Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analgesic, antiinflammatory and hypoglycaemic effects of ethanol extract of Zingiber officinale (roscoe) rhizomes (zingiberaceae) in mice and rats

The present study was undertaken to investigate the analgesic, antiinflammatory and hypoglycaemic effects of Zingiber officinale dried rhizomes ethanol extract (ZOE) in mice and rats. The analgesic effect of ZOE was evaluated by ‘hot‐plate’ and ‘acetic acid’ analgesic test methods in mice; while the antiinflammatory and hypoglycaemic effects of the plant extract were investigated in rats, using fresh egg albumin‐induced pedal oedema, and streptozotocin (STZ)‐induced diabetes mellitus models. Morphine (MPN, 10 mg/kg), diclofenac (DIC, 100 mg/kg) and chlorpropamide (250 mg/kg) were used as reference drugs for comparison. ZOE (50–800 mg/kg i.p.) produced dose‐dependent, significant (p < 0.05–0.001) analgesic effects against thermally and chemically induced nociceptive pain in mice. The plant extract (ZOE, 50–800 mg/kg p.o.) also significantly (p < 0.05–0.001) inhibited fresh egg albumin‐induced acute inflammation, and caused dose‐related, significant (p < 0.05–0.001) hypoglycaemia in normal (normoglycaemic) and diabetic rats. The findings of this experimental animal study indicate that Zingiber officinale rhizomes ethanol extract possesses analgesic, antiinflammatory and hypoglycaemic properties; and thus lend pharmacological support to folkloric, ethnomedical uses of ginger in the treatment and/or management of painful, arthritic inflammatory conditions, as well as in the management and/or control of type 2 diabetes mellitus in some rural Africa communities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The incidence and risk factors of falls in Parkinson disease: prospective study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Although Parkinson disease (PD) patients suffer falls more frequently than other old people, only a few studies have focused on identifying the specific risk factors for falls in PD patients. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence and risk factors of falls in a prospective study in comparison to a control group. MATERIAL AND METHODS One hundred patients with PD were recruited to the study along with 55 gender- and age-matched healthy controls. Both groups were examined twice; the second examination took place one year after the first one. Examination of the PD group included: medical history including falls, neurological examination, assessment of the severity of parkinsonism [Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Schwab and England scale (S and E), Hoehn and Yahr scale (H and Y), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)], Hamilton scale and quality of life scales (SF-36, EQ-5D) and Freezing of Gait Questionnaire (FOG-Q). In both groups falls were recorded over the 12 months. Frequent fallers are defined as having more than 3 falls a year. RESULTS Over the year falls occurred in 54% of PD patients and 18% of controls. In a prospective study 28% of PD patients fell more frequently than in retrospective analysis. Frequent fallers were found in 20% of patients and in 7% of controls. Fallers showed higher scores in UPDRS, H and Y, S and E, MMSE, and Hamilton scale than non-fallers. Independent risk factors for falls were: age, previously reported falls and higher score in the FOG-Q. CONCLUSIONS Falls in PD patients occurred three times more frequently than in controls. Independent risk factors for falls were: high score in FOG-Q, older age and presence of falls in medical history.
Membrane Heating in Living Tissues Exposed to Nonthermal Pulsed EM Fields

A biotissue model consisting of multilayer spherical cells, including four nested radial domains (nucleus, nuclear membrane, cytoplasm, and plasma membrane), is worked out to derive the cell heating dynamics in presence of membrane capacitance dispersion under pulsed electromagnetic exposure. Two possible cases of frequency-dependent membrana models are discussed; plasma and nuclear membranes are dispersive, only the nuclear membrane is dispersive. In both models, a high localized heating of the membranes occurs, without significant temperature rise in the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm.
Rapid field inversion gel electrophoresis in combination with an rRNA gene probe in the epidemiological evaluation of staphylococci

A rapid field inversion gel electrophoresis (FIGE) protocol was combined with an rRNA gene probe in the analysis of staphylococci that were difficult to study epidemiologically by conventional means. The following groups of clinical isolates were examined: (i) predominantly antibiotic-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus strains containing no detectable plasmids and unresponsive to bacteriophage typing and (ii) methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis strains carrying a single plasmid ca. 30 kilobases in size. The results indicated that strain interrelationships could be established on the basis of SmaI-generated chromosomal restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) analyzed by FIGE. RFLP analysis of strains known to be unrelated established the importance of minor differences in DNA banding patterns as indicators of strain dissimilarities. Hybridization studies with an rRNA gene probe confirmed this conclusion. These results suggest that FIGE analysis of chromosomal RFLPs (especially in combination with molecular probes) is an important addition to the armamentarium of molecular epidemiology.
Pharmacogenomics of MRP Transporters (ABCC1-5) and BCRP (ABCG2)

Elucidation of the key mechanisms that confer interindividual differences in drug response remains an important focus of drug disposition and clinical pharmacology research. We now know both environmental and host genetic factors contribute to the apparent variability in drug efficacy or in some cases, toxicity. In addition to the widely studied and recognized genes involved in the metabolism of drugs in clinical use today, we now recognize that membrane-bound proteins, broadly referred to as transporters, may be equally as important to the disposition of a substrate drug, and that genetic variation in drug transporter genes may be a major contributor of the apparent intersubject variation in drug response, both in terms of attained plasma and tissue drug level at target sites of action. Of particular relevance to drug disposition are members of the ATP Binding Cassette (ABC) superfamily of efflux transporters. In this review a comprehensive assessment and annotation of recent findings in relation to genetic variation in the Multidrug Resistance Proteins 1–5 (ABCC1-5) and Breast Cancer Resistance Protein (ABCG2) are described, with particular emphasis on the impact of such transporter genetic variation to drug disposition or efficacy.
Experimental Characterization of UWB On-Body Radio Channel in Indoor Environment Considering Different Antennas

An experimental investigation to characterize the transient and spectral behavior of the ultrawideband (UWB) on-body radio propagation channel for body-centric wireless communications is presented. The measurements were performed considering over thirty on-body links in the front of human body in the anechoic chamber, and in indoor environment. Two different pairs of planar antennas have been used, namely, CPW-fed planar inverted cone antennas (PICA), and miniaturized CPW-fed tapered slot antennas (TSA). A path loss model is extracted from measured data, and a statistical study is performed on the time delay parameters. The goodness of different statistical models in fitting the root mean square (RMS) delay has been evaluated. Results demonstrate that the TSA, due to its more directive radiation behavior is less affected from the reflections from body parts and surrounding environment. The antenna shows significant size reduction and improved time delay behavior, and hence is an ideal candidate for UWB body area networks (BAN).
More questions than answers: a call for a moratorium on the use of intravitreal infliximab outside of a well-designed trial.

The success of intravitreal bevacizumab ( 149 kD) was unexpected because the initial studies by Ferrara, comparing ranibizumab (48 kD) with larger monoclonal antibodies, suggested that larger antibodies would not penetrate the retina.1 Interestingly, the study did not compare the penetration of ranibizumab directly to bevacizumab. The reason was apparently because the authors noted that intravitreal bevacizumab was sometimes associated with intraocular inflammation. Therefore, the authors compared exactly the same milligram amounts of ranibizumab with trastuzumab (145.5 kD), a Herceptin receptor2 antibody. The authors found greater penetration of ranibizumab than trastuzumab in the retina and believed that this showed that large antibodies did not penetrate the retina. Unfortunately, the study was flawed in that ranibizumab has a much smaller molecular weight than trastuzumab (48 versus 145.5) so that for the same amount of milligrams, they were not comparing a similar number of molecules of the 2 compounds, but rather they were comparing the penetration of 3 times as much ranibizumab than trastuzumab. More recent studies have shown that not only does intravitreal bevacizumab penetrate the retina, but it is also efficacious in treating preretinal, retinal, and choroidal neovascularization.2–4 The efficacy of intravitreal bevacizumab is such that it is taking a large multicenter trial to actually determine if there is a difference in efficacy between bevacizumab and its smaller relative, ranibizumab.5 Another large monoclonal antibody, rituximab (143.9 kD), a monoclonal antibody that binds CD20, has also shown ability to penetrate the retina.6 In addition, preliminary studies have shown some efficacy in treating primary intraocular lymphoma as well as secondary intraocular lymphoma.7 Further studies have to be performed to confirm these early findings. There are presently hundreds of monoclonal antibodies in some phase of development for clinical use and many might have ocular use as well. In light of the ability of intravitreal monoclonal antibodies to penetrate the retina and to show clinical efficacy, there is a palpable excitement in trying to find the next agent that will make a difference in the care of patients with eye disease.
MBTI Personality Type and the Utility of Error Correction among English Majors in Taiwan.

The issue of whether or not to correct errors in students’ writing is controversial. Some scholars argue that error correction is helpful, while others argue that it is ineffective, perhaps even harmful. What is missing from the literature are studies about how error correction might affect the performance of specific types of students. This study, which included 140 undergraduate English majors from Taiwan, examined the relationship between Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality types on the effectiveness of one kind of error correction of writing. To identify their personality types, the students completed Form G of the MBTI. To determine their opinions about error correction of writing, the students wrote—at the beginning and the end of the two-semester course—in-class essays about whether or not they wanted to receive error correction of their writing. The purpose of this repetition, using a pre-test/post-test format, was to assist the researchers in the comparison of the students’ self-reported opinions about error correction over time. In addition, the researchers compared improvement in students’ written grammatical accuracy by the variables of self-reported error-correction preferences and MBTI personality types. The students also completed the grammar section of the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) at the beginning and the end of the course; its purpose was to double-check any gains in grammatical accuracy in the essays with the results of a standardized grammar assessment. Once the data were collected, the Kruskal-Wallis test
Rateless coding data dissemination with handshake in VANETs

Data dissemination in VANETs has recently attracted much attention. The important problem is the proper protocol performance in different network density. The most of existing protocol are struggling to perform well in sparse networks. In this paper, a new protocol was purposed for data dissemination in VANETs. This protocol is simple and does not struggle with problem in sparse network. A proper handshaking algorithm is also designed for congestion avoiding during vehicle's communication. The results show that purposed algorithm success depends on vehicle's speed. If the vehicle's speed is increased, the vehicle should travel more distance for message decoding. The vehicle's speed increasing also causes less delay in message decoding. The vehicle's speed should be set for balance between delay and decoding distance.
Learning discriminative features from RGB-D images for gender and ethnicity identification

Abstract. The development of sophisticated sensor technologies gave rise to an interesting variety of data. With the appearance of affordable devices, such as the Microsoft Kinect, depth-maps and three-dimensional data became easily accessible. This attracted many computer vision researchers seeking to exploit this information in classification and recognition tasks. In this work, the problem of face classification in the context of RGB images and depth information (RGB-D images) is addressed. The purpose of this paper is to study and compare some popular techniques for gender recognition and ethnicity classification to understand how much depth data can improve the quality of recognition. Furthermore, we investigate which combination of face descriptors, feature selection methods, and learning techniques is best suited to better exploit RGB-D images. The experimental results show that depth data improve the recognition accuracy for gender and ethnicity classification applications in many use cases.
Oxidative Phosphorylation by Sweet Potato Mitochondria and Its Inhibition by Polyphenols.

1. BANDURSKI, R. S. Synthesis of carotenoid pigments in detached bean leaves. Bot. Gaz. 111: 95-109. 1949. 2. BEADLE, B. W. and ZSCHEILE, F. P. Studies on carotenoids. II. The isomerization of beta carotene and its relation to carotene analyses. Jour. Biol. Chem. 144: 21-33. 1942. 3. BEADLE, G. W. The gene and biochemistry. In: Currents in Biochemical Research. Pp. 1-12. Interscience Publishers, New York 1946. 4. BEADLE, G. W. The genetic control of biochemical reactions. The Harvey Lectures, Series 40: 179194. 194445. 5. BEADLE, G. W. Physiological aspects of genetics. Ann. Rev. Physiol. 10: 1742. 1948. 6. BONNER, J. Growth requirements of isolated roots. Amer. Jour. Bot. 27: 692-701. 1940. 7. BONNER, J., SANDOVAL, A. , TANG, T. W. and ZECHMEISTER, L. Changes in polyene synthesis induced by mutation in a red yeast (Rhodotorula rubra). Arch. Biochem. 10: 113-123. 1946. 8. FRANK, S. The relation between carotenoid and chlorophyll pigments in Avena coleoptiles. Arch. Biochem. 30: 52-61. 1951. 9. FRANK, S. and KENNY, A. L. Chlorophyll and carotenoid destruction in the absence of light in seedlings of Zea Mays L. Plant Physiol. 30: 413418. 1955. 10. HAAGEN-SMIT, A. J., SIU, R. and WILSON, G. A method for the culturing of excised, immature corn embryos in vitro. Science 101: 234. 1945. 11. KAY, R. E. and PHINNEY, B. 0. Plastid pigment changes in the early seedling leaves of Zea Mays L. Plant Physiol. 31: 226-231. 1956. 12. KOSKI, V. M. and SMITH, J. H. C. The isolation and spectral absorption properties of protochlorophyll from etiolated barley leaves. Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc. 70: 3558-3562. 1948. 13. PHINNEY, B. 0. and KAY, R. E. Interaction of environment and genotype in the expression of a virescent gene, pale-yellow-1, of maize. Hilgardia 23: 185-196. 1954. 14. STRAIN, H. H. Leaf xanthophylls. Carnegie Inst. Wash. Publ. No. 490. 1938. 15. TUKEY, H. B. Artificial culture methods for isolating embryos of deciduous fruits. Proc. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 32: 313-322. 1934. 16. ZSCHEILE, F. P. Plastid pigments. Bot. Rev. 7: 587-648. 1941. 17. ZSCHEILE, F. P. and COMAR, C. L. Influence of preparative procedure on the purity of chlorophyll components as shown by absorption spectra. Bot. Gaz. 102: 463481. 1941.
Cross-sectional area of cervical multifidus muscle in females with chronic bilateral neck pain compared to controls.

DESIGN Case-control study. OBJECTIVE To analyze the differences in muscle size and shape of cervical multifidus between patients with bilateral chronic neck pain and healthy subjects. BACKGROUND Researchers have demonstrated atrophy of lumbar multifidus in patients presenting with low back pain; however, there are only few published reports on cervical multifidus muscle size in individuals with chronic neck pain. METHODS AND MEASURES Bilateral ultrasound images of multifidus muscle from the third to sixth cervical vertebrae (C3 to C6) were taken in 20 women with bilateral chronic neck pain and 20 healthy women. Cross-sectional area (CSA [cm2]) and muscle shape ratio (ratio between lateral [Lat] and anterior-posterior [AP] dimensions, [Lat/AP]) were measured without knowledge of group assignment. Two separate 3-way (4 x 2 x 2) mixed-model analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with cervical level (C3 to C6) and side (right, left) as within-subject factors and group (patient, control) as the between-subject factor, were used to evaluate differences in CSA and muscle shape ratio between groups, sides, and cervical levels. RESULTS The ANOVA for CSA indicated a significant effect for cervical level (F = 6.81, P<.001) and group (F = 20.27, P<.001), but not for side (F = 1.26, P = .36). There were no significant interactions among the variables (P>.5). Post hoc analysis showed that the CSA of the C3 multifidus was smaller than the CSA of the C4 (P = .025), C5 (P<.001) or C6 (P<.01) multifidus. There was no significant difference between C4, C5, and C6 multifidus CSA (P>.05). The patients with neck pain had a smaller CSA of the cervical multifidus at all levels compared to controls (P<.001). The ANOVA for muscle shape ratio indicated a significant effect for level (F = 7.84, P<.001) and group (F = 12.501, P<.001), but not for side (F = 0.654, P = .58). There was a significant interaction between level and group (F = 3.651, P = .01). Patients had a wider ovoid shape (greater values in muscle shape ratio) of the C3 (P<.001) and C6 (P<.01) cervical multifidus compared to controls. Further, the C4 multifidus had a smaller shape ratio compared to C6 (P<.001), but was not significantly different than the shape ratio of the C3 and C5 (P>.05) multifidus. CONCLUSIONS Females with bilateral chronic neck pain had generalized smaller CSA of the cervical multifidus muscles compared to healthy females.
Avoiding Errors and Pitfalls in Evidence Sampling for Forensic Genetics

DNA fingerprinting or DNA profiling (as it is now known) was first developed by Alec Jeffreys in 1985 (Jeffreys et al., 1985), who found that in the human genome, some regions contained DNA sequences that were repeated over and over again, next to each other. He also discovered that the number of repeated unit could differ from individual to individual allowing human identity testing. Since that time, DNA typing methods has been commonly used in criminal cases (to identify a suspect or a victim or to absolve an innocent individual) as well as in the identification of missing persons or in paternity testing. Today, the most commonly used DNA repeat regions used are microsatellites also known as Short Tandem Repeats (STR). These loci in which the repeat unit is at least two bases but no more than seven in length, are amplified by PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) in a multiplex fashion (multiple primers) reducing sample consumption. Today, for the majority of forensic cases where DNA of preserved quality is available, the identification procedures of biological samples are performed by commercially well-validated kits incorporating 15-16 highly variable STR loci (plus amelogenin) such as PowerPlexR (Promega) and AmpFlSTRR (Applied Biosystems). With highly automated equipment, STR profiling can process hundreds of samples each day and became the cornerstone of forensic DNA testing, including national DNA databases with STR-profiles of convicted felons. Nevertheless, it is of great importance to make the distinction between the samples containing large quantities of high quality DNA and those containing minute amounts of DNA and/or poor quality molecules. If for the first type of samples, the occurrences of errors or pitfall are rare, in the second type, the interpretation of the allelic profiles should be done with care and caution. In this article, the authors will focus on the analysis of challenging samples, in other words, samples containing either (i) minute amount of DNA or (ii) degraded DNA or (iii) mixture of DNA or (iv) DNA polymerase inhibitors or (v) contaminating DNA molecules. Indeed, DNA is stable and remains intact when stored in a dry or frozen state but will be degraded when stored under inappropriate or bacterially contaminated conditions. Two types of damage are mainly likely to affect DNA over time: hydrolytic and oxidative damage. Hydrolytic damage results in deamination of bases and in depurination and depyrimidination, whereas oxidative damage results in modified bases (Lindahl, 1993). Both mechanisms reduce the number as well as the size of the fragments that can be amplified by PCR. Failure to amplify DNA may also result from the presence of inhibitors that interfere
Firm Characteristics and the Extent of Voluntary Disclosure: The Case of Egypt

In a society depending on real time information, corporate disclosure is crucial for the capital market efficiency. The more disclosures a company makes, the more transparent becomes the information to investors, the lower becomes the information asymmetry and more credible the firms will be for the market. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between the voluntary disclosure level in annual reports and firm characteristics of more active 50 Egyptian companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange of the non-financial sector during the period 2007-2010. The firm characteristics used in the study are: firm size, auditor size, profitability, and firm’s age. A disclosure checklist consisting of 60 voluntary items of information is developed and statistical analysis is performed using multiple regression analysis. The results of univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that firm size and profitability have significant positive association with voluntary disclosure level in annual reports. On the other hand, auditor size and firm’s age do not have any significant association with voluntary disclosure level. However, this paper has contributed to the academic literature that firms in the Middle East provide voluntary corporate information which builds a confidence to the investors in general.