hormone receptors suggests that the prognostic markers used in age-unspecified breast cancer may not be completely fit for this population.
Focus on determinants of male fertility.

Understanding the main determinants of male fertility would allow us to advance our knowledge of male reproductive function and lifetime reproductive strategies, and also to design appropriate tests to evaluate males and semen samples collected from them. Sperm evaluation has moved away from subjective analysis to more objective means of assessing cell morphology, dimensions, functions, and the underlying mechanisms that ultimately lead to successful fertilization and generation of viable offspring. Future studies dealing with sperm function as well as biomarker identification and the development of molecular tools will undoubtedly yield better and more reliable assays. Spermatozoa experience many complex processes and these influence, to varying degrees, the fertilizing capacity of the sperm cell. After differentiation in the testis, spermatozoa undergo several key events towards fertilization; events, which have, to a greater or lesser extent, been identified as potential indicators of sperm quality. The analysis of male reproductive function needs to consider species and individual variation, and recognize that ejaculate components, including sperm form and function, may vary between ejaculates from the same animal. It is also important to bear in mind that there are important differences between the species in terms of reproductive strategies. Species or populations may differ depending on the selection pressures that have acted on them. In the case of wild populations, selective pressures will differ markedly depending on mating systems and, in particular, the intensity of sperm competition (i.e. competition between rival ejaculates when females mate with more than one male). In the case of domestic species subjected to artificial selection, breeding schemes differ in the traits that they target (e.g. selection for milk yield, meat production, or male fertility), and these differences may have a profound influence on sperm traits. In other species (e.g. man, horses, or companion animals) many studies focus on sub-fertile or infertile patients, and this may generate a bias when trying to understand the potential relationship between semenparameters and sperm fertility. The identification of sperm parameters important for fertility also requires advances on both the development of laboratory tests for sperm assessment and the
Wavelet based segmentation and time-frequency caracterisation of some abnormal heart sound signals

Biomedical signal recordings are so complex and nonstationnary, they are also affected by different kinds of noise that make their interpretation difficult. The major goal of the paper consists of two ideas. In the first one, we present the results of segmentation method followed by the time frequency caracterisation of some phonocardiogram (PCG) signals. The paper using the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) in conjunction with Shannon entropy provided a useful tool for phonocardiogram (PCG) segmentation. In the segmentation technique, we calculate the entropy of the details coefficients at each level and threshold it in order to detect the murmur of heart sound signals. Several real-life signals were used: Early Aortic Stenosis (EAS), Late Aortic stenosis (LAS), Mitral Regurgitation (MR), Aortic Regurgitation (AR) . The results of the method illustrate clearly the detection of the main components S1, S2, S3, pathological murmurs and the identification of the valves disease.
Pose Normalization Network for Object Classification

: Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have demonstrated their effectiveness in synthesizing 3D views of object instances at various viewpoints. Given the problem where one have limited viewpoints of a particular object for classification, we present a pose normalization architecture to transform the object to existing viewpoints in the training dataset before classification to yield better classification performance. We have demonstrated that this Pose Normalization Network (PNN) can capture the style of the target object and is able to re-render it to a desired viewpoint. Moreover, we have shown that the PNN improves the classification result for the 3D chairs dataset and ShapeNet airplanes dataset when given only images at limited viewpoint, as compared to a CNN baseline.
Allergy in the Mediterranean area II: cross‐allergenicity among Urticaceae pollens (Parietaria and Urtica)

Pollens of related species usually share common antigens and are cross‐reacting but this is not always the case. The cross‐allergenicity of two species of Urticaceae pollens (Parietaria and Urtica, nettle) was sought by means of RAST‐inhibition and isoelectric focusing. A preliminary experiment in forty‐two patients investigated by means of skin tests and RAST showed that most patients were either allergic to Parietaria or nettle and that both reactivities were uncommonly associated. The results of RAST‐inhibition confirmed the total absence of cross‐reactivity between these two related species. IEF patterns indicated that most proteins are in the acidic range of pH and did not reveal large discrepancies. Parietaria and Urtica pollens, although belonging to the same family and having close microscopic patterns, have very different allergenic activities. This study demonstrates that cross‐allergenicity cannot be predicted.
The Multiple Faces of Disordered

An evolutionary advantage of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) is their ability to bind a variety of folded proteins—a paradigm that is central to the nucleocytoplasmic transport mechanism, in which nuclear transport receptors mediate the translocation of various cargo through the nuclear pore complex by binding disordered phenylalanine–glycine-rich nucleoporins (FG-Nups). FG-Nups are highly dynamic, which poses a substantial problem when trying to determine precisely their function using common experimental approaches. FG-Nups have been studied under a variety of conditions, ranging from those that constitute single-molecule measurements to physiological concentrations at which they can form supramolecular structures. In this review, I describe the physicochemical properties of FG-Nups and compare them to those of other disordered systems, including well-studied IDPs. From this comparison, it is apparent that FG-Nups not only share some properties with IDPs in general but also possess unique characteristics that might be key to their central role in the nucleocytoplasmic transport machinery. © 2016 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Disability free life expectancy in older Italians

Purpose: To estimate Disability-Free Life Expectancy (DFLE) among a cohort of 3005 Italians aged 65 – 84 and evaluate geographical differences. Method: Sullivan method was used to estimate DFLE based on the Performance Test (PPTs), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) and Activities of Daily Living (ADLs); furthermore, a hierarchical scale of disability was defined to evaluate the pattern of DFLE and geographical differences. Results: Men aged 65 – 69 will live 67% of their remaining life free of PPTs disability, 77% free of IADLs and 83% free of ADLs disability. Women aged 65 – 69 will live 44, 63 and 76%, respectively. In the hierarchical structure, mild DFLE for subjects aged 65 – 69, was of 12.8 years for both sexes; moderate DFLE was of 13.4 and 14.2 years and severe DFLE was of 13.5 and 15.3 years, for men and women, respectively. People living in Central Italy are those with the highest number of years lived free of mild disability; people living in Northern Italy are instead those expected to live more years free of moderate and severe disability. Conclusions: The hierarchical approach showed that women tend to live more years with some level of disability than men, although the moderate and severe disability occur almost simultaneously among men.
Localization of third sound by a disordered substrate.

On propose l'utilisation du troisieme son dans des couches minces 4 He sur substrat desordonne pour etudier la localisation d'Anderson a 2 dimensions. On donne des predictions quantitatives de la longueur de localisation en utilisant une theorie diagrammatique autocoherente de la localisation. Des effets tres importants sont predits dans les regimes experimentaux accessibles
Spectral Unmixing in Multiple-Kernel Hilbert Space for Hyperspectral Imagery

In this paper, we address a spectral unmixing problem for hyperspectral images by introducing multiple-kernel learning (MKL) coupled with support vector machines. To effectively solve issues of spectral unmixing, an MKL method is explored to build new boundaries and distances between classes in multiple-kernel Hilbert space (MKHS). Integrating reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHSs) spanned by a series of different basis kernels in MKHS is able to provide increased power in handling general nonlinear problems than traditional single-kernel learning in RKHS. The proposed method is developed to solve multiclass unmixing problems. To validate the proposed MKL-based algorithm, both synthetic data and real hyperspectral image data were used in our experiments. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has a strong ability to capture interclass spectral differences and improve unmixing accuracy, compared to the state-of-the-art algorithms tested.
High Photo-to-Dark-Current Ratio in SiGe/Si Schottky-Barrier Photodetectors by Using an a-Si:H Cap Layer

SiGe/Si heterojunction infrared Schottky-barrier photodetectors (PDs) with different thicknesses (30-60 nm) of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) cap layers were successfully fabricated. The SiGe and a-Si:H layers were deposited by using ultrahigh-vacuum chemical vapor deposition and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition systems, respectively. In the fabricated PDs, it was observed that the a-Si:H cap layer can effectively suppress a dark current and that the thicker a-Si:H cap can obtain lower dark current. The lowest dark current was observed in the 60-nm a-Si:H capped PDs. When compared with a capless a-Si:H device, the dark current in the 60-nm a-Si:H capped PD was reduced by a magnitude of 317 at 4-V reverse-bias voltage. However, by increasing the a-Si:H thickness, the photocurrent was reduced. Therefore, a compromise in a-Si:H thickness should be chosen. We discovered that the photo-to-dark-current ratio was enhanced by a factor of 850 for 30-nm a-Si:H capped PDs as compared to that of capless a-Si:H devices. Thus, a PD with a higher noise-rejection ability was achieved by merely inserting a thin a-Si:H layer. Possible mechanisms are discussed in detail by the use of spectrum and band diagrams.
Object recognition using rotation invariant local binary pattern of significant bit planes

The binary feature descriptors such as binary robust independent elementary features (BRIEF), oriented rotated binary robust independent elementary features (ORB), and fast retina keypoint (FREAK) usually perform binarisation on the intensity comparisons, thus they lose some useful information. In this study, the authors propose an effective binary image descriptor which is called significant bit-planes-based local binary pattern for visual recognition. First, the authors divide an image into several sub regions according to the intensity orders to incorporate the spatial information. Then the authors extract the higher bit planes for all the sub regions and sort the adjacent neighbour bits based on the corresponding intensity orders, which make the descriptor invariant to rotation. In order to further improve the discriminative ability, the authors sample the multi-scale neighbours and average the adjacent pixels and extract the feature descriptor from the higher bit planes. Since the authors directly perform operation on the significant bit planes without quantisation, the authors decrease the information loss to some extent. The descriptor has demonstrated a better performance over the state-of-the-art binary descriptors as well as scale invariant feature transform on two recognition benchmarks (i.e. Kentucky and ETHZ) and PASCAL 2007 for image classification.
A novel haemostatic powder delivery device applicable in minimally invasive surgery

Abstract Haemostatic powder is an effective solution commonly used in various open surgeries. However, there is no specific intra-abdominal delivery device for application of haemostatic powder at the bleeding site during minimally invasive surgery (MIS). In this study, design, construction and test of a novel powder delivery device were carried out. The device uses pressurized gas to deliver the haemostatic powder to the bleeding point. The effect of the gas pressure and the spraying distance on the geometry of the powder dispersion surface area was investigated and found to be significant. The findings indicate that the driving gas pressure range of 60–80 mmHg and the spraying distance range of 2–5 cm achieve the most concentrated powder dispersion surface area. Additionally, in vivo experiments confirmed the effectiveness of the device in live tissue.
Underlying finite state machine for the social engineering attack detection model

Information security is a fast-growing discipline, and relies on continued improvement of security measures to protect sensitive information. In general, human operators are often highly susceptible to manipulation, and tend to be one of the weakest links in the security chain. A social engineering attack targets this weakness by using various manipulation techniques to elicit individuals to perform sensitive requests. The field of social engineering is still in its infancy with respect to formal definitions, attack frameworks, examples of attacks and detection models. In order to formally address social engineering in a broad context, this paper proposes the underlying finite state machine of the Social Engineering Attack Detection Model (SEADM). The model has been proven to successfully thwart social engineering attacks utilising either bidirectional communication, unidirectional communication or indirect communication. Proposing and exploring the underlying finite state machine of the model allows one to have a clearer overview of the mental processing performed within the model. While the current model provides a general procedural template for implementing detection mechanisms for social engineering attacks, the finite state machine provides a more abstract and extensible model that highlights the interconnections between task categories associated with different scenarios. The finite state machine is intended to help facilitate the incorporation of organisation specific extensions by grouping similar activities into distinct categories, subdivided into one or more states. In addition, it facilitates additional analysis on state transitions that are difficult to extract from the original flowchart based model.
Wearable haptic display by the use of a Particle Mechanical Constraint

A Particle Mechanical Constraint is a soft vinyl tube that envelops Styrofoam beads. It has 6 degrees-of-freedom including compression, elongation, bending and twisting. By exhausting the inside air the PMC solidifies and constraints all degrees-of-freedom in an arbitrary shape. The stiffness of the PMC is proportional to the inside air pressure. Viscosity is also controlled virtually by changing the inside air pressure in proportion to the speed of transformation of the PMC. By the use of a PMC, we developed a wearable haptic display that provides a sensation of contacting a wall and moving in water with viscosity. We also developed an upper-limb orthotic that constrains shoulder and elbow movements. PMC is adequate as a wearable human interface because it is light, soft and safe. In addition, it is an inherently passive device that never exerts excessive force when broken.
An efficient power allocation game for cognitive radio

We study distributed power control for cognitive radio in this paper. The cognitive radio environment of multiusers is viewed as a non-cooperative game. In the condition of incomplete information, the efficient power control for two users can be realized by finite repeated gaming. If the repeated times M satisfy certain term, the two users can cooperate in the preceding phase of the repeated gaming, thus reaching the Pareto stable equilibrium point of the power allocation. Only when the repeated game is nearly over, users will adopt competitive power allocation strategy.
Urinary catheterization during epidural anesthesia.

© 2010, AWHONN 11 tThe Joint Commission has declared that pain is a critical nursing assessment (Joint Commission, 2009). Nurses must therefore carefully attend to the pain of their clients, including those in labor. The pain of labor has been managed by many different methods, including breathing techniques, showering and position change, as well as analgesics and regional anesthesia. In the United States, epidural anesthesia has become the most commonly employed tool to manage the pain of labor. Indeed, 71 percent of a representative sample of Urinary Catheterization During Epidural Anesthesia