Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differences in Plasma and Nipple Aspirate Carotenoid by Lactation Status

BackgroundDietary antioxidants, such as provitamin A carotenoid, have a protective effect against breast cancer. The transport of carotenoid from the blood into the breast microenvironment may be enhanced by lactation. ObjectiveTo examine the association between plasma and nipple aspirate carotenoid levels by lactation and post-wean status. MethodsThe sample consisted of 43 women, ages 18–45, who were at least 12 months postpartum. Women who had breastfed their last infant were at least 3 months post-wean. Women collected breast fluid every other day for 17 days and had a venipuncture for total nipple aspirate and plasma carotenoid, and completed a written health assessment, ResultsThe association between plasma and nipple aspirate carotenoid levels was significant for breastfeeding women (r =.39, p =.03), but not for non-breastfeeding women (r =.31, p =.27). However, while the association between plasma and nipple aspirate carotenoid levels was significant for women at or less than 9 months post-wean (r =.65, p = .01), the effect for women after 9 months post-wean (r =.21, p =.45) was not significant. ConclusionLactation may be protective by enhancing the delivery of chemopreventive substances available in the blood to the cell level of the breast, even after breast involution has occurred post lactation.
FADS2 genotype regulates delta-6 desaturase activity and inflammation in human adipose tissue[S]

Obesity is associated with disturbed lipid metabolism and low-grade inflammation in tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between FA metabolism and adipose tissue (AT) inflammation in the Kuopio Obesity Surgery study. We investigated the association of surgery-induced weight loss and FA desaturase (FADS)1/2 genotypes with serum and AT FA profile and with AT inflammation, measured as interleukin (IL)-1β and NFκB pathway gene expression, in order to find potential gene-environment interactions. We demonstrated an association between serum levels of saturated and polyunsaturated n-6 FAs, and estimated enzyme activities of FADS1/2 genes with IL-1β expression in AT both at baseline and at follow-up. Variation in the FADS1/2 genes associated with IL-1β and NFκB pathway gene expression in SAT after weight reduction, but not at baseline. In addition, the FA composition in subcutaneous and visceral fat correlated with serum FAs, and the associations between serum PUFAs and estimated D6D enzyme activity with AT inflammation were also replicated with corresponding AT FAs and AT inflammation. We conclude that the polymorphism in FADS1/2 genes associates with FA metabolism and AT inflammation, leading to an interaction between weight loss and FADS1/2 genes in the regulation of AT inflammation.
A COMPARISON OF FIVE HYBRID ZONES OF THE WETA HEMIDEINA THORACICA (ORTHOPTERA: ANOSTOSTOMATIDAE): DEGREE OF CYTOGENETIC DIFFERENTIATION FAILS TO PREDICT ZONE WIDTH

Abstract Tension zones are maintained by the interaction between selection against hybrids and dispersal of individuals. Investigating multiple hybrid zones within a single species provides the opportunity to examine differences in zone structure on a background of differences in extrinsic factors (e.g., age of the zone, ecology) or intrinsic factors (e.g., chromosomes). The New Zealand tree weta Hemideina thoracica comprises at least eight distinct chromosomal races with diploid numbers ranging from 2n = 11 (XO) to 2n = 23 (XO). Five independent hybrid zones were located that involve races differing from one another by a variety of chromosomal rearrangements. The predicted negative correlation between extent of karyotypic differentiation (measured in terms of both percent of genome and number of rearrangements) and zone width was not found. Conversely, the widest zones were those characterized by two chromosome rearrangements involving up to 35% of the genome. The narrowest zone occurred where the two races differ by a single chromosome rearrangement involving approximately 2% of the genome. The five estimates of chromosomal cline width ranged from 0.5 km to 47 km. A comparative investigation of cline width for both chromosomal and mitochondrial markers revealed a complex pattern of zone characteristics. Three of the five zones in this study showed cline concordance for the nuclear and cytoplasmic markers, and at two of the zones the clines were also coincident. Zones with the widest chromosomal clines had the widest mitochondrial DNA clines. It appears that, even within a single species, the extent of karyotypic differentiation between pairs of races is not a good predictor of the level of disadvantage suffered by hybrids.
Performance Analysis of Saliency Structure Model in Image Retrieval

A novel mechanism to simulate visual attention mechanisms for content-based image retrieval, based on saliency structure histogram method was proposed in this paper. In CBIR, images are indexed by their visual content, such as color, texture, shapes. A color volume with edge information together is used to detect saliency regions. The texture image features, such as energy, inverse difference moment, contrast are extracted. To simulate orientation-selective mechanism for image representation within CBIR framework, saliency structure histogram is used. The performance of the proposed algorithm was evaluated based on two datasets. The proposed algorithm outperforms the standard BOW baseline and micro-structure descriptor. KeywordImage retrieval, Visual attention, Saliency Structure Model __________________________________________________________________________________________________
Low Latency Network-on-Chip Router Microarchitecture Using Request Masking Technique

Network-on-Chip (NoC) is fast emerging as an on-chip communication alternative for many-core System-on-Chips (SoCs). However, designing a high performance low latency NoC with low area overhead has remained a challenge. In this paper, we present a two-clock-cycle latency NoC microarchitecture. An efficient request masking technique is proposed to combine virtual channel (VC) allocation with switch allocation nonspeculatively. Our proposed NoC architecture is optimized in terms of area overhead, operating frequency, and quality-of-service (QoS). We evaluate our NoC against CONNECT, an open source low latency NoC design targeted for field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The experimental results on several FPGA devices show that our NoC router outperforms CONNECT with 50% reduction of logic cells (LCs) utilization, while it works with 100% and 35%-20% higher operating frequency compared to the one- and two-clock-cycle latency CONNECT NoC routers, respectively. Moreover, the proposed NoC router achieves 2.3 times better performance compared to CONNECT.
Database Queries with Fuzzy Linguistic Quantifiers

Using a fuzzy-logic-based calculus of linguistically quantified propositions, a new database querying system is proposed for handling such imprecise queries as "find all records in which most (almost all, much more than 75 percent, etc.) of the important attributes (out of a specified subset) are as desired (equal to five, greater than ten, around seven, much greater than eleven etc.). "
Cause of the Obesity , Type 2 Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome Epidemics , Vaccine Induced Immune Overload versus Nutrition Overload

There is an epidemic of obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and associated conditions. Patients with these conditions often have markers of increased inflammation. Many researchers have published that nutrition overload caused the epidemic of obesity and the associated inflammation which leads to type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. A contrasting view has provided extensive evidence that vaccine induced immune overload has caused an epidemic of inflammation and this inflammation caused epidemics of obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The data reviewed in these manuscripts provides proof that immune overload, not nutrition overload has been the major contributing factor for the epidemics and inflammation associated with the epidemics. Several lines of evidence are reviewed including evidence that inflammation precedes obesity in many patients, the lack of inflammation in many obese patients, an epidemic of inflammation in thin patients, and an epidemic of obesity in children under 6 months of age. The failure to control the obesity epidemic is blamed on the focus on nutrition and ignoring the root cause, vaccine induced immune overload. Once a patient has developed metabolic syndrome with type 2 diabetes providers are too frequently subjecting their patients to further immune overload by administering yearly influenza vaccines and many other vaccines. This action makes metabolic syndrome more difficult to reverse. The plan to reduce obesity must be focused on preventing immune overload and not blaming patients for their diet. The epidemic of obesity can be reversed through discontinuation of vaccine practices that result in immune overload.
Consultation with the specialist: increased intracranial pressure.

1. Gitte Y. Larsen, MD* 2. Brahm Goldstein, MD† 1. 2. *Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Critical Care, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR. 3. 4. †Editorial Board. Increased intracranial pressure (ICP) may result from multiple etiologies, including cerebral edema associated with head trauma, hypoxic-ischemic events, infection, metabolic derangement, hydrocephalus, and space-occupying lesions. If unrecognized and untreated, increased ICP results in significant morbidity and mortality by causing irreversible neurologic injury. The intracranial cavity contains three components: blood, brain, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). CSF accounts for 10% of the total volume, blood for 10%, and brain for approximately 80%. CSF provides 70% of the intracranial buffering capacity. As the brain swells following an insult, CSF is displaced initially into the arachnoid space, cerebral blood flow (CBF) is altered, and ICP rises. The autoregulation of CBF is relatively constant at 50 to 150 mm Hg mean arterial pressure in adults. However, CBF is highly responsive to various metabolic factors, including Paco2, Pao2, and pH. For example, CBF rises linearly with increases in Paco2 of 20 to 70 torr and increases when the Pao2 falls below 50 torr. The ability to autoregulate blood flow often is altered or lost following a variety of insults, including head trauma. This may result in inappropriately high blood flows and an even higher ICP. As the compliance of the brain decreases, a relatively small change in volume will result in a large change in ICP. Infants were believed to be relatively protected against increases in ICP compared with older children, but little protection is afforded by an infant’s cranial and cerebral anatomy. Despite the presence of open sutures and larger subarachnoid spaces and cisterns, which serve to decompress expanding brain tissue, the smaller neural axis results in a less compliant pressure-volume relationship. Pathophysiology following brain injury occurs in two phases: primary and secondary. Primary brain injury refers to the initial insult, whether it be ischemic, anoxic/hypoxic, or shear injury …
The influence of perceived social media marketing activities on brand loyalty: The mediation effect of brand and value consciousness

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of social media marketing activities on brand loyalty, value consciousness and brand consciousness. Design/methodology/approach A self-administered questionnaire was developed and administered to a convenience sample of 346 undergraduate students Findings The findings of this research indicated that social media marketing has a significant effect on brand loyalty; brand consciousness and value consciousness mediate the relationship between social media marketing and brand loyalty. Originality/value This study confirms the growing importance of social media marketing. It also provides insights for marketers on envisioning brand loyalty.
Model of sustainable development in corporate social responsibility in Egypt

The aim of this descriptive and exploratory study is to address a gap in the literature in a topic that remains largely under researched in Egypt. It attempts to shed the light on the practices of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Egyptian context to evaluate their compliance with the imperatives of Sustainable Development that have become a global concern. These concerns are much more pressing in Egypt, due to necessity to plan interventions more long-term driven. The study is of importance to policymakers in their design of strategies and policies in a broader framework of poverty alleviation within Egypt's Sustainable Development Vision 2030, with the private sector as major societal player, through CSR activities. The methodology relies on qualitative research, based on the analysis of 2 case studies, and in depth-interviews; on a globalist multinational company represented in Egypt, and the second is a local family business that is typical of many local corporates. After analyzing using the model of assessment from Wood (1991) and Carroll (1979), several findings are to be noted. Institutional variables, such as cultural and religious beliefs, as well as uncertainty of socioeconomic conditions, are binding elements for the local approach to CSR that still invests heavily in philanthropy. The globalist CSR of the multinational is more assertive due to the experience of the mother company and 26 subsidiaries. The thesis concludes with recommendations to include sustainable development indicators in assessing CSR and to view CSR from a public policy perspective.
The Performance of Modified Jatropha-Oil Based Trimethylolpropane (TMP) Ester on Tribology Characteristic for Sustainable Metalworking Fluids (MWFs)

Metalworking fluids (MWFs) are widely used in machining process to improve its performance and product quality. It acts as a coolant and lubricant to reduce heat between the contact of two surfaces. However, commercial MWFs used in the industry were usually from petroleum-based oil which is toxic to the environment, difficult to dispose and caused significant health. Therefore, it is essential to develop a bio-based MWFs to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks. This study was aimed to determine the effect of chemically modified crude jatropha oil (CJO) with trimethylolpropane (TMP) at different molar ratio on tribological characteristic. The produced TMP esters are compared with synthetic ester in terms of wear scar diameter, coefficient of friction and friction torque. From the result, it shows that modified jatropha oil was equivalent with synthetic ester and provided good lubrication and reduce friction and wear.
Universe Types - Topology, Encapsulation, Genericity, and Tools

We present Generic Universe Types, a sound, lightweight ownership type system for type-generic object-oriented programming languages, which cleanly separates the ownership topology from the owner-as-modifier encapsulation discipline and is supported by a comprehensive set of tools. Mutable references give object-oriented programming languages the power to build complex object structures and to efficiently modify them. However, this power comes at the cost of aliasing: two or more references to the same object can exist, and the modifications performed through one reference are visible through all other references. In main-stream object-oriented languages, like Java and C], objects and references build a complicated mesh and there is no support to structure the heap. Visibility modifiers (such as private and protected in Java) only deal with information hiding, for example, ensuring that a field is only accessible from within its declaring class. However, the object referenced by that field might still be aliased and modified by other objects at runtime. There is no support to encapsulate object structures and to ensure that objects at runtime are only accessed in a controlled fashion. Aliasing and the unstructured nature of the heap lead to problems with, for example, understanding the behavior of a program, adapting a consistent locking discipline to ensure correct concurrent behavior, exchanging the implementation of an interface, and the formal verification of properties. The concept of object ownership has been proposed as a mechanism to structure the heap hierarchically and to provide encapsulation of object structures. Each object is assigned at most one other object as its owning object, and restrictions are enforced on the references. Ownership type systems provide static type annotations to enforce an ownership topology and encapsulation. For maintaining invariants, the existence of aliases is no problem, as long as these aliases are not used to modify the internal representation of a different object. We call this encapsulation system the owner-as-modifier discipline, because it guarantees that the owner object is always in control of modifications. The Universe type system is a lightweight ownership type system that enforces the owner-as-modifier discipline and supports the modular verification of object-oriented programs. We define Generic Universe Types (GUT), a combination of type genericity with Universe types. GUT subsumes the previous non-generic Universe type system and cleanly separates the topology from the encapsulation system. We give a complete formalization of the GUT system and prove it sound. Usually, ownership type systems entangle the enforcement of the ownership topology with the enforcement of an encapsulation system; that is, the structuring of the heap and the restrictions on the use of references are enforced together. In this thesis, we cleanly separate the ownership topology from the encapsulation system, giving a cleaner formalization and allowing the separate reuse.
A study of secondary organic aerosol formation in the anthropogenic-influenced southeastern United States

[1] The formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) in an anthropogenic-influenced region in the southeastern United States is investigated by a comparison with urban plumes in the northeast. The analysis is based on measurements of fine-particle organic compounds soluble in water (WSOC) as a measure of secondary organic aerosol. Aircraft measurements over a large area of northern Georgia, including the Atlanta metropolitan region, and in plumes from New York City and surrounding urban regions in the northeast show that fine-particle WSOC are spatially correlated with vehicle emission tracers (e.g., CO), yet the measurements indicate that vehicles do not directly emit significant particulate WSOC. In addition to being correlated, WSOC concentrations were in similar proportions to anthropogenic tracers in both regions, despite biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that were on average 10–100 times higher over northern Georgia. In contrast, radiocarbon analysis on WSOC extracted from integrated filters deployed in Atlanta suggests that roughly 70–80% of the carbon in summertime WSOC is modern. If both findings are valid, the combined results indicate that in northern Georgia, fine-particle WSOC was secondary and formed through a process that involves mainly modern biogenic VOCs but which is strongly linked to an anthropogenic component that may largely control the mass of SOA formed. Independent of the radiocarbon results, a strong association between SOA and anthropogenic sources has implications for control strategies in urban regions with large biogenic VOC emissions.
The Comparative Study of Factors Affecting Consumers’ Decisions to Select Independent and Chain Restaurants in Bangkok

The purpose of this study was to explore, by means of a survey research, the marketing factors and service performance (SERVPERF) affecting consumers’ decisions to choose independent versus chain restaurants in Bangkok. The questionnaire survey was carried out with a sample of 400 consumers who experienced independent restaurants and another 400 who experienced chain restaurants from five areas in Bangkok (Yannawa, Vadhana, Bang Khen, Huai Khwang and Saphan Sung). The data was analyzed by PASW statistics. The descriptive analysis revealed that the majority of the participants for both independent and chain restaurants were female, young workers in their 30s with a Bachelor’s degree and above. Majority of the participants were company employees, with a monthly income over 20,000 baht. However, the results showed a significant difference between the consumption behavior of the two groups of respondents. The consumers of independent restaurants frequented the restaurant more than once a week, with the intention of leisure dining, partying and familiarity with the restaurant owner. Many of them heard about the restaurant by word of mouth. Unlike the first group, the consumers of chain restaurants preferred to visit less than once a month with the purposed of business meetings. Most consumers knew about the restaurant from television and other media. Furthermore, by performing Factor Analysis and Logistic Regression Analysis, we were able to investigate the marketing factors and service performance leading to why each group chose that restaurant. The major factor for consumers’ first priority to choose independent restaurants was product and pricing. The physical evidence and process were in descending order. Meanwhile, consumers of chain restaurants focused on product, and followed by place and promotion. Regarding service performance, majority of the participants of independent restaurants required reliability and responsiveness as highest priority, but consumers of chain restaurants focused on tangibles. Results from this analysis were used to recommend the applicable marketing strategy for independent versus chain restaurants which were probably needed to enhance their service performance.
Brain Tissue Oxygen Monitoring and the Intersection of Brain and Lung: A Comprehensive Review

Traumatic brain injury is a problem that affects millions of Americans yearly and for which there is no definitive treatment that improves outcome. Continuous brain tissue oxygen (PbtO2) monitoring is a complement to traditional brain monitoring techniques, such as intracranial pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure. PbtO2 monitoring has not yet become a clinical standard of care, due to several unresolved questions. In this review, we discuss the rationale and technology of PbtO2 monitoring. We review the literature, both historic and current, and show that continuous PbtO2 monitoring is feasible and useful in patient management. PbtO2 numbers reflect cerebral blood flow and oxygen diffusion. Thus, continuous monitoring of PbtO2 yields important information about both the brain and the lung. The preclinical and clinical studies demonstrating these findings are discussed. In this review, we demonstrate that patient management in a PbtO2-directed fashion is not the sole answer to the problem of treating traumatic brain injury but is an important adjunct to the armamentarium of multimodal neuromonitoring.
A miniaturized bandpass filter based on half-mode substrate integrated waveguide loaded by complementary split-ring resonators

A Miniaturized bandpass filter by utilizing complementary split ring resonators (CSRRs) array loaded halfmode substrate integrated waveguide (HMSIW) is proposed. By etching several CSRRs on the bottom metal plane of the HMSIW, a bandpass are realized below the cutoff frequency of the HMSIW. The application of the HMSIW and CSRR combination technique for the design of miniaturized bandpass filter is then illuminated by equivalent circuit model. A demonstration of band-pass filter are designed, fabricated and measured. Very good agreement is shown between measurement and simulation.