Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Effect of fluorofenidone on renal interstitial fibrosis in rats with unilateral ureteral obstruction].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of fluorofenidone on renal interstitial fibrosis in rats with unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) and to observe the effect of fluorofenidone on the expressions of collagen type I (Col I), collagen type III (Col III), α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) in the renal tissues of UUO rats. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into a sham-operated group, a UUO group, and a flurofenidone group (n=5). UUO model was induced by ligating the left ureter in rats. The rats were treated with 125 mg/(kg.d) fluorofenidone by gastric gavage in the fluorofenidone group at 24 h before the operation, and the rats were treated with the identical dose of 0.5% sodium carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC-Na) in the other 2 groups. The rats were sacrificed at 14 days after UUO. Pathological changes of the renal tissue were observed by HE and Masson staining, the mRNA expressions of Col I, Col III, α-SMA, PDGF and CTGF were detected by real-time PCR, and the protein expressions of Col I, Col III, PDGF and CTGF were detected by immunohistochemical staining. Results: The renal interstitial damage index, relative collagen area and mRNA and protein expressions of Col I and Col III in the renal tissues of the rats in the UUO group significantly increased (P<0.05), and fluorofenidone could reduce these indexes (P<0.05). Compared with the sham-operated group, the protein expressions of α-SMA, PDGF, CTGF and the mRNA expressions of PDGF and CTGF in the renal tissues of the rats in the UUO group were increased, but fluorofenidone could decrease the protein expressions of α-SMA, PDGF, CTGF and the mRNA expressions of PDGF and CTGF (P<0.05). Conclusion: Fluorofenidone (125 mg/kg.d) could attenuate renal interstitial fibrosis through inhibition of fibroblast proliferation, myofibroblastic activation, PDGF and CTGF expression.
Examining the Performance of the Metropolis–Hastings Robbins–Monro Algorithm in the Estimation of Multilevel Multidimensional IRT Models

The purpose of this study was to examine the performance of the Metropolis–Hastings Robbins–Monro (MH-RM) algorithm in the estimation of multilevel multidimensional item response theory (ML-MIRT) models. The accuracy and efficiency of MH-RM in recovering item parameters, latent variances and covariances, as well as ability estimates within and between clusters (e.g., schools) were investigated in a simulation study, varying the number of dimensions, the intraclass correlation coefficient, the number of clusters, and cluster size, for a total of 24 conditions. Overall, MH-RM performed well in recovering the item, person, and group-level parameters of the model. Ratios of the empirical to analytical standard errors indicated that the analytical standard errors reported in flexMIRT were somewhat overestimated for the cluster-level ability estimates, a little too large for the person-level ability estimates, and essentially accurate for the other parameters. Limitations of the study, implications for educational measurement practice, and directions for future research are offered.
A Novel and Integrated Assessment of Security Challenges in Cloud Computing

: Cloud computing is a technology that uses the Internet and central remote servers to preserve data and applications in a system. It also allows patrons and enterprises to utilize applications without installation and access their individual files with accessing the Internet at any computer. It also allows for much more well organized computing by centralizing data storage, bandwidth and processing. Within the last few years, Cloud computing has progressed as an important prototype for IT enterprises along with inexpensive in costs, transaction according to makes use of, scalability, quick ease of access along with more elasticity. Utmost undersized, medium and huge scale companies, organizations are moving towards cloud computing as it eliminates setting up of high-investment on IT communications and other services like Paas, NaaS and SaaS. In this system, the client data can be accessible in all around the world, controlled and maintained outside their accessibility. Accordingly, there can be privacy and security issues with the client’s data. The services providers in cloud industry should convince their clients by ensuring and providing security to their accessible data. Hence, in this survey paper we present and examine different security and privacy issues obtainable in cloud computing. We have also discussed different security models top cloud service providers. Cloud computing system is consuming the globe, and each day is bringing innovative developments in this world.
Creencias y actitudes de adolescentes españoles hacia el consumo de tabaco en pipa de agua

Objective: To identify beliefs and attitudes of high school students in Las Palmas regarding waterpipe smoking. This objective responds to the recent and increasing waterpipe smoking among European adolescents, the lack of data on its determinants and the absence of research on this issue among adolescents in Spain. Method: The sample, which comprised 1770 students of the province of Las Palmas (Canary Islands, Spain), was obtained by stratifying each academic block by geographic areas, grouping the students in as many clusters as existing groups in the school for each year group. An ad hoc questionnaire was used to collect data and a descriptive analysis of the data carried out. Proportions were compared using the χ2 test. Results: 70.7% of adolescents considered that waterpipe smoking is less harmful than smoking cigarettes and 71.3% believed it to be less addictive. Students asserted that it is a generally accepted practice among their friends (63.7%) and in society (78.9%). 27.8% of the interviewees perceived that their parents would allow them to smoke waterpipe at home. All of these beliefs and attitudes were more common among smokers (p<0.001). Conclusions: Most students consider waterpipe smoking to be less dangerous and less addictive than cigarette consumption. This belief, the perception of its social acceptance and family tolerance towards it have increased its popularity among adolescents.
Genetic Markers for Coronary Artery Disease

Coronary artery disease (CAD) and myocardial infarction (MI) are recognized as leading causes of mortality in developed countries. Although typically associated with behavioral risk factors, such as smoking, sedentary lifestyle, and poor dietary habits, such vascular phenotypes have also long been recognized as being related to genetic background. We review the currently available data concerning genetic markers for CAD in English and non-English articles with English abstracts published between 2003 and 2018. As genetic testing is increasingly available, it may be possible to identify adequate genetic markers representing the risk profile and to use them in a clinical setting.
Oxidative DNA damage in the rat lung induced by intratracheal instillation and inhalation of nanoparticles

Nanoparticles are widely used as useful industrial materials. Therefore, their possible adverse health effects must be appraised. We assessed and compared the oxidative DNA damage caused by four different nanoparticles (TiO2, NiO, ZnO and CeO2). The effects of the administration methods, intratracheal instillation and inhalation, were also evaluated. Rats were subjected to intratracheal instillations or 4 weeks of inhalation exposure to the nanoparticles, and the 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) levels in the lung were analyzed by an HPLC-EC detector method. The 8-OHdG levels were increased in a dose-dependent manner with the inhalation of NiO. ZnO also increased the 8-OHdG levels with inhalation. In comparison with the control, the 8-OHdG levels were significantly and persistently higher with the CeO2 nanoparticle administration, by both intratracheal instillation and inhalation. In contrast, there were no significant differences in the 8-OHdG levels between the control and TiO2 nanoparticle-treated groups, with either intratracheal instillation or inhalation during the observation period. These results indicated that NiO, ZnO and CeO2 nanoparticles generate significant amounts of free radicals, and oxidative stress may be responsible for the lung injury caused by these nanoparticles. In addition, both intratracheal instillation and inhalation exposure induced similar tendencies of oxidative DNA damage with these nanoparticles.
Nationwide Estimation of Eligibility for Endovascular Thrombectomy Based on the DAWN Trial

Keon-Joo Lee, Beom Joon Kim, Dong-Eog Kim, Wi-Sun Ryu, Moon-Ku Han, Joon-Tae Kim, Kang-Ho Choi, Ki-Hyun Cho, Jae-Kwan Cha, Dae-Hyun Kim, Hyun-Wook Nah, Jong-Moo Park, Kyusik Kang, Soo Joo Lee, Jae Guk Kim, Mi-Sun Oh, Kyung-Ho Yu, Byung-Chul Lee, Keun-Sik Hong, Yong-Jin Cho, Tai Hwan Park, Kyung Bok Lee, Jun Lee, Ji Sung Lee, Juneyoung Lee, Hee-Joon Bae, Clinical Research Collaboration for Stroke in Korea (CRCS-K) Investigators Department of Neurology, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea Department of Neurology, Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital, Dongguk University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea Department of Neurology, Chonnam National University Hospital, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Korea Department of Neurology, Dong-A University Hospital, Dong-A University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea Department of Neurology, Nowon Eulji Medical Center, Eulji University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea Department of Neurology, Daejeon Eulji Medical Center, Eulji University School of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea Department of Neurology, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Korea Department of Neurology, Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea Department of Neurology, Seoul Medical Center, Seoul, Korea Department of Neurology, Soonchunhyang University Hospital Seoul, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea Department of Neurology, Yeungnam University Medical Center, Yeungnam University College of Medicine, Daegu, Korea Clinical Research Center, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea Department of Biostatistics, Korea University, Seoul, Korea
Sex-specific epigenetic mediators between early life social disadvantage and adulthood BMI.

AIM The objective of this study was to identify potential epigenetic mediating pathways linking early life social disadvantage (ELSD) to adulthood BMI. METHODS Sex-specific epigenome-wide two-stage mediation analyses were conducted in blood and adipose tissue, and mediation estimates were obtained using cross-product mediation analysis. Pathway analyses were conducted using GREAT software (Bejerano Lab, CA, USA). RESULTS Candidate mediation CpG sites were identified in adipose tissue, but not blood, and were sex-specific. Significant mediation sites in females included CpG loci in genes: PKHG1, BCAR3, ADAM5P, PIEZO1, FGFRL1, FASN and DPP9, among others. Pathway analyses revealed evidence of enrichment for processes associated with TFG-β signaling and immunologic signatures. In males, significant mediation loci included sites in MAP3K5 and RPTOR, which have previously been associated with adipogenesis, inflammation and insulin resistance. CONCLUSION Our findings provide supportive evidence for the mediating role of epigenetic mechanisms in the effect of early life social disadvantage on adulthood BMI.
Increasing Data Hiding Capacity of Carrier Image Using BPCS Steganography

: Steganography means secret writing. It is an ancient technology that hides the data or information in such a way that nobody can see the hidden message or even its existence can’t be predicted. There are several techniques of data hiding like text, audio, image, video etc but all these techniques have limited amount of data hiding capacity. Bit Plane Complexity Segmentation (BPCS) Steganography is a technique that provides near 50% of data hiding capacity. In this technique data is hidden into the bit planes of the cover image. This technique is based on the characteristics of human vision system (HVS) in which a human can’t see any information in more complex blocks/binary patterns, So that all the complex blocks/binary patterns are replaced by secret data. The main aim of this paper is to provide an introduction to BPCS Steganography and the techniques that can be used to increase the data hiding capacity of BPCS Steganography.
Methionine as a safe and effective novel biorational mosquito larvicide.

BACKGROUND Mosquito larvicides provide a source-reduction strategy to diminish adult females that bite and potentially spread pathogens. Demands are mounting for new and innovative effective biorational larvicides, due to the development of resistance to some currently utilized mosquito larvicides, undesirable non-target effects, and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) restrictions. Methionine is a human nutrient essential amino acid that unexpectedly has been shown to be a valuable safe pest management tool against select insect pests that possess alkaline gut physiology. The present study evaluated larvicidal toxicity of methionine in several pestiferous mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) genera. RESULTS Concentration-dependent DL-methionine kinetics assays of survival and pupation were conducted in larvae of Aedes albopictus Skuse, Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say, and Culex tarsalis Coquillett in glass jars. High concentrations of DL-methionine yielded 100% mortality for all test species and prevented pupation at a rate equivalent to Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) treatments. Concentration kinetics indicated that An. quadrimaculatus was 10-fold more sensitive to DL-methionine than Ae. albopictus and Cx. tarsalis. CONCLUSIONS EPA regulations currently exempt methionine in pesticide formulations applied to agricultural crops. This study demonstrates that methionine is a highly effective mosquito larvicide that can provide a beneficial new biorational, environmentally sustainable tool to control pestiferous mosquitoes. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.
A minimum-dissipation time-integration strategy for large-eddy simulation of incompressible turbulent flows

textabstractAdaptive time stepping can significantly enhance the accuracy and the efficiency of computational methods. In this work, a time-integration strategy with adaptive time step control is proposed for large-eddy simulation of turbulent flows. The algorithm is based on Runge-Kutta methods and consists in adjusting the time-step size dynamically to ensure that the numerical dissipation rate due to the temporal scheme is smaller than the molecular and subgrid-scale ones within a desired tolerance. The effectiveness of the method, as compared to standard CFL-like criteria, is assessed by large-eddy simulations of the three-dimensional Taylor-Green Vortex.
EFFECTS OF DIETARY FERMENTED GARLIC ON THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE, RELATIVE ORGAN WEIGHTS, INTESTINAL MORPHOLOGY, CECAL MICROFLORA AND SERUM CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER CHICKENS

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding broilers with garlic fermented by Leuconostoc citreum SK2556. A total of 250 male broiler chicks was randomly housed into 25 floor pens. Five dietary treatments with five replicates of 10 chicks each (n=50 chicks/treatment). A corn and soybean meal based diet was used as the control diet (NC). The experimental diets were formulated by mixing the basal diet either with antibiotics (10 ppm; PC) or fermented garlic (FG) at the concentrations of 0.1% (FG1), 0.3% (FG3) or 0.5% (FG5) in diets. Daily weight gain, feed intake, and feed:gain ratio were not affected by any of the dietary treatments. Average daily gain on day 21 linearly increased (p= 0.024) with increasing FG levels. The relative weight of the bursa of Fabricius showed a progressive decline with increasing the FG levels. Jejunal villus height was not influenced by dietary treatments. Villus width linearly decreased as FG levels increased (p= 0.17). Jejunal crypt depth was significantly lower (p< 0.05) in the FG1 and FG3 groups compared with the NC group. Villus height:crypt depth ratio linearly increased (p= 0.018) with increasing FG levels. The population of cecal microflora was not altered by dietary treatments. Broiler chickens fed the FG5 diet exhibited (p< 0.05) higher blood levels of total protein and cholesterol compared with those fed the NC diet. Collectively, the results show that dietary FG marginally affected growth performance, especially during the first days rearing, improved intestinal morphology, and altered blood characteristics of broiler chickens.
Novel Sparse-Coded Ambient Backscatter Communication for Massive IoT Connectivity

Low-power ambient backscatter communication (AmBC) relying on radio-frequency (RF) energy harvesting is an energy-efficient solution for batteryless Internet of things (IoT). However, ambient backscatter signals are severely faded by dyadic backscatter channel (DBC), limiting connectivity in conventional orthogonal time-division-based AmBC (TD-AmBC). In order to support massive connectivity in AmBC, we propose sparse-coded AmBC (SC-AmBC) based on non-orthogonal signaling. Sparse code utilizes inherent sparsity of AmBC where power supplies of RF tags rely on ambient RF energy harvesting. Consequently, sparse-coded backscatter modulation algorithm (SC-BMA) can enable non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) as well as M-ary modulation for concurrent backscatter transmissions, providing additional diversity gain. These sparse codewords from multiple tags can be efficiently detected at access point (AP) using iterative message passing algorithm (MPA). To overcome DBC along with intersymbol interference (ISI), we propose dyadic channel estimation algorithm (D-CEA) and dyadic MPA (D-MPA) exploiting weighted-sum of the ISI for information exchange in factor graph. Simulation results validate the potential of the SC-AmBC in terms of connectivity, detection performance and sum throughput.
Diets supplemented with starch and corn oil, marine algae, or hydrogenated palm oil differentially modulate milk fat secretion and composition in cows and goats: A comparative study.

A direct comparative study of dairy cows and goats was performed to characterize the animal performance and milk fatty acid (FA) responses to 2 types of diets that induce milk fat depression in cows as well as a diet that increases milk fat content in cows but for which the effects in goats are either absent or unknown. Twelve Holstein cows and 12 Alpine goats, all multiparous, nonpregnant, and at 86 ± 24.9 and 61 ± 1.8 DIM, respectively, were allocated to 1 of 4 groups and fed diets containing no additional lipid (CTL) or diets supplemented with corn oil [5% dry matter intake (DMI)] and wheat starch (COS), marine algae powder (MAP; 1.5% DMI), or hydrogenated palm oil (HPO; 3% DMI), according to a 4 × 4 Latin square design with 28-d experimental periods. Dietary treatments had no significant effects on milk yield and DMI in both species, except for COS in cows, which decreased DMI by 17%. In cows, milk fat content was lowered by COS (-45%) and MAP (-22%) and increased by HPO (13%) compared with CTL, and in goats only MAP had an effect compared with CTL by decreasing milk fat content by 15%. In both species, COS and MAP lowered the yields (mmol/d per kg of BW) of C16 FA in goats, but not in cows, and the >C16 FA yield decreased with MAP in both species. HPO supplementation increased the milk yield of C16 FA in cows. Compared with CTL, COS induced an increase of trans-10,cis-12 conjugated linoleic acid by 18 fold in cows and 7 fold in goats and of trans-10 18:1 by 13 fold in cows and 3 fold in goats. Moreover, other conjugated linoleic acid isomers, such as trans-10,trans-12 and trans-7,cis-9, were increased to a greater extent in cows (8 and 4 fold, respectively) compared with goats (4 and 2 fold, respectively) on the COS treatment. In both species, the responses to MAP were characterized by a decrease in the milk concentration of 18:0 (3 fold, on average) and cis-9 18:1 (2 fold, on average) combined with a 3-fold increase in the total trans 18:1, with an increase in trans-10 18:1 only observed in cows. Compared with CTL, the response to HPO was distinguished by an increase in 16:0 (10%) in cows. This comparative study clearly demonstrated that each ruminant species responds differently to COS and HPO treatments, whereas MAP caused similar effects, and that goats are less sensitive than cows to diets that induce a shift from the trans-11 toward the trans-10 ruminal pathways.
Curriculum learning from patch to entire image for screening pulmonary abnormal patterns in chest-PA X-ray: intra- and extra-validations on multi-center datasets

In applying the deep-learning method to medical images, there is always the lack of data, and high dimensionality and complexity of medical images make this problem even more serious. Although chest X-ray image is two-dimensional data, accurately detecting abnormal patterns is a very difficult task due to its intrinsic limitations. Therefore, we proposed a computer-aided detection (CAD) for detecting 5 kinds of pulmonary abnormalities in chest-posterioranterior (PA) X-ray images with a curriculum learning strategy to train complex problem after training relatively easy problem to guide the CAD toward better local minima. In addition, extravalidation using multi-center datasets was performed to demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of this strategy.
Social Stigma and Health: An Identity-Based Motivation Perspective

American culture highlights the power of individuals to steer their own course and be masters of their own destiny. In American cultural context, low place in social hierarchy due to low socioeconomic status is taken to imply some deficiency in the persons who occupy this place. This association seems bidirectional: Low place is stigmatizing, and membership in a negatively marked group implies low place in social hierarchy. Low place in social hierarchy limits individuals’ choice and experienced control, influencing identity-based motivational processes. Identity-based motivation theory and its three components: dynamic construction of identity, action-readiness, and proceduralreadiness, are used to articulate the health consequences of this interplay. The identities that come to mind and what these identities imply for health is a function of momentary and chronic context. Accessible identities can elicit health-promoting or healthundermining behaviors and interpretations of experienced difficulty. This has implications for intervention.