Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ginkgo biloba: A ‘living fossil’ with modern day phytomedicinal applications

Article history: Received on: 19/11/2013 Revised on: 02/12/2013 Accepted on: 01/01/2014 Available online: 30/03/2014 Ginkgo biloba has survived for over 200 million years now. With other members of this gymnosperm extinct, it is considered as a ‘living fossil’. Yinxing, as it is called in Chinese, is very popular in East Asia as a remedy for lung congestion, ischemia and asthma. In modern day medical practice, growing consideration is given to the extract from this tree as a line of treatment in many cancer conditions partly due to the side effects of conventional drugs of therapy. The extract has also anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory and cardioand hepatoprotective roles. These and other numerous recent applications of this important botanical drug are discussed in this review.
Simulating memory outcome before right selective amygdalohippocampectomy

In this paper we present the case of a left-sided speech dominant patient with right medial temporal sclerosis (RMTS) and pharmacoresistant epilepsy who showed improved verbal memory during intracarotid amobarbital test (IAT) at his right hemisphere as compared with his own performance before the drug injection (baseline), as well as after right selective amygdalohippocampectomy. We suggest that the defective verbal memory shown by this patient is due to abnormal activity of his right hippocampus that interfered with the function of his left hippocampus. This hypothesis was demonstrated by the fact that disconnection of the two hippocampi, either by anesthetisation or by resection of the right hippocampus, disengaged the left hippocampus and, consequently improved its function. This paper main objective is twofold: first to contribute to the field of neuropsychology of epilepsy surgery by emphasising on postoperative memory outcomes in right medial temporal lobe epilepsy (RMTLE) patients, particularly those undergoing amygdalohippocampectomy, as the pattern of memory changes after resection of the right temporal lobe is less clear; second, by focusing on memory performance asymmetries during IAT, and comparatively considering them with neuropsychological memory performance, because of their possible prognostic-simulating value.
Peer-assessed behavioural characteristics and sociometric rejection: differences between pupils who have moderate learning difficulties and their mainstream peers.

BACKGROUND The outcomes of social inclusion and skills training programmes for pupils with special educational needs have been mixed. Programmes are generally based on research with mainstream samples yet it has been suggested that the social skills important for sociometric acceptance may be different for children who have special educational needs. AIMS The study aims to compare peer-assessed behavioural characteristics associated with sociometric status for included children who have moderate learning difficulties and their mainstream classmates. SAMPLE Mainstream classmates (N=867) of all the children ascertained as having Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD) and included in mainstream middle schools (8-12 years) in one English county. Subgroups of rejected mainstream (n=38) and pupils with MLD (n=32) were further investigated. METHOD Discriminant function analysis was carried out with peer assessment items as predictors of sociometric status group membership in the mainstream sample and contrasted with previously reported data from pupils with MLD in the same classes. Cluster analysis was used to identify behavioural subtypes within the rejected groups drawn from each sample. For pupils with MLD subtypes were validated using teacher assessments of social behaviour. RESULTS Systematic differences were identified across different analyses between the peer-assessed behavioural characteristics associated with rejected sociometric status for pupils with MLD and for mainstream pupils. CONCLUSIONS The appropriateness of generic social skills training programmes for promoting the social inclusion of pupils with MLD should be questioned and consideration given to rejected pupil subtypes.
Risk of death after first admission for cardiovascular diseases by country of birth in The Netherlands: a nationwide record-linked retrospective cohort study

Objective: To examine differences in short- (28 days) and long-term (5 years) risk of death in patients hospitalised for the first time for various cardiovascular diseases (CVD) by country of birth and/or parental country of birth. Design: A nationwide prospective cohort of CVD patients. Settings: Entire Netherlands. Patients: 118 691 patients hospitalised for the first time for various CVDs were identified through the national hospital discharge, the Dutch population and the cause-of-death registers. Main outcome measures: Differences in short-term and long-term risk of death. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the mortality hazard ratios. Results: After adjusting for age, compared with Dutch patients, Turkish, other non-Western and Western migrants had both a short- and long-term higher risk, while Suriname patients had only a long-term higher risk of total-mortality and combined-CVD mortality. These higher rates were driven mainly by an increased risk of short-term (hazard ratio 3.21; 95% CI 1.03 to 10.03) and long-term (2.29; 1.14 to 4.60) mortality following congestive heart failure (CHF) among Turkish; short-term (1.56; 1.10 to 2.20) and long-term (1.50; 1.11 to 2.01) mortality following cerebrovascular accident (CVA) among the other non-Western migrants; short-term mortality following CVA (1.10; 1.01 to 1.19) and long-tem mortality following CVA (1.10; 1.03 to 1.17), and, to a lesser extent, CHF and myocardial infarction among Western migrants; and a long-term mortality following CVA (1.29; 1.05 to 1.57) among Surinamese patients. Conclusion: Higher mortality after a first episode of CVD was found in ethnic minority patients than in Dutch patients. These differences hardly changed after adjusting for possible confounders, suggesting that treatment and secondary prevention strategies may be less effective in these groups. More research is needed to explain the possible causes of these inequalities.
FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MENDORONG TENAGA KERJA MELAJU DARI KABUPATEN ACEH BESAR KE KOTA BANDA ACEH

Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis faktor-faktor yang mendorong tenaga kerja melaju dari Kabupaten Aceh Besar ke Kota Banda Aceh. Metode analisis yang digunakan adalah analisis deskriptif kualitatif. Data yang digunakan adalah data primer dari 50 responden yang ditentukan melalui snowball sampling . Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa umumnya tenaga kerja yang melaju dari Kabupaten Aceh Besar ke Kota Banda Aceh bekerja sebagai karyawan swasta dan sebagai wiraswasta, kesempatan kerja di Kota Banda Aceh juga lebih banyak, faktor-faktor yang mendorong tenaga kerja melaju adalah status pernikahan, umur, jenis kelamin, dan keluarga. Jarak dari tempat tinggal ke tempat bekerja bukanlah suatu permasalahan dalam melaju karena berapa pun jaraknya responden tetap mau melakukan perjalan untuk bekerja, selain itu hampir seluruh responden memiliki kendaraan yang layak digunakan sebagai sarana transportasi ke Kota Banda Aceh. Kata kunci: Melaju, Tenaga Kerja, Analisis Deskriptif Kualitatif, Keluarga, snowball sampling .
Oxygen and Lactate Concentrations Measured in Vivo in the Intervertebral Discs of Patients With Scoliosis and Back Pain

Study Design. Oxygen concentrations in intervertebral discs were measured in 10 patients during discography and in 13 patients with scoliosis and 11 patients with back pain during spinal surgery. Lactate concentration profiles were measured in 12 of these discs. The discs were graded for degeneration by magnetic resonance maging and histology where possible. Objectives. To determine if oxygen and lactate levels in human discs vary with degree of degeneration. Failure of nutrient transport is thought to lead to disc degeneration. Summary of Background Data. The disc is avascular. Oxygen is used by the disc cells, and lactate is produced. Low oxygen and high lactate concentrations have been measured in the center of healthy animal discs. Methods. Oxygen concentrations were measured amprometrically. The sterilized gold‐needle electrode was introduced into the disc during discography or after the disc was exposed surgically via an anterior approach. Concentration profiles of each disc took approximately 5 minutes to measure. Lactate concentrations were measured biochemically on the excised disc segment. Results. Oxygen concentrations were highest at the disc surface and fell toward the center. Lactate concentrations showed the reverse profile. Oxygen levels were very variable, ranging from 5‐150 mm Hg in the center of the nucleus. No correlation was seen with age, pathology, or degree of degeneration. Lactate concentrations ranged for the most part from 2 mmol/L to 6 mmol/L. Conclusions. Concentrations of metabolites depend on cellular activity and on transport of the metabolite between the blood supply and the cell. The correlation between degeneration and nutrition cannot be determined only from metabolite concentrations; measurements of metabolic activity and nutrient transport rates also are required.
FRD: A Filtering based Buffer Cache Algorithm that Considers both Frequency and Reuse Distance

Buffer cache algorithms play a major role in filling the large performance gap between main memory and I/O devices in a mass storage system. Many buffer cache algorithms have been developed such as the low inter-reference recency set (LIRS) and adaptive replacement cache (ARC). Careful analysis of real-world workloads leads us to observe that approximately 50 to 90% blocks are accessed three or fewer times during the execution of various workloads. These infrequently accessed blocks are likely to cause high cache pollution by evicting better blocks from the cache. We also observe that these infrequently accessed blocks have certain access characteristics regarding reuse distance: either extremely long or short. Based on our observations, we propose an algorithm named frequency and reuse distance (FRD). The proposed algorithm concentrates on the manner in which to utilize both the access frequency and reuse distance of a block to determine the entries that must be stored in a buffer cache. We implemented the FRD algorithm using two LRU stacks. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art cache algorithms such as LIRS and ARC in most cases. We also show that FRD’s hit ratio is stable under various cache sizes. Keywords—buffer cache; reuse distance; frequency
The Possible Mechanisms Involved in the Protection Strategies against Radiation-Induced Cellular Damage by Carnitines

There is constant low level background radiation from the cosmos but in certain situation the body may be subjected to increased acute or chronic exposure from other sources. This occurs in situations such as radiation accidents, medical use and could possibly occur in military/terrorist incident. Dependent on the type, strength of the actual source, degree of exposure and type of radiation different strategies may be employed to reduce damage to the body tissues. A number of pharmacological agents such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) gamma agonists, diltiazem, amifostine and palifermin as well as antioxidants and metabolic compounds have been shown to be effective in preventing and also in reducing the long-term damage of the exposure of the living cells to radiation. The major drawback of synthetic (pharmacological) compounds has been that they are highly toxic at the optimum protective dose. Studies have shown that various endogenously found compounds such as L-carnitine, and its derivative acetyl-L-carnitine, are able to protect tissues and organs against various forms of toxic insult including radiation damage. The radiation-induced chronic injury may also be counteracted by other metabolic compounds with amine groups and antioxidant properties similar to the carnitines such as cysteine, 3,3’-diindolylmethane (DIM) and N-acetylcysteine. This review discuses the radioprotective compounds as well as the potential mechanism of cellular protection against radiation by carnitines and other compounds.
Analysis of Fractal Koch Dipole Antenna for UHF band application

The fractal Koch curve is certainly one of the most popular and well known fractals. This paper discussed the analysis of the fractal Koch dipole array antenna (FKDA). The primary goals of this project is to proof of the concept of fractal Koch dipole array using log periodic technique to reduce the antenna size. This antenna is operating at ultra high frequency (UHF) band frequency from 300 MHz to 3 GHz. The analysis is based on the number of elements, degree of flare angle, current distribution, radiation pattern and gain of the antennas. The antenna has been simulated using Computer Simulation Technology CST 2008. The performance of the antennas has been observe and discussed in this paper.
The T Cells Specific for the Carboxyl-Terminal Determinants of Self (Rat) Heat-Shock Protein 65 Escape Tolerance Induction and Are Involved in Regulation of Autoimmune Arthritis1

Immunization of Lewis rats with heat-killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra leads to development of polyarthritis (adjuvant-induced arthritis; AA) that shares several features with human rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Immune response to the 65-kDa mycobacterial heat-shock protein (Bhsp65) is believed to be involved in induction of AA as well as in experimental modulation of this disease. However, the understanding of several critical aspects of the pathogenesis of AA in the Lewis rat has severely been hampered by the lack of information both regarding the level as well as epitope specificity of tolerance to the mammalian self (rat) homologue of Bhsp65, 65-kDa rat heat-shock protein (Rhsp65), and about the functional attributes of the T cell repertoire specific for this self protein. In this study, we established that tolerance to Rhsp65 in the Lewis rat is incomplete, and that the residual T cells primed upon challenge with this self hsp65 are disease regulating in nature. We also have defined the T cell epitopes in the C-terminal region within Rhsp65 that contribute predominantly to the immune reactivity as well as the AA-protective effect of this self protein. Furthermore, the T cells primed by peptides comprising these C-terminal determinants can be efficiently restimulated by the naturally generated epitopes from endogenous Rhsp65, suggesting that self hsp65 might also be involved in natural remission from acute AA. These novel first experimental insights into the self hsp65-directed regulatory T cell repertoire in AA would help develop better immunotherapeutic approaches for autoimmune arthritis.
Genetic determination of body fat distribution and the attributive influence on metabolism

Genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) have identified single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with estimates of body fat distribution. Using predefined risk allele scores, the correlation of these scores with precisely quantified body fat distribution assessed by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques and with metabolic traits was investigated.
Nāsadiya Sūktam: The earliest cosmology on origins of life

RNA has been recognized as the “Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). ” Modern‐day definition of life includes a couple of features that is relevant for our discussion here. One is that, for an organized entity to be called alive, it should be able to replicate itself and the other is that it should have the ability to query the processes or in other words having the ability to change according to the needs of the situation. RNA fulfills both the needs. Being most versatile among all the biochemicals, having the ability to store genetic information, acting as catalytic enzyme, and using recombination and mutation to develop new niches[6] were considered to hold the most appropriate component of evolution. Recent experiments demonstrate the ease with which RNA could have formed in the early prebiotic broth; two prebiotic compounds, melamine and barbituric acid, formed glycosidic linkages with ribose and ribose‐5‐phosphate in water to produce nucleosides and nucleotides in good yields. [7] A research group demonstrated that structurally complex and highly active RNA ligases were derived from random RNA sequences,[8] suggesting randomness at some point might device key for an orderliness.
Step in and out of the dreams: toward an immersive and interactive virtual experience of dreams

This paper introduces the design of a creative work, using wearable and virtual reality technology, which can provide immersive and interactive dreaming experience simultaneously to a group of people. The design concept has been put into practice in the creative work: "Step In and Out of the Dreams". Also, we briefly introduce the WISE platform, a full-stack wearable hardware and software infrastructure developed by our team that facilitates this work.
The impact of sesquiterpenes β-caryophyllene oxide and trans-nerolidol on xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes in mice in vivo

Abstract 1. Sesquiterpenes, constituents of plant essential oil, are popular bioactive compounds due to the positive effect on human health, but their potential toxicity and possible herb-drug interactions are often omitted. In our in vivo study, we followed up the effect of p.o. administration of two sesquiterpenes β-caryophyllene oxide (CAO) and trans-nerolidol (NER) on various xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes in mice liver and small intestine. 2. To spot the early effect of studied compounds, enzymatic activity and mRNA levels were assessed 6 and 24 h after single dose. 3. CAO and NER markedly increased cytochromes P450 (CYP2B, 3A, 2C) activity and mRNA levels in both tissues. Liver also showed elevated activity of aldo-ketoreductase 1C and carbonyl reductase after treatment. Contrary, sesquiterpenes decreased NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 activity in small intestine. Among conjugation enzymes, only liver sulfotransferase activity was increased by sesquiterpenes. 4. Our results document that single dose of sesquiterpenes modulate activities and expression of several xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes.
Outbreak of Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus infection in a group of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

Background A severe upper respiratory tract infection occurred in a breeding group of rhesus monkeys housed together in one of six indoor/outdoor corals of the German Primate Center. The clinical signs of the disease included severe purulent conjunctivitis, rhinitis, pharyngitis, respiratory distress and lethargy. Six of 45 animals died within a few days after developing signs of infection.
Glucose and insulin regulate insulin sensitivity in primary cultured adipocytes without affecting insulin receptor kinase activity.

We have previously shown in primary cultured adipocytes that chronic insulin exposure decreases insulin's subsequent ability to maximally restimulate the glucose transport system, and that extracellular glucose potentiates this ligand-induced defect in maximal insulin responsiveness. To examine whether glucose could also modulate insulin sensitivity (i.e. acute insulin effects at submaximal concentrations), adipocytes were cultured for 5 and 24 h in the absence and presence of various glucose and insulin concentrations. Then, after washing cells to remove any insulin and allow for full deactivation of transport, we assessed the dose response of insulin's acute ability to stimulate 2-deoxyglucose transport, bind to cell surface receptors, and activate insulin receptor tyrosine kinase activity. After 5 h, glucose and insulin alone had no chronic regulatory effects; however, in combination, these agents were able to decrease insulin sensitivity. In cells preincubated with 50 ng/ml insulin, the insulin ED50 for acute stimulation of glucose transport was increased by 65% and 116% as medium glucose was raised to 5 and 20 mM, respectively, relative to that at 0 mM glucose. After 24 h, chronic exposure to either glucose (20 mM) or insulin (50 ng/ml) alone increased the ED50 value by 52%, and, together they acted synergistically to increase the ED50 by 183%. While glucose and insulin independently and synergistically impaired insulin sensitivity, both agents were necessary for coregulation of maximal insulin responsiveness (confirming our previous observation). Insulin receptor down-regulation (18%) was observed after 24 h (but not 5 h) in insulin-treated cells; however, the major portion of the decrease in insulin sensitivity was due to uncoupling of occupied insulin receptors from stimulation of the glucose transport system. To further determine the mechanism for postbinding desensitization, we tested for concordant regulation of insulin receptor kinase activity. Insulin's ability to stimulate the receptor tyrosine kinase was assessed by multiple methods, including 1) receptor autophosphorylation and phosphorylation of Glu4-Tyr1 by solubilized insulin receptors activated in vitro, 2) histone-2B phosphorylation by receptors that were stimulated in intact cells and then solubilized under conditions that preserve the in cellulo phosphorylation state, and 3) receptor autophosphorylation and phosphorylation of pp180 in intact cells. Long term treatment (24 h) with glucose (10 mM) and insulin (50 ng/ml) markedly decreased insulin sensitivity (and receptor coupling), but did not affect insulin receptor kinase activity in any of these studies. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
On several variants of the primal-dual hybrid gradient algorithm ∗

By reviewing the modified primal-dual hybrid algorithm proposed by He, You and Yuan (SIAM J. Imaging Sci. 2014;7(4):2526-2537), in this paper, we introduce four improved schemes for solving a class of generalized saddle-point problems. By using the variational inequality, very weaker conditions are presented to ensure the global convergence of our constructed algorithms, where none of the objective functions are assumed to be strongly convex and the step-size in the dual update is more flexible than the previous. The global convergence and the worst-case linear convergence rate in the ergodic/nonergodic sense of the proposed algorithms are analyzed in detail. A counter example from salt-pepper noisy image deblurring also shows the necessity of our work.