Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Zinc supplementation restores PU.1 and Nrf2 nuclear binding in alveolar macrophages and improves redox balance and bacterial clearance in the lungs of alcohol-fed rats.

BACKGROUND Chronic alcohol abuse causes oxidative stress, impairs alveolar macrophage immune function, and increases the risk of pneumonia and acute lung injury. Recently we determined that chronic alcohol ingestion in rats decreases zinc levels and macrophage function in the alveolar space; provocative findings in that zinc is essential for normal immune and antioxidant defenses. Alveolar macrophage immune function depends on stimulation by granulocyte/monocyte colony-stimulating factor, which signals via the transcription factor PU.1. In parallel, the antioxidant response element signals via the transcription factor Nrf2. However, the role of zinc bioavailability on these signaling pathways within the alveolar space is unknown. METHODS To determine the efficacy of dietary zinc supplementation on lung bacterial clearance and oxidative stress, we tested 3 different groups of rats: control-fed, alcohol-fed, and alcohol-fed with zinc supplementation. Rats were then inoculated with intratracheal Klebsiella pneumoniae, and lung bacterial clearance was determined 24 hours later. Isolated alveolar macrophages were isolated from uninfected animals and evaluated for oxidative stress and signaling through PU.1 and Nrf2. RESULTS Alcohol-fed rats had a 5-fold decrease in lung bacterial clearance compared to control-fed rats. Dietary zinc supplementation of alcohol-fed rats normalized bacterial clearance and mitigated oxidative stress in the alveolar space, as reflected by the relative balance of the thiol redox pair cysteine and cystine, and increased nuclear binding of both PU.1 and Nrf2 in alveolar macrophages from alcohol-fed rats. CONCLUSIONS Dietary zinc supplementation prevents alcohol-induced alveolar macrophage immune dysfunction and oxidative stress in a relevant experimental model, suggesting that such a strategy could decrease the risk of pneumonia and lung injury in individuals with alcohol use disorders.
Avoiding Free Riders in the Cloud Federation Highways

The maturity of the Cloud Computing paradigm has highlighted a set of obstacles which isolated cloud providers are not being able to handle. To overcome these obstacles, isolated providers can organize themselves in entities called Inter-Clouds, mainly to share resources. However, this kind of resource-sharing environment may face the emergence of free riders, which only consume resources without caring for the whole, in a modern version of the Tragedy of the Commons. This work characterizes the free riders and proposes an Inter-Cloud architecture to avoid them based on the main features of Cloud Federations. This Inter-Cloud architecture, called Multi-Clouds Tournament, organizes multiple cloud providers in a tournament-based fashion, allowing those with better scores, determined by a function offferandconsumption , to take advantage of the system. On the other hand, those with low expected returns to the system, free riders for example, face disadvantages or even are eliminated from the tournament. We show preliminary tests of a score function within the tournament, illustrating how the system promotes or eliminates participants according to their behavior.
New Image Retrieval System Based on Robust Color and Texture Pattern Feature Extractions

In this dissertation, a new image retrieval system based on robust color and texture pattern feature extractions is investigated. The substance of research is composed of three main parts. First, robust feature extraction method from an original image based on advanced image processing techniques is proposed. The robustness designates geometric distortions (rotation, scaling and translation), illumination degradation and additive noise. Next, a construction method of efficient feature space suitable for image retrieval and classification is proposed. The feature space is obtained by a linear transform of the original robust feature space. The linear transform is generated by nonlinear least square optimization for the membership matrix. Further, by unifying the color and texture features, the user friendly fuzzy distance that fits the sense of distance is obtained. In the computer simulations, the individual process is examined. The effectiveness of the methods is verified in comparison with the conventional approaches
Association of first-trimester thyroid function test values with thyroperoxidase antibody status, smoking, and multivitamin use.

OBJECTIVE To determine first-trimester thyroid function values and associations with thyroperoxidase antibody (TPO-Ab) status, smoking, emesis, and iodine-containing multivitamin use. METHODS We collected information by interview, questionnaire, and blood draw at the initial obstetric visit in 668 pregnant women without known thyroid disease. We compared thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), total thyroxine (T4), and free T4 index (FT4I) values by TPO-Ab status. Multiple regression was used to identify characteristics associated with thyroid function values. RESULTS The following median (range containing 95% of the data points) thyroid function test values were obtained in 585 TPO-Ab-negative women: TSH, 1.1 mIU/L (0.04-3.6); FT4I, 2.1 (1.5-2.9); and T4, 9.9 microg/dL (7.0-14.0). The following median (range containing 95% of the data points) thyroid function test values were obtained in 83 TPO-Ab-positive women: TSH, 1.8 mIU/L (0.3-6.4) (P<.001); FT4I, 2.0 (1.4-2.7) (P = .06); and T4, 9.3 microg/dL (6.8-13.0) (P = .03) (P values denote statistically significant differences between TPO-Ab-positive and negative participants). Among TPO-Ab-negative participants, TSH level was not associated with use of iodine-containing multivitamins, smoking, or race. TSH increased 0.03 mIU/L for every year of maternal age (P = .03) and decreased by 0.3 mIU/L for every increase in parity (P<.001). T4 decreased 0.04 microg/dL for every year of maternal age (P = .04). Mean FT4I was 2.05 in smokers and 2.20 in nonsmokers (P<.01). There were no relationships between T4 or FT4I and parity, race, or iodine-containing multivitamin use. CONCLUSION TPO-Ab status of pregnant women should be considered when constructing trimester-specific reference ranges because elevated serum TPO-Ab levels are associated with higher TSH and lower T4 values.
Cholera outbreak in districts around Lake Chilwa, Malawi: lessons learned.

BACKGROUND Cholera is endemic in Malawi with seasonal outbreaks during the wet season. People living around Lake Chilwa rely on the lake for their water supply. From May 2009 to May 2010, a cholera outbreak occurred in fishing communities around Lake Chilwa. This paper describes the outbreak response and lessons learned for prevention and management of future outbreaks. METHODS Starting in January 2010, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) helped District Health Management Teams (DHMTs) to distribute educational materials, water disinfectant and hygiene supplies, and oral rehydration solution (ORS) in fishing communities. MSF also supported case management by mentoring health workers and providing equipment and supplies. RESULTS A total of 1,171 cholera cases and 21 deaths were reported in the districts around the lake, with cases also being reported on the Mozambican side of the lake. The attack rate was highest among people living on or around the lake, particularly among fishermen. Samples of lake water had high turbidity conducive to the propagation of Vibrio cholerae. CONCLUSION A number of practical measures could be taken to prevent future outbreaks and to manage outbreaks more effectively. These measures should address surveillance, environmental management, outbreak preparedness, and case management.
A Streptococcal Vir Types Are MProtein MProtein MProtein Gene ( emm ) Sequence Type Specific

The M-protein genes (emm genes) of 103 separate impetiginous Streptococcus pyogenes isolates were sequenced and the sequence types were compared to the types obtained by Vir typing. Vir typing is based on restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of a 4to 7-kb pathogenicity island encoding emm and other virulence genes. By using both HaeIII and HinfI to generate RFLP profiles, complete concordance between Vir type and emm sequence type was found. Comparison of the emm sequences with those in GenBank revealed new sequence types sharing less than 90% identity with known types. Diversity in the emm sequence was generated by corrected frameshift mutations, point mutations, and small in-frame mutations.
Voicing contrast: perceptual and productive voice onset time characteristics of adults.

This study was designed to examine the status of voice onset time (VOT) in identification and production of word‐initial voiced and voiceless labial, apical, and velar stop consonants for 20 English‐speaking adults. Synthetic speech stimuli were constructed for four continua including BEES/PEAS, BEAR/PEAR, DIME/TIME, and GOAT/COAT. VOT values for 30 productions of the same words examined in the identification task were determined from spectrographic measurements. Analyses of the perceptual data revealed significant differences among labial, apical, and velar stops for the VOT 50% crossover and lower and upper limits of the phoneme boundary, but not for boundary width. In production of voiced and voiceless stops, reliable differences for mean VOT were shown between all cognates and among places of articulatory constriction within voicing category. The latter finding was primarily related to the labial/velar comparisons. Variability among individual speakers was demonstrated in the percentage of voiced stop.
Interrelation between nitric oxide and endothelin-1 in an experimental acute hypoxia in rats and its intervention.

OBJECTIVES To study the interrelation between nitric oxide (NO) and endothelin-1 (ET1) in experimental acute hypoxic rats, and to evaluate the mechanism of acute hypoxic pulmonary hypertension affected by NO and ET1 and its intervention. METHODS Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) diaphorase histochemical staining method, Griess biochemical assay and radioimmune assay were applied to investigate the changes of nitric oxide syntheses (NOS), NO and ET1 in normal, hypoxic, and L-Arginine (L-Arg) and dexamethasone treated hypoxic rats. RESULTS In normal rats, the NOS stain was localized in pulmonary vascular endothelium, and in the hypoxic rats, the activity of NOS was significantly lower. The level of plasma NO was significantly lower during acute hypoxia, but L-Arg as well as dexamethasone could prevent the drop of plasma NO. The level of plasma ET1 rose up significantly in the acute hypoxic rats, but after L-Arg therapy, it was significantly reduced, however, dexamethasone could not affect plasma ET1. The level of plasma cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) was significantly lower in the acute hypoxic rats, and L-Arg could prevent the drop of plasma cGMP, but dexamethasone could not prevent the drop of plasma cGMP. CONCLUSIONS NO and ET1 may modulate hypoxic pulmonary hypertension and acute hypoxia can result in acute hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. L-Arg can reverse the acute hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. Further study is needed if dexamethasone is beneficial in acute hypoxic diseases. NO may play an important role in physiology of the lung and acute hypoxic diseases.
Heavy metals resistance by bacterial strains

Microorganisms are ubiquitous in nature and are involved in almost all biological processes of life. With rapid urbanization and natural processes, heavy metals have been found in increasing proportions in microbial habitats. Metals have been known to play a major role either directly or indirectly in almost all metabolic processes, growth and development of microorganisms. Bacteria that are resistant to such heavy metals and have the ability to grow in high concentrations of these metals play an important role in their biological cycling which has great potential in bioremediation of poorly cultivable soil high in heavy metal content. This review describes the workings of known metal-resistance systems in microorganisms.
Highlighting items as means of adaptive assistance

Providing adaptive help during interaction with the system can be used to assist users in accomplishing their tasks. We propose providing guidance by highlighting the steps required for performing a task that the user intends to complete according to the prediction of a system. We present a study aimed at examining whether highlighting intended user steps in menus and toolbars as a means of assisting users in performing tasks is useful in terms of user response and performance. We also examined the effects of different accuracy levels of help and the control format on user response and performance. An experiment was conducted in which 64 participants performed tasks using menus and toolbars of a simulated email application. Participants were offered a highlighted guidance of the required steps in varying levels of accuracy (100%, 80%, 60% and no guidance). Our results support the benefits of highlighted help both in user performance times and in user satisfaction from receiving such assistance. Users found the assistance necessary and helpful and by the same token not unduly intrusive. Additionally, users felt that such assistance generally helped in reducing performance time on tasks. We did not find a significant difference when users receiving help at 80% accuracy was compared to those receiving help at 100% accuracy; however, such a difference does appear for those receiving 60% accuracy. In such cases, we found that the user's satisfaction level, perceived usefulness and trust in the system decreased while their notion of perceived intrusiveness increased. We conclude that assisting users by highlighting the required steps is useful so long as the minimal accuracy level of help is higher than 60%. Our study has implications on the implementation of highlighting next steps as a means of adaptive help and on integrating probability-based algorithms such as intention prediction to adaptive assistance systems.
NetTweens The Internet and Body Image Concerns in Preteenage Girls

The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between media exposure and body image concerns in preteenage girls, with a particular focus on the Internet. A sample of 189 girls (aged 10-12 years) completed questionnaire measures of media consumption and body image concerns. Nearly all girls (97.5%) had access to the Internet in their home. Time spent on-line was significantly related to internalization of the thin ideal (as was time reading magazines and watching television), body surveillance, reduced body esteem, and increased dieting. In accord with the sociocultural model, internalization mediated the effect of the Internet on body image concerns. Further, 14% of the girls had a MySpace profile and 43% had a Facebook profile. Time spent on these social networking sites produced stronger correlations with body image concern than did overall Internet exposure. It was concluded that the Internet represents a potent sociocultural force among preteenage girls.
Does Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coliO157:H7 Enter the Viable but Nonculturable State in Salted Salmon Roe?

ABSTRACT An outbreak caused by salted salmon roe contaminated with enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157 occurred in Japan in 1998. Since about 0.75 to 1.5 viable cells were estimated to cause infection, we presumed that O157 might enter the viable but nonculturable (VNC) state in salted salmon roe and consequently that viable cell numbers might be underestimated. Although patient-originating O157 cells could not grow on agar plates after 72 h of incubation in 13% NaCl, they were resuscitated in yeast extract broth, and more than 90% of the cells were shown to be viable by fluorescent staining, suggesting that almost all of them could enter the VNC state in NaCl water. Roe-originating O157 was resistant to NaCl because it could grow on agar after 72 h of incubation in NaCl water, but about 20% of cells appeared to enter the VNC state. Therefore, germfree mice were infected with O157 to examine the resuscitation of cells in the VNC state and the retention of pathogenicity. O157 that originated in roe, but not patients, killed mice and was isolated from the intestine. However, these isolates had become sensitive to NaCl. O157 cells of roe origin incubated in normal media also killed mice and were isolated from the intestine, but they also became transiently NaCl sensitive. We therefore propose that bacterial cells might enter the VNC state under conditions of stress, such as those encountered in vivo or in high salt concentrations, and then revive when those conditions have eased. If so, the VNC state in food is potentially dangerous from a public health viewpoint and may have to be considered at the time of food inspection. Finally, the establishment of a simple recovery system for VNC cells should be established.
A 3D Virtual Radar System for Prediction and Evaluation of Radar Sensor Performance in Traffic Monitoring

Radar sensors are widely used in intelligent transportation systems. The performance of radar sensors in practical setups depends on many factors, such as sensor specifications, choice of locations, height and orientations of sensor installation. Currently, most of these choices are made by a "rule of thumb". In many cases, trial and error changes of settings are required and several rounds of on-site measurements and adjustments are incurred, which are both inefficient and costly. To overcome these problems, this paper reports a 3D virtual radar system that can accurately predict and evaluate the performance of actual radar sensors using a standard computer. The proposed system builds upon a 3D virtual model of real world. It allows users to freely enter specifications for radar sensors and the underlying algorithm can efficient calculate and represent graphically in the 3D model by the coverage area of the chose radar sensors at the specified location in the virtual world. Comparison with experimental data obtained using hardware testbeds shows the result obtained by the virtual radar system is accurate.
Assessment of Factors Important in Atherosclerotic Occlusion and Restenosis

Most articles about restenosis proceed from the assumption that luminal narrowing in atherosclerosis and restenosis occurs as a result o f migration o f medial cells across the internal elastic lamina and proliferation o f smooth m uscle cells in the pathologic intima (1^4). To a large extent, this view is derived from two sources o f conventional wisdom. First, for the last 20 years, the most popular concept o f vascular response to injury has been that put forward by R oss (5,6). In brief, this model emphasizes smooth m uscle proliferation as a dominant component o f atherosclerosis, both in terms oflesion formation and progression. It seems only reasonable to imagine that the same process(es) would play key roles in the accelerated narrowing o f the lumen seen after angioplasty. Second, animal models o f response to injury have shown a dramatic proliferative response to vascular injury with balloon catheters. Pharmacologic studies have identified the m olecules responsible for smooth muscle migration and subsequent intimal proliferation. It seem s reasonable to proceed on the assumption that the m olecules responsible for forming an intima follow ing injury also play a role in human atherosclerosis or restenosis. This view could be erroneous. Attempts to find replication in human atherosclerotic lesions have generally been unsuccessful (5 -7 ). Moreover, clinical trials in humans intended to prevent restenosis based on successful animal studies have not led to a reduction in the incidence or extent o f restenosis following angioplasty (8). The lack o f success in clinical trials o f drugs may also indicate that animal studies have modeled the wrong process or at least not all the processes which occur in human restenosis.
Applied behavior analysis as technological science.

Since its inception, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) has emphasized the publication of research involving applications of the experimental analysis of behavior to problems of social importance. These features ofJABA and the larger field that it represents were dearly described in the seminal artide by Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) and have been reaffirmed numerous times subsequently (e.g., Azrin, 1977; Baer, 1978). Thus, there always has been a dose link between basic and applied research in behavior analysis, even though that link may not be formally stated in every artide published. In examining the generality of behavioral principles with socially important responses, applied research has produced a methodology and technology ofbehavior change analogous to those found in other scientific endeavors having social impact. All fields of science that have produced methods for quantification of data and control over their subject matter also have shared a research orientation heavily emphasizing the development of technology and its translation into effective behavior (e.g., of the architectural, surgical, and airplane manufacturing sort). To the extent that applied behavior analysis represents a scientific and practical approach to the study of behavior, its technological character is essential. But is our emphasis on technology excessive? Hayes, Rincover, and Solnick (1980) answered the question affirmatively. Independent of the data on which their condusion was based (only one of 15 sets of data supported that condusionD), it would
The Effectiveness of Group Family Training About the Principles of Harm Reduction Approach on Marital Satisfaction of Spouses of Patients Under Methadone Maintenance Treatment

One of the most important problems in treatment of drug dependence is the cooperation of the patient's family. Many families do not look at drug dependence as a chronic and relapsing disorder and expect a quick and definite recovery of the disease. These families, including wives, are unfamiliar with the concept of harm reduction as a realistic approach. The aim of this study was to educate the spouses of patients undergoing methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) on the different aspects of harm reduction approach and assess the impact of this training on marital satisfaction and relapse rate. This study was a pretest-posttest study with control group. The sample consisted of 50 MMT patients and their wives in private methadone maintenance treatment clinics in the city of Bojnurd, located in the northeastern region of Iran. The experimental group received eight group training sessions run by a psychiatrist. The content of the training sessions was based on harm reduction programs for families of patients with high-risk behaviors. Two groups are compared in terms of marital satisfaction and relapse rate. A paired t test was used to compare changes before and after the training. The results of this study showed that harm reduction education and efforts for changing wives’ views toward MMT are effective in increasing their marital satisfaction. However, the conducted training showed no effect on relapse rate in the six-month follow-up. Regarding the fact that this type of training has not been paid enough attention in the national protocol, the proposed training program of this research can be considered in MMT clinics.