Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of the Duck Skin on Quality Characteristics of Duck Hams

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of duck skin on cooking loss, emulsion stability, pH, color, protein solubility, texture profile analysis (TPA), apparent viscosity, and sensory characteristics of press type duck ham with different ratio of duck breast meat and duck skin. Five duck ham formulations were produced with the following compositions: T1 (duck breast 70% + duck skin 30%), T2 (duck breast 60% + duck skin 40%), T3 (duck breast 50% + duck skin 50%), T4 (duck breast 40% + duck skin 60%), and T5 (duck breast 30% + duck skin 70%). The cooking loss and fat separation were lower in T1, and the total expressible fluid separations were lower in T1 and T2 than others. The pH ranged from 6.48 to 6.59, with the highest values in T4 and T5. T5 had the highest CIE L*-value, and T1 and T2 had the highest CIE a*-values; however, CIE b*-values did not differ significantly between the duck ham samples. The protein solubility and TPA (hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess, and chewiness) were the highest in T1. T1 and T2 had higher scores for color, tenderness, and overall acceptability. T1, T2, and T3 showed significantly higher values, but there were no significant differences for flavor and juiciness. Regarding apparent viscosity properties, T1 and T2 had higher viscosity values than the other formulations. In conclusion, the T1 (duck breast 70% + duck skin 30%) and T2 (duck breast 60% + duck skin 40%) duck hams show the highest quality characteristics.
Sexual and alcohol risk behaviours of immigrant Latino men in the South‐eastern USA

Little is known about the intersections of immigration, masculinity and sexual risk behaviours among recently arrived Latino men in the USA. Nine immigrant Latino men from three urban housing communities in the South‐eastern USA used photovoice to identify and explore their lived experiences. From the participants' photographs and words, thirteen themes emerged within four domains. The immigration experience and sociocultural norms and expectations of masculinity were factors identified decreasing Latino men's sense of power and increasing stress, which lead to sexual risk. Latino community strengths and general community strengths were factors that participants identified as promoting health and preventing risk. These themes influenced the development of a conceptual model to explain risk among immigrant Latino men. This model requires further exploration and may prove useful in intervention development.
Natural products as veritable source of novel drugs and medicines: A review

Natural medicine has become a popular form of healthcare worldwide. Its impact on global healthcare delivery has progressed significantly over the years. The contribution of natural products to global healthcare is enormous, having provided key lead compounds from the metabolites for the development of synthetic molecules. Natural products are expected to play an invaluable role as one of the major sources of novel drugs in the years ahead. This is due to the incomparable structural diversity, relatively small dimensions of them and the seemingly drug-like properties. The renewed interest in natural products research in the last three decades is fueled by the landmark developments in separation methods, spectroscopic techniques and sensitive biological assays, as well the failure of currently available medicines to combat resurgent and emerging diseases. The review will describe the critical role of natural products in drug discovery and development, and the clinical applications of drugs of ethnic origin in the treatment and management of human diseases.
The real role of reelin

[Graphic][1] Cells migrating in chains (left) are dissociated by reelin (right). Cremer/MacmillanAttractants and repellents shunt neurons into their correct final location. But now Iris Hack, Harold Cremer (Universite Mediterranee, Marseille, France), and colleagues have found
Mauritian Cynomolgus Macaques Share Two Exceptionally Common Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Alleles That Restrict Simian Immunodeficiency Virus-Specific CD8+ T Cells

ABSTRACT Vaccines that elicit CD8+ T-cell responses are routinely tested for immunogenicity in nonhuman primates before advancement to clinical trials. Unfortunately, the magnitude and specificity of vaccine-elicited T-cell responses are variable in currently utilized nonhuman primate populations, owing to heterogeneity in major histocompatibility (MHC) class I genetics. We recently showed that Mauritian cynomolgus macaques (MCM) have unusually simple MHC genetics, with three common haplotypes encoding a shared pair of MHC class IA alleles, Mafa-A*25 and Mafa-A*29. Based on haplotype frequency, we hypothesized that CD8+ T-cell responses restricted by these MHC class I alleles would be detected in nearly all MCM. We examine here the frequency and functionality of these two alleles, showing that 88% of MCM express Mafa-A*25 and Mafa-A*29 and that animals carrying these alleles mount three newly defined simian immunodeficiency virus-specific CD8+ T-cell responses. The epitopes recognized by each of these responses accumulated substitutions consistent with immunologic escape, suggesting these responses exert antiviral selective pressure. The demonstration that Mafa-A*25 and Mafa-A*29 restrict CD8+ T-cell responses that are shared among nearly all MCM indicates that these animals are an advantageous nonhuman primate model for comparing the immunogenicity of vaccines that elicit CD8+ T-cell responses.
Dynamic VM Placement Method for Minimizing Energy and Carbon Cost in Geographically Distributed Cloud Data Centers

Cloud data centers consume a large amount of energy that leads to a high carbon footprint. Taking into account a carbon tax imposed on the emitted carbon makes energy and carbon cost play a major role in data centers’ operational costs. To address this challenge, we investigate parameters that have the biggest effect on energy and carbon footprint cost to propose more efficient VM placement approaches. We formulate the total energy cost as a function of the energy consumed by servers plus overhead energy, which is computed through power usage effectiveness (PUE) metric as a function of IT load and outside temperature. Furthermore, we consider that data center sites have access to renewable energy sources. This helps to reduce their reliance on “brown” electricity delivered by off-site providers, which is typically drawn from polluting sources. We then propose multiple VM placement approaches to evaluate their performance and identify the parameters with the greatest impact on the total renewable and brown energy consumption, carbon footprint, and cost. The results show that the approach which considers dynamic PUE, renewable energy sources, and changes in the total energy consumption outperforms the others while still meeting cloud users’ service level agreements.
Overexpression of fatty acid synthase is an early and common event in the development of prostate cancer

The expression of fatty acid synthase (FAS), a key lipogenic enzyme and potential target for antineoplastic therapy, was analyzed in 87 frozen needle biopsies of prostate cancer using a highly sensitive immunohistochemical detection technique (Envision). In comparison to normal or benign, hyperplastic glandular structures, which were all negative for FAS staining, immunohistochemical signal was evident in 24/25 low grade prostatic epithelial neoplasia (PIN) lesions, in 26/26 high grade PIN lesions and in 82/87 invasive carcinomas. Staining intensity tended to increase from low grade to high grade PIN to invasive carcinoma. Cancers with a high FAS expression had an overall high proliferative index. No correlation was found between FAS expression and lipid accumulation. These findings indicate that increased FAS expression is one of the earliest and most common events in the development of prostate cancer, suggesting that FAS may be used as a general prostate cancer marker and that antineoplastic therapy based on FAS inhibition may be an option for chemoprevention or curative treatment for nearly all prostate cancers. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Expression of the slit-diaphragm protein, nephrin, in experimental diabetic nephropathy: differing effects of anti-proteinuric therapies.

BACKGROUND Mutations in the gene coding for the podocyte slit-pore membrane protein, nephrin, are responsible for the Finnish-type congenital nephrotic syndrome. The present study sought to examine whether nephrin expression may also be altered in experimental diabetes, and how such changes related to the development of proteinuria. In addition, the study also sought to examine nephrin expression in animals treated with different anti-proteinuric therapies. METHODS Nephrin gene expression and localization were examined in rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes at 6 months duration (proteinuric phase) and at 7 days (pre-proteinuric phase). In addition, the effects of anti-proteinuric drug therapies were also assessed in long-term diabetic rats, treated with either the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor perindopril, or the blocker of advanced glycation end-product formation, aminoguanidine. Nephrin expression was determined using quantitative real-time PCR and in situ hybridization. RESULTS When compared with control animals, nephrin expression was reduced in the late proteinuric phase (45% reduction vs controls, P<0.01) but not in the early, pre-proteinuric phase of experimental diabetic nephropathy. While ACE inhibition and aminoguanidine both reduced proteinuria, only the former attenuated the diabetes-associated reduction in nephrin expression. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggests that reduction in nephrin may be a determinant of glomerular hyperpermeability in diabetic nephropathy. Attenuation of these changes with ACE inhibition suggest that this mechanism may contribute to the anti-proteinuric effects of this, but not all classes of drug which reduce urinary protein in diabetic nephropathy.
New Insights into the Alternative d-Glucarate Degradation Pathway*

Although the d-glucarate degradation pathway is well characterized in Escherichia coli, genetic and biochemical information concerning the alternative pathway proposed in Pseudomonas species and Bacillus subtilis remains incomplete. Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1 is a Gram-negative soil bacterium possessing the alternative pathway and able to grow using d-glucarate as the only carbon source. Based on the annotation of its sequenced genome (1), we have constructed a complete collection of singlegene deletion mutants (2). High throughput profiling for growth on a minimal medium containing d-glucarate as the only carbon source for ∼2450 mutants led to the identification of the genes involved in d-glucarate degradation. Protein purification after recombinant production in E. coli allowed us to reconstitute the enzymatic pathway in vitro. We describe here the kinetic characterization of d-glucarate dehydratase, d-5-keto-4-deoxyglucarate dehydratase, and of cooperative α-ketoglutarate semialdehyde dehydrogenase. Transcription and expression analyses of the genes involved in d-glucarate metabolism within a single organism made it possible to access information regarding the regulation of this pathway for the first time.
Conservative treatments for whiplash.

BACKGROUND Many treatments are available for whiplash patients but there is little scientific evidence for their accepted use. Patients with whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) can be classified by the severity of signs and symptoms from Grade 0 (no complaints or physical signs) to Grade 4 (fracture or dislocation). OBJECTIVES To assess the effectiveness of conservative treatment for patients with whiplash injuries rated as Grades 1 or 2 (neck and musculoskeletal complaints). SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (The Cochrane Library, 2006, Issue 3), MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and PEDro to November 2006 and screened references of identified randomised trials and relevant systematic reviews. SELECTION CRITERIA We selected randomised controlled trials published in English, French, German or Dutch, that included patients with a whiplash-injury, conservative interventions, outcomes of pain, global perceived effect or participation in daily activities. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two authors independently assessed the methodological quality using the Delphi criteria and extracted the data onto standardised data-extraction forms. We did not pool the results because of the heterogeneity of the population, intervention and outcomes and lack of data. A pre-planned stratified analysis was performed for three different comparisons. MAIN RESULTS Twenty-three studies (2344 participants) were included in this update, including nine new studies. A broad variety of conservative interventions were evaluated. Two studies included patients with chronic symptoms (longer than three months), two included subacute (four to six weeks) symptoms, two had undefined duration of symptoms, and 17 studied patients with acute (less than three weeks) symptoms. Only eight studies (33.3%) satisfied one of our criteria of high quality, indicating overall, a poor methodological quality. Interventions were divided into passive (such as rest, immobilisation, ultrasound, etc) and active interventions (such as exercises, act as usual approach, etc.) and were compared with no treatment, a placebo or each other. Clinical and statistical heterogeneity and lack of data precluded pooling. Individual studies demonstrated effectiveness of one treatment over another, but the comparisons were varied and results inconsistent. Therefore, the evidence neither supports nor refutes the effectiveness of either passive or active treatments to relieve the symptoms of WAD, Grades 1 or 2. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS The current literature is of poor methodological quality and is insufficiently homogeneous to allow the pooling of results. Therefore, clearly effective treatments are not supported at this time for the treatment of acute, subacute or chronic symptoms of whiplash-associated disorders.
The effect of sensory input and attention on the sensorimotor organization of the hand area of the human motor cortex

Sensory input can remodel representations in the sensory cortex, and this effect is heavily influenced by attention to the stimulus. Here we ask whether pure sensory input can also influence the spatial distribution of sensory effects on motor cortical hand area (sensorimotor organization) and whether this is modulated by attention. Sensorimotor organization was tested by applying short (1.5 s) periods of low amplitude vibration to single intrinsic hand muscles and measuring motor cortex excitability with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). In healthy subjects, sensorimotor organization in the hand is focal, with input from one hand muscle increasing motor‐evoked potentials (MEPs), decreasing short and increasing long‐interval intracortical inhibition (SICI and LICI) in the vibrated muscle (‘homotopic’ effects) and having opposite effects on neighbouring muscles (‘heterotopic’ effects). Here we show that a 15 min intervention of vibration applied simultaneously to two hand muscles can lead to long‐term (> 30 min) changes in the spatial pattern of sensorimotor interaction. The amount and direction of the effects depended on the subject's attention during the intervention: if subjects attended to both muscles when they were receiving simultaneous vibration, subsequent short‐term vibration applied to one of them produced ‘homotopic’ effects on both muscles. ‘Heterotopic’ effects on a muscle not vibrated during the intervention were unaffected. If subjects did not attend to simultaneous vibration, subsequent short‐term vibration of the muscles involved in the intervention no longer had any effect on them although the ‘heterotopic’ effects on a muscle not involved in the intervention were unchanged. We conclude that a 15 min period of pure sensory input can remodel the way that subsequent sensory inputs interact with motor output, that the effects are specific for the motor output to muscles involved in the intervention and that they are modulated by the subject's attention.
Implementing glucose control protocols in critically ill patients.

D and impaired fasting glucose affect a major portion of the US population. An estimated 29 million (14.4%) persons aged 20 years or older have either diabetes (diagnosed or undiagnosed) or impaired fasting glucose. Approximately 29% of diabetes cases are undiagnosed, while 13% of adults older than 50 years and 11% of adults aged 50 to 64 years have been told that they have diabetes. Diabetes is the fourth most common comorbidity complicating all hospital discharges. In 1997, diabetes was present in 9.5% of all patients at discharge and 29% of patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Diabetes causes a 2to 4-fold increase in rates of hospitalization and increases length of stay by 1 to 3 days, depending on the diagnosis. Several studies have documented that the incidence of diabetes in hospitalized patients without a known history of diabetes ranges from 12% to 37%, and that these patients have higher mortality rates. Thus, glucose control of hospitalized patients has received significant attention over the past several years. Although the aggressive treatment of critically ill patients with hyperglycemia was investigated in the early 1990s, a pivotal study by Van den Berghe showed that using intensive insulin therapy to maintain blood glucose level between 80 and 110 mg/dL reduced morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients in the surgical intensive care unit (ICU). The results of this study caused an intense movement for critical care units to develop intensive glucose management protocols. Unfortunately, van den Berghe could not duplicate these results in critically ill medical patients. Intensive insulin therapy reduced newly acquired kidney injury and accelerated weaning from mechanical ventilation and discharge from the ICU, but had no effect on in-hospital mortality. In-hospital mortality was reduced only in patients who stayed in the ICU 3 days or more. Krinsley retrospectively investigated the relationship between hypoglycemia and hospital mortality in a mixed group of critically ill patients. The lowest hospital mortality, 9.6%, occurred in patients with mean glucose levels between 80 and 99 mg/dL. He subsequently assessed the effect of implementing an intensive glucose management protocol in a mixed population of critically ill patients. The mean glucose level decreased from 152 to 130 mg/dL after institution of the protocol and also resulted in a 56% reduction in the number of patients with glucose levels lower than 200 mg/dL or higher without a significant change in hypoglycemia. The development of new renal insufficiency decreased 75%, the number of patients requiring red blood cell transfusions decreased 18%, hospital mortality decreased 29%, and ICU length of stay decreased 11%. AACN Advanced Critical Care
Visualización Basada en Semántica

RESUMEN Esta linea de investigacion tiene como objetivo crear un modelo de visualizacion que considere la semantica de los datos, del contexto y de las etapas del “Modelo Unificado de Visualizacion” para poder asistir al usuario en el seteo de los parametros de la visualizacion para lograr un resultado optimo. Este nuevo modelo transformara datos en informacion; de acuerdo a Keller & Tergan, information is data that has been given meaning through interpretation by way of relational connection and pragmatic context. Considerando esto, el nuevo proceso de visualizacion sera capaz de determinar las caracteristicas de una representacion efectiva y podra guiar al usuario a traves de los diferentes estados del modelo. Palabras clave: visualizacion basada en semantica, visualizacion de informacion, visualizacion, semantica. CONTEXTO El trabajo se lleva a cabo en el Laboratorio de Investigacion y Desarrollo en Visualizacion y Computacion Grafica (VyGLab) del Departamento de Ciencias e Ingenieria de la Computacion de la Universidad Nacional del Sur. La linea de Investigacion presentada esta inserta en el proyecto “Interfases No Convencionales. Su Impacto En Las Interacciones” (24/Zn19), dirigido por el Lic. Sergio Martig; y en el proyecto “Representaciones Visuales e Interacciones Para El Analisis Visual De Grandes Conjuntos De Datos” (24/N020), dirigido por la Doctora Silvia Castro. Ambos proyectos son financiados por la Secretaria General de Ciencia y Tecnologia de la Universidad Nacional del Sur; y acreditados por la Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahia Blanca.
Does the IdP Mix-Up attack really work ?

This document briefly describes and analyses the IdP Mix-Up attack on OAuth 2.0, as described by Fett, Küsters and Schmitz. We suggest that a key assumption on which the attack depends is incorrect, and as a result the attack does not appear to be a genuine threat to the security of OAuth 2.0.
Prepubertal angiotensin blockade exerts long-term therapeutic effect through sustained ATRAP activation in salt-sensitive hypertensive rats

Objective We previously showed that the molecule interacting with Ang II type 1 receptor (AT1R), ATRAP, promotes AT1R internalization and attenuates AT1R-mediated pathological responses. In this study we examined whether the regulation of renal ATRAP expression is related to the development of salt-induced hypertension and renal injury as well as to the beneficial effects of AT1R blockade. Methods and results Dahl Iwai salt-sensitive hypertensive and Dahl Iwai salt-resistant rats were divided into six groups for the administration of vehicle or olmesartan either continuously from 3 to 16 weeks, or transiently from weaning to puberty (3–10 weeks), and fed high salt diet from 6 to 16 weeks. In Dahl Iwai salt-sensitive rats, not only continuous, but also prepubertal olmesartan treatment improved hypertension at 15 weeks. Renal ATRAP expression was suppressed in vehicle-treated Dahl Iwai salt-sensitive rats, concomitant with up-regulation of renal oxidative stress, inflammation and fibrosis-related markers such as p22phox, TGF-&bgr;, fibronectin, monocyte chemotactic protein-1 and type 1 collagen. However, prepubertal as well as continuous olmesartan treatment recovered the suppressed renal ATRAP expression and inhibited the renal activation of p22phox, TGF-&bgr;, fibronectin, MCP-1 and type 1 collagen. In Dahl Iwai salt-resistant rats, such suppression of renal ATRAP expression or induction of renal pathological responses by salt loading was not observed. Conclusions These results indicate that prepubertal transient blockade of AT1R signaling exerts a long-term therapeutic effect on salt-induced hypertension and renal injury in Dahl Iwai salt-sensitive rats, partly through a sustained enhancement of renal ATRAP expression, thereby suggesting ATRAP a novel molecular target in salt-induced hypertension and renal injury.
Characteristics Estimation for Jerusalem Cross-Based Artificial Magnetic Conductors

This letter proposes a circuit model capable of predicting the bandwidth and resonance frequency of a well-known artificial magnetic conductor (AMC). The AMC is composed of an array of Jerusalem cross-shaped frequency selective surfaces (FSSs) (JC-FSS) deployed on a thin PEC-backed dielectric slab. The model benefits from the static (Quasi-TEM) closed-form equations, available in literature for the characteristic impedance of microstrip transmission lines. These equations enable the model to incorporate the influences of the slab thickness on the FSS impedance, a feature that the available models have not been able to offer exactly. In order to check the competence of the model, some sample AMCs are designed by the model, and their properties are verified by numerical analysis.