Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduction in plasma or skin alpha-tocopherol concentration with long-term oral administration of beta-carotene in humans and mice.

BACKGROUND Beta-carotene is one of the most commonly used compounds in clinical trials of chemopreventive agents in various neoplastic diseases. Animal studies, including our own, have documented that dietary beta-carotene can reduce plasma alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) levels, but few published studies have examined the clinical or pharmacokinetic ramifications of long-term, high-dose beta-carotene regimens on other fat-soluble vitamins such as alpha-tocopherol. PURPOSE This study was designed to determine the effects of long-term beta-carotene supplementation on plasma concentrations of alpha-tocopherol in normal human subjects and in an experimental C3H/HeN mouse model. METHODS In a double-blind study, 45 normal subjects were randomly assigned to receive 0 (placebo), 15, 30, 45, or 60 mg of oral beta-carotene daily for approximately 9 months. Monthly plasma samples were collected. Thirty-five C3H/HeN mice were fed a basal diet with or without beta-carotene and treated topically with or without alpha-tocopherol, except for the control mice, which received UV radiation for 27 weeks from week 3 to week 30. Plasma and dorsal skin samples were taken after 40 weeks and were analyzed for alpha-tocopherol and/or beta-carotene by high-performance liquid chromatography. RESULTS Long-term dietary beta-carotene administration resulted in statistically significant reductions in levels of alpha-tocopherol in the skin and plasma of UV-irradiated mice. In the human study, the decrease in plasma alpha-tocopherol levels was progressive and significant between 6 and 9 months of beta-carotene dosing in all dosage groups. The greatest decrease was observed during the 9th (last) month of dosing, with a decrease of 40% from baseline. All oral beta-carotene doses (15-60 mg/d), however, resulted in similar decreases in steady-state plasma levels of alpha-tocopherol and in only small differences in beta-carotene plasma levels. CONCLUSION Long-term oral administration of beta-carotene decreased steady-state plasma concentrations of alpha-tocopherol. The lack of a significant dose-response effect between doses of beta-carotene and alpha-tocopherol plasma levels is not unexpected, given the small differences in steady-state beta-carotene plasma levels in the four beta-carotene dose groups. IMPLICATIONS Studies are needed to determine how long-term beta-carotene dosing influences tissue distribution of dietary alpha-tocopherol. Careful surveillance for this and other potentially harmful nutrient interactions should become part of all long-term intervention studies.
PREVALENCE OF INDIGESTIBLE RUMEN AND RETICULUM FOREIGN BODIES IN ACHAI CATTLE AT DIFFERENT REGIONS OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

The present cross sectional study was conducted on 350 Achai cattle (81male, 269 female) from January, 2013 to May, 2013 at Livestock Research and Development Station Surezai, Peshawar, Peshawar Main Abattoir and 10 butcher shops in different regions (Swat, Malakand, Dir, Bajaur and Shangla) of the whole province to document the prevalence of rumen and reticulum foreign bodies and associated risk factors for the occurrence of foreign bodies in Achai Cattle which is known as local breed of the region, because many animals that have swallowed foreign bodies are asymptomatic, veterinarian must maintain a high index of suspicion in conducting post mortem examination. The study animals were selected by using stratified random sampling method from the study population. From the total of 350 animals examined, 207 (59.14%) were found positive for the occurrence of indigestible foreign bodies in rumen and reticulum. From each 81 male examined 30 (37.03%) and 269 female examined 177 (65.8%) were found Positive, respectively. The overall prevalence of foreign bodies was 59.14%, the types of foreign bodies detected were Clothes (14.49%), Plastic (12.85%), Nail (12.07%), Rope (11.49%), Hair (11.11%), Plastic, Leather and Clothes (7.24%), Wire ( 6.76%), Leather (5.89%), Nail, Plastics and Clothes (5.89%), Wire and Nail (5.3%), Nail, Plastics and Wire (3.38%), Plastic, Leather and Clothes (1.93%), Plastics and Leather (1.44%). Prevalence of foreign body occurrence recorded in ≤ 3 year 75 (36.23%), Adult 3-7 year 69 (33.33%) and Old 7-11 year 63 (30.43%) respectively while the prevalence rate recorded in thin, average, fat and obese animals was 54.5, 77.14, 55.07 and 39.62%, respectively. Younger cattle were more affected than adult and old cattle. The present study revealed that inappropriate solid wastes disposed in the study area not only pollute the environment but also have adverse effects on healthy ruminants. The prevalence of foreign body ingestion found in ruminants by this study shows that littering the environment with plastic bags and other indigestible materials could pose serious health problem for free grazing ruminants , therefore appropriate solid waste disposal system need to implement in the study area to prevent health risk for ruminants and also to protect the environment.
Face inversion reveals holistic processing of peripheral faces

Face perception is accomplished by face-selective neural processes, involving holistic processing that enables highly efficient integration of facial features into a whole face representation. It has been shown that in face-selective regions of the ventral temporal cortex, neural resources involved in holistic processing are primarily dedicated to the central portion of the visual field. These findings raise the intriguing possibility that holistic processing might be the privilege of centrally presented faces and could be strongly diminished in the case of peripheral faces. We addressed this question using the face inversion effect, a well established marker of holistic face processing. The behavioral results revealed impaired identity discrimination performance for inverted peripheral faces scaled according to the V1 magnification factor, compared to upright presented faces. The size of peripheral face inversion effect (FIE) was comparable to that found for centrally displayed faces. Face inversion affected the early ERP responses to faces in two time intervals. The earliest FIE was most pronounced in the time window between 130-140 ms following stimulus presentation, for both centrally and peripherally displayed faces and in the latter case, it was present only over the contralateral hemisphere. The timing of the next component FIE corresponded closely with the temporal interval of the N170 ERP component and showed strong right hemisphere lateralization, both when faces were displayed in the left or right visual field. Furthermore, we also showed that centrally presented face masks impaired peripheral face identity discrimination performance, but did not reduce the magnitude of the FIE. These findings revealed robust behavioral and neural inversion effects for peripheral faces and thus suggest that faces are processed holistically throughout the visual field. Highlights Robust behavioral and neural inversion effect was found for peripheral faces. P1 ERP component is modulated by inverted central and contralateral faces. N170 ERP component is modulated by centrally and peripherally presented faces. Neural face inversion effect shows strong right hemisphere lateralization. Faces are processed holistically throughout the visual field.
A study on light energy harvesting from indoor environment: The autonomous sensor nodes

Micro-level energy sources from the ambient environment can be a viable alternative to increase the life of the sensor nodes from a WSN network. Harvesting energy from the environment - particularly solar energy, is a technique that can support the operation of the sensor nodes. The power extracted from the luminous radiation is extremely variable, depending on day/night alternation, atmospheric conditions, temperature, geographical location, indoor or outdoor environment - which makes the energy harvested insufficient for use as an exclusive power source to supply sensor nodes. A special case is the indoor environment, in which the solar radiation is strongly reduced, compared to the outside environment, and artificial lighting levels are usually below 1000 Lux. We made experiments on an indoor solar cell using illumination from three different sources: fluorescent, incandescent, LED. Detailed measurements, performance comparisons, and conclusions are presented.
Provide IPv4 Service Using Pure IPv6 Servers with Stateless NAT64 Translator

The current Internet is suffering from IPv4 address depletion. Stateless NAT64 is proposed to facilitate the IPv4/IPv6 co-existence and transition. In the past, the stateless NAT64 is mainly for IPv6 clients to access both IPv6 and IPv4 servers. As the fast growth of IP address consuming Internet services, the support for pure IPv6 servers is becoming urgent. In this paper, we propose a design of stateless NAT64 based translator with server port mapping and application layer proxy support to ensure both the IPv4 and IPv6 accessibility to pure IPv6 servers. By deploying such translators, pure IPv6 server infrastructure can be built and the transition process can be promoted.
Regulation of retinal inflammation by rhythmic expression of MiR-146a in diabetic retina.

PURPOSE Chronic inflammation and dysregulation of circadian rhythmicity are involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can regulate inflammation and circadian clock machinery. We tested the hypothesis that altered daily rhythm of miR-146a expression in diabetes contributes to retinal inflammation. METHODS Nondiabetic and STZ-induced diabetic rats kept in 12/12 light/dark cycle were killed every 2 hours over a 72-hour period. Human retinal endothelial cells (HRECs) were synchronized with dexamethasone. Expression of miR-146a, IL-1 receptor-associated kinase 1 (IRAK1), IL-1β, VEGF and ICAM-1, as well as clock genes was examined by real-time PCR and Western blot. To modulate expression levels of miR-146a, mimics and inhibitors were used. RESULTS Diabetes inhibited amplitude of negative arm (per1) and enhanced amplitude of the positive arm (bmal1) of clock machinery in retina. In addition to clock genes, miR-146a and its target gene IRAK1 also exhibited daily oscillations in antiphase; however, these patterns were lost in diabetic retina. This loss of rhythmic pattern was associated with an increase in ICAM-1, IL-β, and VEGF expression. Human retinal endothelial cells had robust miR-146a expression that followed circadian oscillation pattern; however, HRECs isolated from diabetic donors had reduced miR-146a amplitude but increased amplitude of IRAK1 and ICAM-1. In HRECs, miR-146a mimic or inhibitor caused 1.6- and 1.7-fold decrease or 1.5- and 1.6-fold increase, respectively, in mRNA and protein expression levels of ICAM-1 after 48 hours. CONCLUSIONS Diabetes-induced dysregulation of daily rhythms of miR-146a and inflammatory pathways under miR-146a control have potential implications for the development of diabetic retinopathy.
L'invalidation de CX3CR1 induit une surexpression de P2RX7 dans les phagocytes mononucléés responsable de l'augmentation de la sécrétion d'IL-1β et de la mort des photorécepteurs.

La degenerescence des photorecepteurs dans la pathologie de la degenerescence maculaire liee a l'âge (DMLA) est associee a une infiltration et accumulation des phagocytes mononuclees (PM). Nous avons montre precedemment que les souris deficientes pour Cx3cr1 developpent une accumulation des PM sous-retiniens avec l'âge et avec le stress, qui est associee une degenerescence des photorecepteurs. Dans le cerveau, la deficience de Cx3cr1 dans les PM induit une augmentation de la mort des neurones via IL-1β. La raison de l'augmentation de la secretion d'IL-1β par les PM deficients en Cx3cr1 reste inconnue. Nous montrons que les PM deficients en Cx3cr1 surexpriment le recepteur P2RX7 qui stimule la maturation et la secretion d'IL-1β. L'inhibition de P2RX7 et d'Il-1β diminuent la mort des photorecepteurs dans un modele de cocultures de monocytes/retine et avec le modele d'illumination in vivo. Nos resultats suggerent que l'inhibition de P2RX7 ou d'Il-1β peut diminuer l'inflammation sous-retinienne qui est associee a la mort des photorecepteurs dans la pathologie de la DMLA, ou il n'existe aucun traitement a l'heure actuelle pour la forme atrophique.
Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Open Reading Frame II Encodes a Posttranscriptional Repressor That Is Recruited at the Level of Transcription

ABSTRACT Human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV) infection is a chronic, lifelong infection that is associated with the development of leukemia and neurological disease after a long latency period, and the mechanism by which the virus is able to evade host immune surveillance is elusive. Besides the structural and enzymatic proteins, HTLV encodes regulatory (Tax and Rex) and accessory (open reading frame I [ORF I] and ORF II) proteins. Tax activates viral and cellular transcription and promotes T-cell growth and malignant transformation. Rex acts posttranscriptionally to facilitate cytoplasmic expression of incompletely spliced viral mRNAs. Recently, we reported that the accessory gene products of HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 ORF II (p30II and p28II, respectively) are able to restrict viral replication. These proteins act as negative regulators of both Tax and Rex by binding to and retaining their mRNA in the nucleus, leading to reduced protein expression and virion production. Here, we show that p28II is recruited to the viral promoter in a Tax-dependent manner. After recruitment to the promoter, p28II or p30II then travels with the transcription elongation machinery until its target mRNA is synthesized. Experiments artificially directing these proteins to the promoter indicate that p28II, unlike HTLV-1 p30II, displays no transcriptional activity. Furthermore, the tethering of p28II directly to tax/rex mRNA resulted in repression of Tax function, which could be attributed to the ability of p28II to block TAP/p15-mediated enhancement of Tax expression. p28II-mediated reduction of viral replication in infected cells may permit survival of the cells by allowing escape from immune recognition, which is consistent with the critical role of HTLV accessory proteins in viral persistence in vivo.
Divergence control for epsilon-serializability

The authors present divergence control methods for epsilon-serializability (ESR) in centralized databases. ESR alleviates the strictness of serializability (SR) in transaction processing by allowing for limited inconsistency. The bounded inconsistency is automatically maintained by divergence control (DC) methods in a way similar to the manner in which SR is maintained by concurrency control mechanisms, but DC for ESR allows more concurrency. Concrete representative instances of divergence-control methods are described based on two-phase locking, timestamp ordering, and optimistic approaches. The applicability of ESR is demonstrated by presenting the designs of DC methods using other most known inconsistency specifications, such as absolute value, age, and total number of nonserializably read data items. <<ETX>>
Medication-Assisted Recovery from Opioid Addiction: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Recovery is being used as a conceptual fulcrum for the redesign of addiction treatment and related support services in the United States. Efforts by policy, research, and clinical leaders to define recovery and calls for assertive models of long-term recovery management raise critical questions about how transformation efforts of recovery-focused systems will affect the pharmacotherapeutic treatment of opioid addiction and the status of patients participating in such treatment. This article highlights recent work advocating a recovery-oriented approach to medication-assisted treatment.
Onset of anxiety and depression in the aging population: comparison of risk factors in a 9-year prospective study.

OBJECTIVES To study the onset and compare risk factors for pure depression (DEP), pure anxiety (ANX), and comorbid anxiety-depression (ANXDEP) in the aging population. DESIGN Prospective study with 3-year intervals over a 9-year period. SETTING Data of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam were used, which is a population-based study among older adults (55-85 years at baseline). PARTICIPANTS Older adults free of depression and anxiety at baseline (N = 1,712). MEASUREMENTS Clinically relevant levels of depression and anxiety were measured with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale> or =16 and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale > or =7, respectively. A broad range of potential sociodemographic, health, and psychosocial risk factors for anxiety and/or depression were examined by using polytomous logistic regression analyses. RESULTS Within 9 years, 184 subjects (10.8%) developed DEP, 93 (5.4%) ANX, and 103 (6.0%) ANXDEP. Concerning sociodemographics, higher age and lower educational level were predictors for DEP. Health indicators were predictive for DEP and ANXDEP but not for ANX. Depressive symptoms at baseline were predictive for DEP, whereas initial anxiety symptoms were predictive for ANX and ANXDEP. Neuroticism increased the risk of DEP and ANXDEP. Mixed effects of psychosocial variables were found: DEP was associated with recent widowhood, whereas ANX and ANXDEP were associated with other life events such as having an ill partner. CONCLUSION Although onset of ANXDEP demonstrated communality in risk factors, comparing risk factors associated with DEP and ANX revealed more differences than similarities. This underlines the need to distinguish anxiety from depression in preventive strategies.
Dynamic control of osmolality and ionic composition of the xylem sap in two mangrove species.

• Premise of the study: Xylem sap osmolality and salinity is a critical unresolved issue in plant function with impacts on transport efficiency, pressure gradients, and living cell turgor pressure, especially for halophytes such as mangrove trees. • Methods: We collected successive xylem vessel sap samples from stems and shoots of Avicennia germinans and Laguncularia racemosa using vacuum and pressure extraction and measured their osmolality. Following a series of extractions with the pressure chamber, we depressurized the shoot and pressurized again after various equilibration periods (minutes to hours) to test for dynamic control of osmolality. Transpiration and final sap osmolality were measured in shoots perfused with deionized water or different seawater dilutions. • Key results: For both species, the sap osmolality values of consecutive samples collected by vacuum extraction were stable and matched those of the initial samples extracted with the pressure chamber. Further extraction of samples with the pressure chamber decreased sap osmolality, suggesting reverse osmosis occurred. However, sap osmolalities increased when longer equilibration periods after sap extraction were allowed. Analysis of expressed sap with HPLC indicated a 1:1 relation between measured osmolality and the osmolality of the inorganic ions in the sap (mainly Na+, K+, and Cl-), suggesting no contamination by organic compounds. In stems perfused with deionized water, the sap osmolality increased to mimic the native sap osmolality. • Conclusions: Xylem sap osmolality and ionic contents are dynamically adjusted by mangroves and may help modulate turgor pressure, hydraulic conductivity, and water potential, thus being important for mangrove physiology, survival, and distribution.
Queen control over reproductive decisions — no sexual deception in the ant Lasius niger

Queen–worker conflicts in social insect societies have received much attention in the past decade. In many species workers modify the colony sex ratio to their own advantage or produce their own male offspring. In some other species, however, queens seem to be able to prevent workers from making selfish reproductive decisions. So far, little effort has been made to find out how queens may keep control over sex ratio and male parentage. In this study we use a Lasius niger population under apparent queen control to show that sexual deception cannot explain queen dominance in this population. The sexual deception hypothesis postulates that queens should prevent workers from discriminating against males by disguising male brood as females. Contrary to the predictions of this hypothesis, we found that workers are able to distinguish male and female larvae early in their development: in early spring workers generally placed only either female or male larvae in the uppermost chambers of the nest, although both types of larvae must have been present. At this time males were only at 11% of their final dry weight, a developmental stage at which (according to two models) workers would still have benefited from replacing queen‐produced males by females or worker‐produced males. This study thus demonstrates that sexual deception cannot account for the apparent queen control over colony sex ratio and male parentage in L. niger.
Yield challenges in nanotechnology

Summary form only given. As semiconductors enter into the era of nanotechnology, fast yield ramp becomes a critical success factor for 300-mm manufacturing, enabling quick product time to market. Hence, the implementation of enhanced yield improvement techniques is essential to meet the yield challenge. This presentation covers the state-of-the-art automation, advanced integrated yield systems, in-line process control, metrology and inspection/electrical testing and enhanced physical and failure analysis techniques for Chartered Fab 7, 300-mm nanotechnology Fab. It also demonstrates the combination of intelligent automation and advanced integrated yield system capability for providing real time, fast and accurate feedback to drive yield improvement and yield prediction.
Investigating factors influencing QoS of Internet phone

An increasing number of applications are using the Internet for voice transmission, and hence there is a growing demand for the Internet phone. However, the Internet was not originally, designed for such isochronous traffic, and it is not clear that it is fully capable of providing the desired quality of service (QoS) for this application. We describe a number of QoS parameters to measure the perceptual quality of audio, including measures of delay, rate and loss. We investigate the factors influencing the QoS of Internet voice, such as packet period and packet size, threshold delay, buffer delay, time slots and Internet sites. We present results from our experiments on how these factors influence the QoS of Internet voice. Based on the results of our experiments, we propose a QoS driven dynamic scheduling algorithm for the real-time transmission of Internet voice packets.