Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emerging Sulfated Flavonoids and other Polyphenols as Drugs: Nature as an Inspiration

Nature uses sulfation of endogenous and exogenous molecules mainly to avoid potential toxicity. The growing importance of natural sulfated molecules, as modulators of a number of physiological and pathological processes, has inspired the synthesis of non‐natural sulfated scaffolds. Until the 1990s, the synthesis of sulfated small molecules was almost restricted to derivatives of flavonoids and aimed mainly at structure elucidation and plant biosynthesis studies. Currently, the synthesis of this type of compounds concerns structurally diverse scaffolds and is aimed at the development of potential drugs and/or exploitation of the biological effects of sulfated metabolites. Some important hit compounds are emerging from sulfated flavonoids and other polyphenols mainly as anticoagulant and antiviral agents. When compared with polymeric macromolecules such as heparins, sulfated small molecules could be of value in therapeutics due to their hydrophobic nature that can contribute to improve the bioavailability. This review highlights the synthetic approaches that were applied to obtain monosulfated or polysulfated phenolic small molecules and compiles the diverse biological activities already reported for this type of derivatives. Toxicity and pharmacokinetic parameters of this emerging class of derivatives will also be considered, emphasizing their value for therapeutic applications.
VASCULAR BIRTHMARKS

The chemical reactions leading up to heematopoietlc activity are brought about by a number of catalysts, of which folic acid, folinic acid and vitamin B,. have been identified as being essential. An absence of any of the substrates or catalysts involved in these reactions will result in impaired blood formation. The possible reactions involve conversion of amino acids to nucleottdes, as set down in Figure I and Table I (modified from Vilter, Horrigan, Mueller, Jarrold, Vilter, Hawkins and Seamen, 1950, and from Girdwood, 1952).
Institutions for Climate Change : A Method to assess the Inherent Characteristics of Institutions to enable the Adaptive Capacity of Society

This paper addresses the question: How can the inherent characteristics of institutions to stimulate the adaptive capacity of society to climate change from local through to national level be assessed? On the basis of a literature review and several brainstorm sessions, this paper presents six criteria: Variety, learning capacity, space for planned and innovative autonomous action, leadership, availability of resources and fair governance.
Flow-Based Model of Computer Hackers' Motivation

Hackers' psychology, widely discussed in the media, is almost entirely unexplored by psychologists. In this study, hackers' motivation is investigated, using the flow paradigm. Flow is likely to motivate hackers, according to views expressed by researchers and by hackers themselves. Taken as granted that hackers experience flow, it was hypothesized that flow increases with the increase of hackers' competence in IT use. Self-selected subjects were recruited on specialized web sources; 457 hackers filled out a web questionnaire. Competence in IT use, specific flow experience, and demographic data were questioned. An on-line research was administered within the Russian-speaking community (though one third of Ss are non-residents of Russian Federation); since hacking seems to be international, the belief is expressed that the results are universal. The hypothesis is not confirmed: flow motivation characterizes the least and the most competent hackers, and the members of an intermediate group, that is, averagely competent Ss report the "flow crisis"-no (or less) flow experience. Two differing strategies of task choice were self-reported by Ss: a step-by-step increase of the difficulty of choices leads to a match of challenges and skills (and to preserving the flow experience); putting choices irrespective of the likelihood of solution leads to a "flow crisis. " The findings give productive hints on processes of hackers' motivational development. The flow-based model of computer hackers' motivation was developed. It combines both empirically confirmed and theoretically possible ways of hackers' "professional" growth.
MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY IN THE STUDY OF ADDICTIVE DISEASES

First let me say that it is extremely gratifying to stand here as the 28th recipient of the Nathan B. Eddy Award and also as chief of the research group established by Dr. Eddy more than 60 years ago at NIH. At the same time, I am almost overwhelmed with humility and gratitude to those who helped me achieve our goals during the last 27 years. This is without a doubt the high point of my career and I am extremely grateful to have been selected.
Unipolar depression/bipolar depression: Connections and controversies

The modern dichotomous divide between unipolar and bipolar depressive disorders derives from several monographs that appeared in the mid-twentieth century. Studies of illness course and differing symptomatic profiles in unipolar and bipolar illness support this interpretation, but more recent descriptions of ‘bipolar spectrum disorders’ and genetic findings suggest otherwise. Whether these illnesses represent categories or points on a continuum remains an unresolved question.
Intégration financière internationale et croissance économique des pays de la CEDEAO : le rôle de la gouvernance.

L’objectif poursuivi par cette étude est d’analyser l’effet de l’intégration financière internationale sur la croissance et de voir la manière dont la gouvernance conditionne cet effet sur un échantillon de 13 pays de la CEDEAO durant la période 1975 à 2014. Nous utilisons dans cette étude le stock total des actifs et engagements extérieurs rapporté au PIB comme variable d’intégration financière. L’utilisation de la méthode Pooled Mean Group a permis de montrer que la mesure de Lane et Milesi-Ferretti impacte négativement la croissance économique. Toutefois lorsqu’on désagrège cette mesure, il ressort que son composant stock de la dette impacte négativement la croissance économique et son composant stock des IDE impacte positivement la croissance économique. Par ailleurs, l’étude trouve que la gouvernance dans la CEDEAO représentée par la démocratie électorale aggrave l’impact du stock de la dette sur la croissance alors que dans le cas du stock des IDE elle favorise son effet.
Dynamics and Control of Biofilms of the Oligotrophic Bacterium Caulobacter crescentus

ABSTRACT Caulobacter crescentus is an oligotrophic α-proteobacterium with a complex cell cycle involving sessile-stalked and piliated, flagellated swarmer cells. Because the natural lifestyle of C. crescentus intrinsically involves a surface-associated, sessile state, we investigated the dynamics and control of C. crescentus biofilms developing on glass surfaces in a hydrodynamic system. In contrast to biofilms of the well-studied Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Vibrio cholerae, C. crescentus CB15 cells form biphasic biofilms, consisting predominantly of a cell monolayer biofilm and a biofilm containing densely packed, mushroom-shaped structures. Based on comparisons between the C. crescentus strain CB15 wild type and its holdfast (hfsA; ΔCC0095), pili (ΔpilA-cpaF::Ωaac3), motility (motA), flagellum (flgH) mutants, and a double mutant lacking holdfast and flagellum (hfsA; flgH), a model for biofilm formation in C. crescentus is proposed. For both biofilm forms, the holdfast structure at the tip of a stalked cell is crucial for mediating the initial attachment. Swimming motility by means of the single polar flagellum enhances initial attachment and enables progeny swarmer cells to escape from the monolayer biofilm. The flagellum structure also contributes to maintaining the mushroom structure. Type IV pili enhance but are not absolutely required for the initial adhesion phase. However, pili are essential for forming and maintaining the well-defined three-dimensional mushroom-shaped biofilm. The involvement of pili in mushroom architecture is a novel function for type IV pili in C. crescentus. These unique biofilm features demonstrate a spatial diversification of the C. crescentus population into a sessile, “stem cell”-like subpopulation (monolayer biofilm), which generates progeny cells capable of exploring the aqueous, oligotrophic environment by swimming motility and a subpopulation accumulating in large mushroom structures.
Detection of Genetic Markers of Fecal Indicator Bacteria in Lake Michigan and Determination of Their Relationship to Escherichia coli Densities Using Standard Microbiological Methods

ABSTRACT Lake Michigan surface waters impacted by fecal pollution were assessed to determine the occurrence of genetic markers for Bacteroides and Escherichia coli. Initial experiments with sewage treatment plant influent demonstrated that total Bacteroides spp. could be detected by PCR in a 25- to 125-fold-higher dilution series than E. coli and human-specific Bacteroides spp. , which were both found in similar dilution ranges. The limit of detection for the human-specific genetic marker ranged from 0.2 CFU/100 ml to 82 CFU/100 ml culturable E. coli for four wastewater treatment plants in urban and rural areas. The spatial and temporal distributions of these markers were assessed following major rain events that introduced urban storm water, agricultural runoff, and sewage overflows into Lake Michigan. Bacteroides spp. were detected in all of these samples by PCR, including those with <1 CFU/100 ml E. coli. Human-specific Bacteroides spp. were detected as far as 2 km into Lake Michigan during sewage overflow events, with variable detection 1 to 9 days postoverflow, whereas the cow-specific Bacteroides spp. were detected in only highly contaminated samples near the river outflow. Lake Michigan beaches were also assessed throughout the summer season for the same markers. Bacteroides spp. were detected in all beach samples, including 28 of the 74 samples that did not exceed 235 CFU/100 ml of E. coli. Human-specific Bacteroides spp. were detected at three of the seven beaches; one of the sites demonstrating positive results was sampled during a reported sewage overflow, but E. coli levels were below 235 CFU/100 ml. This study demonstrates the usefulness of non-culture-based microbial-source tracking approaches and the prevalence of these genetic markers in the Great Lakes, including freshwater coastal beaches.
Use of Angiotensin‐Converting Enzyme Inhibitors in Patients with Heart Failure and Renal Insufficiency: How Concerned Should We Be by the Rise in Serum Creatinine?

PURPOSE: To determine the association between the early rise in serum creatinine levels associated with the use of angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) and the long‐term renoprotective properties of these drugs in patients with chronic renal insufficiency.
A Study of the Effects of Previous Lower Limb Ligament Injury on Static Balance in Soccer Players

Purpose: Functional ankle instability (FAI), and Anterior cruciate ligament rupture (ACLR) are among the most common injuries seen in the athletes. Recurrent ankle injury occurs in 70% of individuals experiencing a lateral ankle sprain. Injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) results in mechanical and functional instability. During the acute phase of injury, there appears a balancing skill deficit in the injured limb. The present study aims at comparing the balance ability of soccer players with and without previous lower limb ligament injuries and, about previously injured players, the balance ability of the previously injured limb with the opposite uninjured limb. Materials and Methods: A total of 30 players were selected and tested in this study. The balance task to be tested included maintaining one-legged balance in eyes open and closed conditions. The data obtained through the tests was analyzed using repeated measure, and the statistical significance was assessed at p< 0.05 level. Results: Statistical analysis revealed that there was no significant difference between the balance scores of any of the previously injured players and those with no previous lower limb ligament injury. Also there was no significant difference in balance between injured limbs and the opposite uninjured limb. Conclusion: It appears that a balance deficit does not persist in soccer players with previous lower limb ligament injury.
Human emotion recognition from facial thermal image based on fused statistical feature and multi-class SVM

Affective computing has become a growing field of research activities due to its wide use of application in human computer interface. Emotion recognition is one of the state-of-the-art techniques in determining current psychological state of human being. Human emotions are very overlapping in nature and thus it needs an efficient feature-extractor and classifier assembly. This paper reports a novel non-invasive technique to classify human emotion through thermal images of face. Hu's moment invariants of different patches have been fused with histogram statistical feature and used as robust features in multiclass support vector machine based classification. It is found that emotions from thermal image can be classified by the proposed method with a satisfactory performance.
Celecoxib Monotherapy Maintained Small Intestinal Mucosa Better Compared With Loxoprofen Plus Lansoprazole Treatment: A Double-blind, Randomized, Controlled Trial

Goals: The aim of this study was to compare celecoxib with loxoprofen for protection of small intestine. Background: RCT studies report that COX-2 selective inhibitor celecoxib induces fewer small intestinal injuries than nonselective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Loxoprofen is a prodrug nonselective NSAID developed to protect upper gastrointestinal tract. Study: A total of 150 healthy volunteers (40 to 70 y) were enrolled. After medical checkup including laboratory data, subjects were randomly assigned to celecoxib (200 mg daily) or loxoprofen (180 mg daily) plus lansoprazole (15 mg daily). All drugs were prepared using inactive capsules. After randomization, all subjects were first examined by baseline capsule endoscopy (CE). After 14 days, subjects underwent posttreatment CE. We compared baseline and posttreatment CE findings of the 2 groups. All CE data were evaluated blindly by 3 reviewers. Pretreatment and posttreatment laboratory variables were also compared. Results: A total of 74 subjects (49±6 y, F/M: 36/38) were enrolled in celecoxib group and 76 subjects (49±7 y, F/M: 39/37)in loxoprofen group. Five in celecoxib group and 4 in loxoprofen group were excluded from CE analysis mainly due to incomplete CE. The percentage of subjects with at least 1 posttreatment mucosal break was lower in celecoxib group (10%) than in loxoprofen group (49%) (P<0.0001). A total of 0.3±1.0 posttreatment small intestinal mucosal breaks were detected in the celecoxib group, and 6.8±21.5 in the loxoprofen group (P<0.0001). Posttreatment hemoglobin concentration in loxoprofen group (5.1% reduction) was lower compared with celecoxib group (2.1% reduction) (P=0.006). Conclusions: In terms of protection of small intestine from NSAIDs toxicity, celecoxib monotherapy was superior to loxoprofen+lansoprazole combination therapy (UMIN: 000007936).
A study of well-being among a population of Swedish workers using a job-related criterion-referenced multidimensional vocational assessment.

OBJECTIVES: This study involved Swedish workers (n = 106) who perform jobs categorized into four occupational groups from Jist's Enhanced Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) (Technical, Clerical, Service and Miscellaneous occupations) [1]. The workers capacity for work were investigated according to the Criterion Referenced Multidimensional Vocational Assessment (CMVA) comprising four aspects (described below), which were assessed in 14 different ways using 465 items. METHOD: The participants were interviewed [2], observed during performance of simulated work tasks [3], and answered mailed questionnaires [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. The collected data were statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics and the tests of Cronbach's alpha coefficient, ANOVA, Chi-square, linear regression and Pearson's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The participants' work contained different level of occupationally substantive complexity showing that the work demands were different for the four work groups. For some of the participants ill-health were detected; The workers' work skills, e.g., the demands (VALPAR work samples) [3] the jobs required of the worker was higher than 14 of the workers' capacity for work. It was remarkable that many of the workers (34%) estimated themselves in need for rehabilitative measures (Functional Status Questionnaire) [12,13]. The results suggested that there was a negative discrepancy of what the workers' valued and strived for in connection to what they had attained in their work-lives [15,16]. The psychosocial work environment influenced the worker both positively and negatively. Participants (about 17%) who are performing their usual work for at least 20 hours a week had risks for ill-health [6]. In several components of CMVA there were significant differences between male and female workers, probably showing that the female workers had a greater burden to perform all the myriad of daily occupations (Self-Assessed Capabilities to Perform Daily Occupations) [7] including salaried work.
Seasonal-Dial Shifts of Ichthyoplankton Assemblages and Plastic Debris around an Equatorial Atlantic Archipelago

Seasonality was a stronger influence in the ichthyoplankton assemblages around the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SPSPA) than distance from the islands. Plastic debris were ubiquitous and although it presented diel trends, no other spatiotemporal patterns was showed. Larval Oxyporhamphus micropterus was the most important taxa (29.37% of the total catch), followed by Ceratoscopelus warmingii and Entomacrodus vomerianus. Exocoetidae eggs represented 41.01%. Mesopelagic fish larvae dominated the community. Myctophidae had the highest species richness (15). Four larval fish assemblages occured: (1) nighttime demersal/bathydemersal (Anguillidae, Congridae); (2) daytime mesopelagic/bathypelagic/epipelagic (Myctophidae, Cyclothone acclinidens); (3) daytime epipelagic (Exocoetidae, Coryphaena hippurus, Thunnus albacares) and (4) nighttime reef and demersal (Blennidae, Pomacentridae, Lutjanidae). The dry season (lower temperature, higher chlorophyll a and higher SW wind velocity) influenced the first two assemblages. The rainy season (higher temperatures and lower NW wind velocity) influenced the last two. Nighttime abundance of dominant species in the rainy season suggests diel vertical migration nearshore. Plastics were 2.12 times more abundant than the most abundant fish larvae. Comparable amounts of larvae and plastics in the water column increase the chances of interaction between these two compartments and might disturb the local marine food web and promote the transfer of microplastic from one habitat to another, especially when smaller taxa contaminated by ingested fragments are preyed by migratory animals such as marine birds and tuna. A study around the area concluded that at least a part of the plastic debris can have local source due to fishing activities. Small-scale oceanographic mechanisms such as the interaction between the topography and currents (SEC and EUC) seem to be responsible for the retention of fish eggs, fish larvae and plastics around SPSPA.
Formation stabilization of VTOL UAVs subject to communication delays

This paper deals with the formation control problem of a team of Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with communication delays. Members of the team are required to converge to (and maintain) a prescribed formation, under a fixed and undirected communication topology. We propose two different control schemes that provide respectively delay-dependent and delay-independent results. The stability of the overall closed loop system in each scheme is established using Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals.
Daunomycin interaction with DNA: Microcalorimetric studies of the thermodynamics and binding mechanism

Nucleic acids are an important target for many therapeutics. Small molecules that bind to nucleic acids are important in many aspects of medicines, particularly in cancer chemotherapy. In recent years, many studies have utilized polynucleic acids with various sequences to demonstrate the binding mechanism of daunomycin, a potent anticancer drug. This study describes that isothermal titration calorimetry is a useful tool for studying the fundamental binding mechanism systemically. The results suggest that the binding free energy is more favorable when the temperature is increased. The binding entropy contributes to this effect. Furthermore, the amine group on daunomycin contributes electrostatic interaction that induces the binding process. In addition, enthalpy‐entropy compensation is also exhibited in the daunomycin‐DNA binding mechanism. This study used an easy, convenient method of performing a systemic study in a recognition system. The results from this study provide additional information about microscopic mechanisms for molecular design and molecular recognition.
Active Disturbance Rejection Control for Uncertain Nonaffine-in-Control Nonlinear Systems

In this technical note, the active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) is generalized to uncertain nonaffine-in-control nonlinear systems. The proposed controller incorporates both an extended state observer (ESO) as well as a dynamic inversion. The ESO is designed to estimate system state and total uncertainty, which includes the uncertain internal dynamics and the external disturbance, and is nonaffine-in-control. Based on the output of the ESO, the dynamic inversion is used to deal with the nonaffine-in-control problem. The proposed control has a multi-time-scale structure, in which the ESO is the fastest time scale; the dynamic inversion is the second; and the considered nonlinear system is the slowest. The practical convergence of the resulting closed-loop system is obtained. An example is presented to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method.
Contextual Image Classification Based on Spatial Boosting

Spatial AdaBoost proposed by Nishii and Eguchi (TGRS, 2005) is a supervised image classification method. It is a voting machine based on log posterior probabilities at a test pixel and its neighbors. The method can be obtained by less computation effort with respect to a classifier based on Markov random fields, but still shows a similar excellent performance. Further, the method was modified for applying various settings. This paper considers another extension of Spatial Boost. Consider supervised image classification of geospatial data. Suppose that separated training regions with a single land-cover class are given. In this case, the original Spatial Boost does not work because it incorporates spatial information of the training data. The aim of the paper is to make Spatial Boost applicable to the case. We propose a classifier given by a linear combination of log posteriors whose coefficients are determined by spatial information of test data only. By numerical examples, it shows an excellent performance.