Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Probiotics and commensals reverse TNF-alpha- and IFN-gamma-induced dysfunction in human intestinal epithelial cells.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Commensal bacteria are crucial for the development of the mucosal immune system. Probiotics are commensals with special characteristics and may protect mucosal surfaces against pathogens. Pathogens cause significant phenotypic alterations in infected epithelial cells, and probiotics reverse these deleterious responses. We hypothesized that probiotics and/or commensals may also reverse epithelial damage produced by cytokines. METHODS Human intestinal epithelial cells were exposed basolaterally to interferon (IFN)-gamma (10(3) U/mL) or tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha (10 ng/mL) for up to 48 hours and assessed for ion transport, transepithelial resistance (TER), and epithelial permeability in the presence or absence of probiotics (Streptococcus thermophilus [ST] and Lactobacillus acidophilus [LA]), or the commensal, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (BT). RESULTS Agonist-stimulated chloride secretion was inhibited by IFN-gamma, an effect prevented by ST/LA or BT. The ability of ST/LA or BT to restore Cl(-) secretion was blocked by inhibitors of p38 MAPK, ERK1, 2, and PI3K. The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) and the NKCC1 cotransporter were down-regulated by IFN-gamma, and ST/LA pretreatment reversed this effect. Both TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma significantly reduced TER and increased epithelial permeability, effects prevented by ST/LA or BT. A Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor synergistically potentiated effects of ST/LA or BT on TER and permeability, but p38, ERK1, 2, or PI3K inhibition did not. Finally, only probiotic-treated epithelial cells exposed to cytokines showed reduced activation of SOCS3 and STAT1,3. CONCLUSIONS Deleterious effects of TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma on epithelial function are prevented by probiotic, and to a lesser extent, commensal pretreatment. These data extend the spectrum of effects of such bacteria on intestinal epithelial function and may justify their use in inflammatory disorders.
The Determinants of Firm Profitability: The Effect of Social Media

This study seeks to explore whether social media plays an important role in determining a firm’s profits. Using data from 392 Large American firms from the period 2005-2013, obtained primarily from the database, COMPUSTAT, I find that a firm’s adoption of Social Media plays a minor role in determining profits, while higher Lagged Profits, Lagged Productivity, Firm Sizes, and Advertising Expenses lead to higher profits.
Modeling and predicting the growth of the mussel, Mytilus edulis: implications for planning of aquaculture and eutrophication mitigation

Abstract The increased pressure on the marine ecosystems highlights the need for policies and integrated approaches for sustainable management of coastal areas. Spatial planning based on geographic information of human activities, ecological structures and functions, and their associated goods and services is a fundamental component in this context. Here, we evaluate the potential of predictive modeling to provide spatial data on one ecosystem function, mussel growth for use in such processes. We developed a methodology based on statistical modeling, spatial prediction, and mapping for the relative growth of the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis. We evaluated the performance of different modeling techniques and classification schemes using empirical measurements of growth from 144 sampling sites and data on biological, chemical, and physical predictors. Following comparisons of the different techniques and schemes, we developed random forest models to predict growth along the Swedish west coast. Implemented into GIS the best model produced in this study predicts that low, intermediate, and high growth rates can be expected in 53%, 32%, and 15% of modeled area, respectively. The results of this study also suggest that the nature and quality of predictor data hold the key to improving the predictive power of models. On a more general note, this study exemplifies a feasible approach based on measuring, modeling, and mapping for obtaining scientifically based spatial information on ecosystem functions and services affected by a complex set of factors. Such information is fundamental for maritime spatial planning and ecosystem‐based management and its importance is likely to increase in the future. Because of its close link to nutrient assimilation and production yield, site‐specific information of soft tissue growth such as the map of predicted growth rate developed in this study can be used as a tool for optimizing actions aimed at mitigating eutrophication and aquaculture operations and in maritime spatial planning processes of coastal areas.
Limits on R-parity violation from cosmic ray antiprotons

We constrain the hadronic R-parity violating couplings in extensions to the minimal supersymmetric standard model. These interactions violate baryon and lepton number, and allow the lightest superpartner (LSP) to decay into standard model particles. The observed flux of cosmic ray antiprotons places a strong bound on the lifetime of the LSP in models where the lifetime is longer than the age of the universe. We exclude 10{sup {minus}18}{approx_lt}{vert_bar}{lambda}{sup {double_prime}}{vert_bar}{approx_lt}10{sup {minus}15} and 2{times}10{sup {minus}18}{approx_lt}{vert_bar}{lambda}{sup {prime}}{vert_bar}{approx_lt}2{times}10{sup {minus}15} except in the case of a top quark, where we can only exclude 4{times}10{sup {minus}19}{approx_lt}{vert_bar}{lambda}{sup {prime}}{vert_bar}{approx_lt}4{times}10{sup {minus}16}. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}
Probiotics inhibit nuclear factor-kappaB and induce heat shock proteins in colonic epithelial cells through proteasome inhibition.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The extent and severity of mucosal injury in inflammatory bowel diseases are determined by the disequilibrium between 2 opposing processes: reparative and cytoprotective mechanisms vs. inflammation-induced injury. Probiotics may provide clinical benefit by ameliorating colitis; however, their mechanisms of action remain largely unknown. Our objective was to investigate microbial-epithelial interactions that could explain the beneficial therapeutic effects of probiotics. METHODS The effect of VSL#3-conditioned media on the nuclear factor-kappaB pathway in young adult mouse colonic epithelial cells was assessed by using monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays; IkappaBalpha, IkappaBbeta, and p105 immunoblot analysis; and nuclear factor-kappaB luciferase reporter gene and proteasome assays. Effects on heat shock proteins were determined by electrophoretic mobility shift assay and immunoblot for heat shock proteins 25 and 72 in young adult mouse colonic cells. Cytoprotection against oxidant injury was determined by chromium 51 release and filamentous and globular actin assays. RESULTS VSL#3 produces soluble factors that inhibit the chymotrypsin-like activity of the proteasome in gut epithelial cells. Proteasome inhibition is an early event that begins almost immediately after exposure of the epithelial cells to the probiotic-conditioned media. In addition, these bacteria inhibit the proinflammatory nuclear factor-kappaB pathway through a mechanism different from the type III secretory mechanisms described for other nonpathogenic enteric flora. They also induce the expression of cytoprotective heat shock proteins in intestinal epithelial cells. CONCLUSIONS The resulting inhibition of nuclear factor-kappaB and increased expression of heat shock proteins may account for the anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective effects reported for probiotics and may be a novel mechanism of microbial-epithelial interaction. These effects seem to be mediated through the common unifying mechanism of proteasome inhibition.
Pressure- and temperature-induced unfolding studies: thermodynamics of core hydrophobicity and packing of ribonuclease A

Abstract In this work we demonstrate that heat and pressure induce only slightly different energetic changes in the unfolded state of RNase A. Using pressure and temperature as denaturants on a significant number of variants, and by determining the free energy of unfolding at different temperatures, we estimated the stability of variants unable to complete the unfolding transition owing to the experimental conditions required for pressure experiments. The overall set of results allowed us to map the contributions to stability of the hydrophobic core residues of RNase A, with the positions most critical for stability being V54, V57, I106 and V108. We also show that the stability differences can be attributed to both hydrophobic interactions and packing density with an equivalent energetic magnitude. The main hydrophobic core of RNase A is tightly packed, as shown by the small-to-large and isosteric substitutions. In addition, we found that large changes in the number of methylene groups have non-additive positive stability interaction energies that are consistent with exquisite tight core packing and rearrangements of van der Waals' interactions in the protein interior, even after drastic deleterious substitutions.
Physiological and Morphological Characteristics of World Class Fencers

Physiological and morphological characteristics of world class épée fencers were analysed. The results showed that épée fencers have a high maximal aerobic power and high maximal isometric and dynamic strength. The movement pattern of épée fencing results in an asymmetry of the body. Thus, weapon hand isometric elbow flexion and forward leg isometric and dynamic muscle strength were higher than the contralateral extremity. Finally, forward leg muscle mass--evaluated from computed tomography--was higher while the muscle fiber composition was not different from the contralateral leg.
Frequency of truly cryptic subtelomere abnormalities – a study of 534 patients and literature review

Unbalanced subtelomere chromosome rearrangements are a significant cause of mental retardation with approximately 5% of over 3000 affected individuals tested worldwide having a chromosome rearrangement of this type. Many of these abnormalities are detectable using routine karyotyping at the 550 band level and therefore are not considered to be cryptic. The frequency of truly cryptic subtelomere abnormality should be less than 5% but has not been established. In this study, we defined ‘cryptic abnormality’ as one not detectable at the 550 band level on routine karyotyping. Using this as one of the selection criteria, we have studied 534 individuals with mental retardation/ developmental delay (MR/DD) and referred for subtelomere study by clinical geneticists. We have identified seven cases with cryptic subtelomere abnormalities. The clinical features of the seven abnormal cases are summarized. Literature review identified five publications on the identification of subtelomere abnormalities which used similar recruitment criteria: (a) normal karyotype at the 550 band level and (b) subjects were selected for subtelomere studies. Combining the data from these studies with those of the current study, 1154 patients were tested and 30 subtelomere abnormalities were identified. We estimate the frequency of truly cryptic subtelomere abnormality to be approximately 2.6% (30/1154) in children with MR/DD who are referred for subtelomere study.
Parametric Synthesis of Well-Scanning Isophoric Pencil Beams

Interest in uniformly illuminated (isophoric) density-tapered planar antenna arrays has recently revived. For arrays consisting of concentric rings of elements, we present a nonstochastic algorithm that calculates ring radii for generation of pencil beams without the need for prior specification of the number of rings. Use of the algorithm is illustrated by application to multibeam coverage of the Earth. The use of its results as the starting point of a stochastic optimization has led to complete solution of a hitherto recalcitrant synthesis problem.
2 Step 1 : The Basics 2 . 1 Simple matrix-matrix multiplication

Matrix-matrix multiplication is a fundamental operation of great importance to scientific computing and, increasingly, machine learning. It is a simple enough concept to be introduced in a typical high school algebra course yet in practice important enough that its implementation on computers continues to be an active research topic. This note describes a set of exercises that use this operation to illustrate how high performance can be attained on modern CPUs with hierarchical memories (multiple caches). It does so by building on the insights that underly the BLAS-like Library Instantiation Software (BLIS) framework by exposing a simplified “sandbox” that mimics the implementation in BLIS. As such, it also becomes a vehicle for the “crowd sourcing” of the optimization of BLIS. We call this set of exercises “* BLISlab”.
Pengaruh Kegiatan Marketing terhadap Profitabilitas dan Nilai Perusahaan Properti dan Real Estate di BEI

The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of marketing activity on profitability and market value in property and real estate companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange. This study used 45 property and real estate companies during the period of 2008 until 2013 with total 155 annual reports observed. By using multiple linear regression, the results showed that firm age as the component of marketing activities had positive influence to companies' profitability and market value. The marketing expense hd a positive and significant influence on profitability and market value that represented by EPS and Market to Book Ratio. Firm size had negative influence profitability and positive influence to market value tha represented by EPS and Tobins'Q.
Purification and properties of xylanase A from alkali-tolerant Bacillus sp. strain BP-23

Xylanase A from the recently isolated Bacillus sp. strain BP-23 was purified to homogeneity. The enzyme shows a molecular mass of 32 kDa and an isoelectric point of 9.3. Optimum temperature and pH for xylanase activity were 50 degrees C and 5.5 respectively. Xylanase A was completely inhibited by N-bromosuccinimide. The main products of birchwood xylan hydrolysis were xylotetraose and xylobiose. The enzyme was shown to facilitate chemical bleaching of pulp, generating savings of 38% in terms of chlorine dioxide consumption. The amino-terminal sequence of xylanase A has a conserved sequence of five amino acids found in xylanases from family F.
A method for dividing voltage stress of high voltage class E inverter

In this paper, splitting of peak switch voltage by series connected transistors in the class E inverter is proposed. In this method, peak switch voltage of class E inverter is reduced to half of conventional because shunt capacitor voltage is divided by two switches. Key feature of this method is that drive signal source of each switch can be grounded. Namely, transformer is not required in this method even though the source port of the series connected transistor is not grounded.
Multi-Tenant Software-Defined Hybrid Optical Switched Data Centre

We introduce a holistic solution for software-defined optical data centres (DC). Hybrid optical circuit/packet switching technologies are employed in the data plane, while a software-defined networking (SDN) controller based on OpenDaylight with significant extensions is adopted for the data centre network (DCN) control and management. Novel functional modules in the SDN controller together with its northbound (NBI) and southbound interfaces (SBI) are designed and developed. The OpenFlow protocol is extended at the SBI to support communication between the extended OpenDaylight SDN controller and the optical DCN devices. Over the NBIs, DC applications and the cloud management system directly interact with the optical DCN. A virtual data centre (VDC) application is designed and developed that dynamically creates and provisions multiple coexisting but isolated VDCs. An optical network-aware virtual machine (VM) placement method is proposed and implemented for a single-step deployment of both network and IT (VM) resources to accommodate the VDC requests. The VDC deployment process is extensively simulated and experimentally demonstrated.
Improving the pharmacokinetic parameter measurement in dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI by use of the arterial input function: Theory and clinical application

One of the most powerful features of the dynamic contrast‐enhanced (DCE) MRI technique is its capability to quantitatively measure the physiological or pathophysiological environments assessed by the passage of contrast agent by means of model‐based pharmacokinetic analysis. The widely used two‐compartment pharmacokinetic model developed by Brix and colleges fits tumor data well in most cases, but fails to explain the biexponential arterial input function. In this work, this problem has been attacked from a theoretical point of view, showing that this problem can be solved by adopting a more realistic model assumption when simplifying the general solutions of the two‐compartment pharmacokinetic equations. Pharmacokinetic parameters derived from our model were demonstrated to have comparative tissue specificity to Ktrans from Larsson's model, better than those from Brix's model and the empirical area‐under‐the‐curve (AUC). Tissue‐type classifier constructed with the arterial input function–decomposed kep‐kpe pair from our model was also demonstrated to have superior performance than any other classifier based on DCE‐MRI pharmacokinetic parameters or empirical AUC. The feature that this classifier has a near‐zero false‐negative rate makes it a highly desirable tool for clinical diagnostic and response assessment applications. Magn Reson Med 59:1448–1456, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Evolution of Neural Controllers for Locomotion and Obstacle Avoidance in a Six-legged Robot

This article describes how the SGOCE paradigm has been used within the context of a 'minimal simulation' strategy to evolve neural networks controlling locomotion and obstacle avoidance in a six-legged robot. A standard genetic algorithm has been used to evolve developmental programs according to which recurrent networks of leaky-integrator neurons were grown in a user-provided developmental substrate and were connected to the robot's sensors and actuators. Specific grammars have been used to limit the complexity of the developmental programs and of the corresponding neural controllers. Such controllers were first evolved through simulation and then successfully downloaded on the real robot.
Learning from Gurus: Analysis and Modeling of Reopened Questions on Stack Overflow

Community-driven Question Answering (Q&A) platforms are gaining popularity now-a-days and the number of posts on such platforms are increasing tremendously. Thus, the challenge to keep these platforms noise-free is attracting the interest of research community. Stack Overflow is one such popular computer programming related Q&A platform. The established users on Stack Overflow have learnt the acceptable format and scope of questions in due course. Even if their questions get closed, they are aware of the required edits, therefore the chances of their questions being reopened increases. On the other hand, non-established users have not adapted to the Stack Overflow system and find difficulty in editing their closed questions. In this work, we aim to identify features which help differentiate editing approaches of established and non-established users, and motivate the need of recommendation model. Such a recommendation model can assist every user to edit their closed questions leveraging the edit-style of the established users of the platform.
Customer relationship management research (1992‐2002): An academic literature review and classification

Purpose – To review the academic literature on customer relationship management (CRM), provide a comprehensive bibliography and propose a method of classifying that literature.Design/methodology/approach – A range of online databases were searched to provide a comprehensive listing of journal articles on CRM. Six hundred articles were identified and reviewed for their direct relevance to CRM. Two hundred and five articles were subsequently selected. Each of these articles was further reviewed and classified. The review and classification process was independently verified. All papers were allocated to the main and sub‐categories based on the major focus of each paper.Findings – Papers and research on CRM falls into five broad categories (CRM – General, Marketing, Sales, Service and Support, and IT and IS) and a further 34 sub‐categories. The most popular areas covered by the papers lay in the sub‐category of CRM management, planning and strategy; and CRM general, concept, and study followed by papers in s.
Interpretation and use of occupational exposure limits for chronic disease agents.

Copyright 2007 Exposure Assessment Solutions, Inc. 1 Originally published as Hewett, P.: Interpretation and Use of Occupational Exposure Limits for Chronic Disease Agents. in Occupational Medicine: State of the Art Reviews, 11(3) July-Sept (1996). This version differs slightly from the original version in that the text was slightly reorganized, original text was restored, original figures were replaced, and occasional notes inserted on changes in the various governmental and authoritative exposure limits.
Adaptive compression ratio estimation for categorified sparsity in real-time ECG monitoring system

Real-time electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring system has sprung up due to the considerable interest attracted to Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). Commonly, the ECG data is required to be compressed for higher energy efficiency and Compressive Sensing (CS) has been proved to be an effective way. However, for the real-time ECG monitoring, the length of data frame should be strictly limited for short data latency, which unavoidably causes variation of data sparsity and fluctuation of reconstruction quality. Furthermore, the compression ratio is well worth considering with corresponding energy cost in WBANs. To balance the reconstruction quality and compression ratio, this paper illustrates an adaptive compression ratio estimation technique of ECG signal and proposes a common model of relationship between compression ratio and sparsity. Correlated-sparsity compression ratio (CoCR) is defined to reflect the influence of sparsity on compression performance. Moreover, a two-dimensional clustering algorithm is designed to accelerate the operation speed and improve the precision of classification without prior knowledge. Finally, simulation results verify that the proposed method can guarantee the reconstruction quality stable and improve the compression performance by 18.85% compared with traditional CS-based methods.
How the Financial Managers’ Remuneration Can Affect the Optimal Portfolio Composition ?

In this paper we analyse the problem of an investor who must decide whether to manage his wealth by himself or give it in outsourcing. Financial managers are supposed to charge a commission composed of a fixed (A) and a variable (x) part, both deducted from portfolio payoffs. We demonstrate that the optimal portfolio composition crucially depends on the magnitude of A and x. We make a general analysis of this dependence and, in particular, we show that high level of A (respectively, x) lead to an outsourced portfolio which has a lower (respectively, higher) risk-return profile with respect to the self-managed portfolio.