Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glibenclamide interferes with mitochondrial bioenergetics by inducing changes on membrane ion permeability

The interference of glibenclamide, an antidiabetic sulfonylurea, with mitochondrial bioenergetics was assessed on mitochondrial ion fluxes (H+, K+, and Cl−) by passive osmotic swelling of rat liver mitochondria in K‐acetate, KNO3, and KCl media, by O2 consumption, and by mitochondrial transmembrane potential (Δψ). Glibenclamide did not permeabilize the inner mitochondrial membrane to H+, but induced permeabilization to Cl− by opening the inner mitochondrial anion channel (IMAC). Cl− influx induced by glibenclamide facilitates K+ entry into mitochondria, thus promoting a net Cl−/K+ cotransport, Δψ dissipation, and stimulation of state 4 respiration rate. It was concluded that glibenclamide interferes with mitochondrial bioenergetics of rat liver by permeabilizing the inner mitochondrial membrane to Cl− and promoting a net Cl−/K+ cotransport inside mitochondria, without significant changes on membrane permeabilization to H+. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biochem Mol Toxicol 18:162–169, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/jbt.20022
On the Potentials of Traffic Steering Techniques between HSDPA and LTE

In this paper traffic steering between a High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network and a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) network with different carrier frequencies is investigated. First, two traffic steering algorithms, relying on static network information, are assessed from a traffic theoretical point of view and numerically. Furthermore, numerical analysis of two traffic steering algorithms, relying on dynamic information such as user SINR and cell load, is also performed. It is shown that the dynamic traffic steering algorithms outperform the static methods in terms of end user performance. Finally, it is investigated how the LTE terminal penetration affects the performance of the proposed traffic steering algorithms. For low LTE terminal penetration all LTE capable terminals should be pushed to the LTE network, and for high LTE terminal penetration a more dynamic traffic steering scheme should be used.
ETL-Humanoid-A high-performance full body humanoid system for versatile actions

This paper presents the final stage of development of the humanoid system, ETL-Humanoid. It is full-scale humanoid system with 46 degrees of freedom, with the height and weight of an average Japanese person. It was designed as an experimental platform, to explore the general principle of controls of complex embodied systems. The complete system will be presented; the mechanical configuration of the system and the low-level network-based control system will also be presented. The final system possesses properties of compactness, modularity and is light in weight. The mechanical system is high in performance, is backdrivable and compliant, allowing the possibility of a wide range of motions and capabilities. The general capability of being able to support itself is demonstrated. A "Chin Up" experiment showing the physical strength of our system is presented. The system is able to support its own body weight while rising up to a supporting bar. Aside from its physical strength, the system is also capable of performing higher-level perceptions and actions. These capabilities will be briefly presented.
Childhood cancer incidence patterns by race, sex and age for 2000–2006: A report from the South African National Cancer Registry

Higher childhood cancer incidence rates are generally reported for high income countries although high quality information on descriptive patterns of childhood cancer incidence for low or middle income countries is limited, particularly in Sub‐Saharan Africa. There is a need to quantify global differences by cancer types, and to investigate whether they reflect true incidence differences or can be attributed to under‐diagnosis or under‐reporting. For the first time, we describe childhood cancer data reported to the pathology report‐based National Cancer Registry of South Africa in 2000–2006 and compare our results to incidence data from Germany, a high income country. The overall age‐standardized incidence rate (ASR) for South Africa in 2000–2006 was 45.7 per million children. We observed substantial differences by cancer types within South Africa by racial group; ASRs tended to be 3–4‐fold higher in South African Whites compared to Blacks. ASRs among both Black and White South Africans were generally lower than those from Germany with the greatest differences observed between the Black population in South Africa and Germany, although there was marked variation between cancer types. Age‐specific rates were particularly low comparing South African Whites and Blacks with German infants. Overall, patterns across South African population groups and in comparison to Germans were similar for boys and girls. Genetic and environmental reasons may probably explain rather a small proportion of the observed differences. More research is needed to understand the extent to which under‐ascertainment and under‐diagnosis of childhood cancers drives differences in observed rates.
A blueprint of the Entrenchment-and- Conventionalization Model

Abstract Languages are subject to change, but they are also stable. The linguistic knowledge of the members of speech communities is similar, but also differs in many ways. Language use affects individual linguistic knowledge and contributes to linguistic conventionality. The present paper outlines a model of how language works that strives to do justice to these commonsensical observations. The model consists of cognitive processes and social processes and shows how these interact under the influence of usage events and a range of different types of forces.
Effectiveness results for popular e-discovery algorithms

E-Discovery applications rely upon binary text categorization to determine relevance of documents to a particular case. Although many such categorization algorithms exist, at present, vendors often deploy tools that typically include only one text categorization approach. Unlike previous studies that vary many evaluation parameters simultaneously, fail to include common current algorithms, weights, or features, or used small document collections which are no longer meaningful, we systematically evaluate binary text categorization algorithms using modern benchmark e-Discovery queries (topics) on a benchmark e-Discovery data set. We demonstrate the wide variance of performance obtained using the different parameter combinations, motivating this evaluation. Specifically, we compare five text categorization algorithms, three term weighting techniques and two feature types on a large standard dataset and evaluate the results of this test suite (30 variations) using metrics of greatest interest to the e-Discovery community. Our findings systematically demonstrate that an e-Discovery project is better served by a suite of, rather than a single, algorithms since performance varies greatly depending on the topic, and no approach is uniformly superior across the range of conditions and topics. To that end, we developed an open source project called FreeDiscovery that provides e-Discovery projects with simplified access to a suite of algorithms.
Situation assessment report: youth in Jamaica 2001.

The National Centre for Youth Development (NCYD) commissioned this situation assessment as part of its mandate to provide intersectoral coordination among various government and nongovernmental agencies to fulfill youth development objectives. Its purpose is to set a baseline for assessing the current level of youth development highlight vital social and environmental factors which affect youths’ needs and abilities track risk trends and monitor positive advances in youth development. As a companion piece to this assessment a Youth Programmatic Inventory gives the NCYD and other agencies an up-to-date accounting of active youth-serving organizations in Jamaica. It is hoped that these documents will help the NCYD and its partners to identify gaps in national coverage of youth development issues and priority areas of youth development. The situation assessment analyzes the status of youth in Jamaica using a set of roughly 70 quantitative indicators drawn from the best sources available in Jamaica and elsewhere. For purposes of this document youth are defined as between 10 and 24 years unless otherwise indicated. The report presents data for the entire age range or for subgroup of this range where appropriate or where the data allows. Information is presented on trends and separate analyses are done by sex. Moreover the analysis attempts to place findings on Jamaican youth within the national and regional context. The indicators are organized according to seven youth development topics. Key findings and the policy and program implications are summarized below. (excerpt)
Rejection Schemes in Multi-class Classification -- Application to Handwritten Character Recognition

The recognition of handwritten characters is an almost solved problem thanks to efficient machine learning techniques. However, the evaluation and the choice of thresholds to meet a certain level of performance remains a challenge. In this paper, we compare different rejection techniques to determine if a character has been successfully detected or not. Whereas the evaluation of binary classifiers through ROC curves and cost curves has been largely exploited in the literature, multi-class problems can involve different issues like the computational cost or the choice of having an adaptive threshold for each class. The proposed methods for rejection criteria include the maximization of the distance to the optimal performance in the ROC space. We show that optimizing this criterion is a suitable approach on two databases: Lampung handwritten characters, and Arabic handwritten digits. The results support the conclusion that in database where the accuracy is high, pair wise ROC curves analysis in multi-class problems can lead to a finer evaluation of the performance and thresholds definition.
Cultural Differences in Altruistic Behavior: Quasi Replication of Uranowitz's “Foot-in-the-Door with Implicit Demand”

A study was designed to validate in France the so-called foot-in-the-door technique with implicit demand described by Uranowitz in 1975, a test of altruistic behavior shown previously to have a positive effect on compliance. However, in conditions of a high-justification request, Uranowitz did not obtain the subjects' compliance. In the present study of foot-in-the-door with implicit demand, subjects complied with the request whatever the justification. This result can be interpreted as differences in perceptions of the justifications among subjects of our study and those of Uranowitz.
Circularly polarized radiation characteristics of a bowtie-shaped grid array antenna

The circularly polarized radiation characteristics of a bowtie-shaped grid array antenna (BTS-GAA) are investigated in order to broaden the area of application. It is found that a circularly polarized beam is obtained by appropriately choosing the amplitudes and phases of the feeding voltages. It is also found that the BTS-GAA acts as an antenna of dual circular polarization.
Isolation and characterization of a fluoranthene-utilizing strain of Pseudomonas paucimobilis

A soil bacterium capable of utilizing fluoranthene as the sole source of carbon and energy for growth was purified from a seven-member bacterial community previously isolated from a creosote waste site for its ability to degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. By standard bacteriological methods, this bacterium was characterized taxonomically as a strain of Pseudomonas paucimobilis and was designated strain EPA505. Utilization of fluoranthene by strain EPA 505 was demonstrated by increase in bacterial biomass, decrease in aqueous fluoranthene concentration, and transient formation of transformation products in liquid cultures where fluoranthene was supplied as the sole carbon source. Resting cells grown in complex medium showed activity toward anthraquinone, benzo[b]fluorene, biphenyl, chrysene, and pyrene as demonstrated by the disappearance of parent compounds or changes in their UV absorption spectra. Fluoranthene-grown resting cells were active against these compound as well as 2,3-dimethylnaphthalene, anthracene, fluoranthene, fluorene, naphthalene, and phenanthrene. These studies demonstrate that organic compounds not previously reported to serve as growth substrates can be utilized by axenic cultures of microorganisms. Such organisms may possess novel degradative systems that are active toward other compounds whose biological degradation has been limited because of inherent structural considerations or because of low aqueous solubility.
Low-dose thalidomide is an effective second-line treatment in cutaneous lupus erythematosus.

BACKGROUND The use of thalidomide in inflammatory cutaneous disorders has increased over recent years. Its use in cutaneous lupus erythematosus is now well documented, although most groups favour high-dose regimes (200 mg twice daily), where side effects are common and may limit drug use. METHODS A total of 27 patients with cutaneous lupus erythematosus were treated using a low-dose thalidomide regime (starting dose of 50 mg twice daily). RESULTS Results have been favourable, with a good response or total disease remission seen in 66% of patients. The prevalence of side effects was low. Nausea, sedation or tremor were seen in 8 patients but these were tolerable in all but four patients. No patient had symptoms of peripheral neuropathy. Owing to its teratogenicity, adequate counselling must be given to female patients of child-bearing age. CONCLUSION On the basis of these findings, low-dose thalidomide is advocated as a second-line treatment in cutaneous lupus erythematosus.
CS 224D Final Project DeepRock

We create a canonical encoding for multi-instrument MIDI songs into natural language, then use deep NLP techniques such as character LSTM variants to compose rock music that surpasses the prior state of the art and is competitive with certain pieces of music composed by human rock bands. We further define a neural network architecture for learning multi-instrument music generation in concert, but due to space and time constraints are unable to sufficiently train it.
Metamucil as an additional source of dietary fiber: impact of the quality of healthcare professionals' recommendations on users' experience.

OBJECTIVE Metamucil® is a fiber supplementation formed by 100% natural psyllium. This study, conducted in Italy, assessed the impact of quality of pharmacists' instruction to use this product on subjects' adherence to and overall satisfaction with this test product. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Open-label post-marketing study involving adult subjects who had purchased Metamucil® (follow-up: 14 ± 7 days). Information was collected using questionnaires dedicated to the participating subject and pharmacy. RESULTS In total, 1480 subjects and 182 pharmacies returned their questionnaires. The mean age of the subjects was 49 years, two-thirds were female and 87% went to the pharmacy with problems related to bowel movements. The median daily dose taken over the 21-day period was 1. Adherence to the test product was associated with the quality of pharmacist's counseling (p = 0.005). Similarly, satisfaction with the tested product was associated with the quality of counseling (p < 0.001). Consumers' satisfaction was also associated with the quality of pharmacist's explanation of the benefits of the test product (p < 0.001) and with adherence (p < 0.001). 93% and 83% of subjects, respectively, stated the ease of use and their overall satisfaction with the test product, with 73% of subjects agreeing that they would continue using it. Similar findings were observed in subjects who had previously taken the most commonly used branded fiber supplements containing either partially hydrated guar gum or psyllium in the previous 6 months. 92% of pharmacists stated they would recommend Metamucil® for bowel regularity and 90% as it provides multiple benefits. CONCLUSIONS Pharmacists' counseling is associated with consumers' adherence and satisfaction to Metamucil®. A large proportion of subjects were satisfied and would continue taking the tested product as a fiber supplement.
Mechatronic architecture development of UX-1

This paper presents novel design of underwater robot for exploring abandoned mines. The hazardous environment of such mines due to unknown hydrodynamic forces and faulty navigations, brings the need of developing a reliable system able to be controlled autonomously. This capability highly rely on the basis of low level control and mechatronic architecture of the robot which demonstrate robot potential for performing real-time operations. Following, describes rapid prototyping during development phase of the robot. Further, it investigates on mechatronic development of main controller unit, propulsion system and ballast.
Clinical, microbiological, and experimental animal studies of Candida lipolytica

Candida lipolytica was recovered from six patients in three different clinical centers. The index isolate caused a persistent fungemia with catheter-associated Candida thrombophlebitis, the second isolate was from a polymicrobial sinusitis, and the remaining four isolates were involved in tissue colonization. These and 20 other isolates were consistent in their morphological and physiological characteristics. All formed true hyphae and blastoconidia on cornmeal-Tween 80 agar and all assimilated glucose, glycerol, and erythritol. In a murine model of disseminated candidiasis, the index isolate that caused clinical fungemia caused no mortality and produced only two lesions on a kidney, as determined at necropsy. The nine isolates selected for in vitro antifungal susceptibility studies had intermediate susceptibilities to amphotericin B but were susceptible to ketoconazole. We conclude that C. lipolytica is a weakly virulent pathogen which may require an intravascular foreign body to cause fungemia.
Some Chemical Considerations on the Distribution of Iron in the Sea

A theoretical study of the behaviour of ferric phosphate in sea water has been made with existing data. The conditions least favourable for the continued existence of ferric phosphate should occur in the upper layers of the sea during active plant growth. The formation and stability of ferric phosphate is likely to be most favoured under the more acid conditions found in the gut of many animals. Ferric phosphate is likely to be introduced into sea water in animal faeces. Experimental confirmation of this deduction is essential. In all experimental work involving ferric phosphate in sea water, the need is indicated for very accurate control of hydroxyl-ion activity and probably pressure, and for attention to the time factor and to the physical condition of the precipitated phase. The topic is of geochemical as well as of biological interest. Dipyridyl is a reagent for ferrous iron. Reasons are set out why in sea and lake water at high dilutions it may also determine ferric iron without presence of an added reducing agent. Evidence is presented that ferrifluoride plays no part in the iron cycle in he sea.
A comparative study on the effects of 5-fluorouracil on glycosaminoglycan synthesis during palate development in quail and hamster.

A comparative study was undertaken to investigate the effects of 5-fluorouracil (FU) on glycosaminoglycans (GAG) synthesis during morphogenesis of the secondary palate in birds (where, unlike mammals, palate morphogenesis begins in a horizontal direction ad initium and lacks mammalian-type shelf reorientation) and mammal. Previous studies have shown that FU induces cleft palate in both birds and mammals. Air sacs of quail eggs were injected with 100 micrograms FU in 0.1 ml saline or 0.1 ml saline only. Hamsters were given intramuscular injection of 81 mg/kg FU in 1 ml saline or 1 ml saline only. Total GAG synthesis was measured by incorporation of 3H-glucosamine. Sulfated and non-sulfated GAGs were identified by Alcian Blue histochemistry combined with the use of GAG-degrading enzymes. The results indicated that a continuous synthesis of GAG at a steady rate was associated with normal palate morphogenesis in both quail and hamster. The amount of GAG synthesized in hamster palate was four-fold higher than in quail palate. In contrast to the developing hamster palate where the predominant GAG was hyaluronate, the major GAGs present during quail palate development were sulfated and were concentrated on the nasal side. FU treatment did not affect the rate of GAG synthesis in the developing palate of quail. In contrast, FU administration altered the rates of GAG synthesis, and affected hyaluronate accumulation, during palate morphogenesis in hamster. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The Th1 to Th2 shift induced by Schistosoma mansoni does not exacerbate murine aids (MAIDS)

Schistosoma mansoni infection in mice is associated with a switch from a Th1 to a Th2‐type cytokine response. The role of Th1 and Th2 responses in immune dysregulations associated with AIDS and murine AIDS (MAIDS) is controversial, but a Th2 bias could be associated with disease progression, raising the hypothesis that helminth infections might accelerate the retroviral disease progression. Here, we used the murine model of AIDS to evaluate the course of the viral disease during co‐infection with S. mansoni. C57BL/6 mice were infected with S. mansoni cercariae 8 weeks before intravenous challenge with the LP‐BM5 retroviral complex. MAIDS did not progress faster in co‐infected mice, in terms of spleen and inguinal lymphadenopathy size, ecotropic virus titres in the spleen, or in vitro proliferative responses to mitogen. Th2 cytokine production was not enhanced in co‐infected animals, except for an isolated increase in IL‐4 production 21 weeks after LP‐BM5 infection. Co‐infected animals had significantly lower lymph node and spleen weights than mice infected with LP‐BM5 only. MAIDS did not influence the granulomatous response to S. mansoni in the liver of co‐infected mice. Finally, infection with S. mansoni neither enhanced Th2 cytokine production nor accelerated MAIDS progression in animals subsequently challenged with LP‐BM5.
Thrombin induces slug‐mediated E‐cadherin transcriptional repression and the parallel Up‐regulation of N‐cadherin by a transcription‐independent mechanism in RPE cells

The proliferation, directional migration to the vitreous and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) of quiescent, differentiated retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells is a major feature in the development of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) following exposure of the immuno‐privileged eye niche to serum components, thrombin among them. We have previously documented thrombin induction of RPE cell proliferation and migration. We here analyzed the effect of thrombin on the E/N cadherin switch, a hallmark of EMT. Results show that thrombin induces the specific repression of epithelial E‐cadherin gene transcription, alongside with the up‐regulation of mesenchymal N‐cadherin protein in RPE cells. We demonstrate, for the first time, that thrombin induces E‐cadherin repression by stimulating snail‐2 (SLUG) transcription factor expression, and the concomitant up‐regulation of N‐cadherin through the transcription‐independent increase in protein translation promoted by PI3K/PKC‐ζ/mTOR signaling. Our present findings suggest that the activation of protease‐activated receptor‐1 (PAR‐1) by thrombin induces EMT of RPE cells, further supporting a central role for thrombin in PVR pathogenesis. J. Cell. Physiol. 228: 581–589, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.