In vivo evaluation of "Meriva" curcumin, and apigenin as anti-inflammatory drugs in a mouse model of chronic neuroinflammation

Purpose: The current project was divided into two separate, but related studies: the curcumin project and the apigenin project. In these projects, we aimed to assess the potential of two polyphenolic compounds in treating neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative disease: curcumin and apigenin. Curcumin project purpose (pilot study): To develop a valid UPLC-MS/MS method to quantify the plasma concentration of a phosphatidylcholine curcumin formulation (Meriva® curcumin), administered orally (via chow) to GFAP-IL6 mice for 30 days. We also endeavoured to determine if this formulation is able to increase bioavailability of Meriva® curcumin, in comparison to unformulated curcumin (naïve curcumin). We also aimed to confirm, using spectrophotometry, the curcumin concentration within the chow, in order to validate our experiment. Apigenin project purpose: To assess the viability of apigenin in rescuing motor, learning and memory deficits in a GFAP-IL6 mouse model of chronic neuroinflammation

Quantile Regression with Censoring and Endogeneity

In this paper, we develop a new censored quantile instrumental variable (CQIV) estimator and describe its properties and computation. The CQIV estimator combines Powell (1986) censored quantile regression (CQR) to deal semiparametrically with censoring, with a control variable approach to incorporate endogenous regressors. The CQIV estimator is obtained in two stages that are nonadditive in the unobservables. The first stage estimates a nonadditive model with infinite dimensional parameters for the control variable, such as a quantile or distribution regression model. The second stage estimates a nonadditive censored quantile regression model for the response variable of interest, including the estimated control variable to deal with endogeneity. For computation, we extend the algorithm for CQR developed by Chernozhukov and Hong (2002) to incorporate the estimation of the control variable. We give generic regularity conditions for asymptotic normality of the CQIV estimator and for the validity of resampling methods to approximate its asymptotic distribution. We verify these conditions for quantile and distribution regression estimation of the control variable. We illustrate the computation and applicability of the CQIV estimator with numerical examples and an empirical application on estimation of Engel curves for alcohol.Censored, Quantile, Instrumental variable, Censoring, Endogeneity, Engel curve, Alcohol

Quantile regression with censoring and endogeneity

In this paper, we develop a new censored quantile instrumental variable (CQIV)estimator and describe its properties and computation. The CQIV estimator combines Powell(1986) censored quantile regression (CQR) to deal semiparametrically with censoring, with a control variable approach to incorporate endogenous regressors. The CQIV estimator is obtained in two stages that are nonadditive in the unobservables. The first stage estimates a nonadditive model with infinite dimensional parameters for the control variable, such as a quantile or distribution regression model. The second stage estimates a nonadditive censored quantile regression model for the response variable of interest, including the estimated control variable to deal with endogeneity. For computation, we extend the algorithm for CQR developed by Chernozhukov and Hong (2002) to incorporate the estimation of the control variable. We give generic regularity conditions for asymptotic normality of the CQIV estimator and for the validity of resampling methods to approximate its asymptotic distribution. We verify these conditions for quantile and distribution regression estimation of the control variable. We illustrate the computation and applicability of the CQIV estimator with numerical examples and an empirical application on estimation of Engel curves for alcohol.

Dispersal and Management of Invasive Aquatic Plants in Mississippi Waterways

To understand the flow of water as a factor that influences aquatic vegetation communities and aquatic plant dispersal, custom-made Global Positioning System (GPS) drones were used to monitor the movement of water in Aliceville Lake, Columbus Lake, and Ross Barnett Reservoir, MS. In each reservoir, the drones drifted in the wind-generated surface current. Analysis of wind speeds suggests that a certain wind speed may be necessary to overcome gradient flow. Wind direction and wind speed should be incorporated in future spatial simulation models for aquatic plant dispersal and distribution. An herbicide evaluation on Cuban bulrush (Oxycaryum cubenese) was conducted to determine what herbicides would effectively control the invasive species. Applications made prelowering were more successful than postlowering applications for all herbicides tested with glyphosate, 2,4-D, triclopyr, diquat, imazamox, and imazapyr resulting in 100% mean biomass reduction. For postlowering applications, glyphosate, triclopyr, and diquat are recommended

Evaluating and Securing Text-Based Java Code through Static Code Analysis

As the cyber security landscape dynamically evolves and security professionals work to keep apace, modern-day educators face the issue of equipping a new generation for this dynamic landscape. With cyber-attacks and vulnerabilities substantially increased over the past years in frequency and severity, it is important to design and build secure software applications from the group up. Therefore, defensive secure coding techniques covering security concepts must be taught from beginning computer science programming courses to exercise building secure applications. Using static analysis, this study thoroughly analyzed Java source code in two textbooks used at a collegiate level, with the goal of guiding educators to make a reference of the resources in teaching programming concepts from a security perspective. The resources include the methods of source code analysis and relevant tools, categorized bugs detected in the code, and compliant code examples with fixing the bugs. Overall, the first text revealed a relatively moderate bug rate of approximately 44% of files analyzed contained either regular or security bugs. About 13% of the total bugs found were security bugs and the most common security bug was related to the Pseudo Random security vulnerability. The second text produced a slightly larger bug rate of 53.80% with approximately 8% of security bugs. After combining the texts for an average rate, the total number of security bugs that were likely to appear was roughly 10% percent. This encompasses security bugs such as malicious code vulnerabilities and security vulnerabilities related to exposing or manipulating data in these programs

La incidència del pes prosòdic en l’ordre que adopten els components dels binomis en un corpus de dades escrites

Treballs Finals de Grau de Filologia Catalana, Facultat de Filologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2021-2022, Tutora: Clàudia Pons-Moll[cat] L’objectiu d’aquest treball és veure l’ordre que adopten els binomis reversibles, del tipus ‘substantiu + i / o / ni + substantiu’, que apareixen en un corpus escrit del català i, en particular, investigar si el pes prosòdic influeix en la distribució que prenen els elements; és a dir, si existeix una preferència a ordenar els components de menys pesant a més pesant. Per tal de comprovar la incidència d’aquest factor, s’examinen els factors prosòdics que actuen en els binomis, i es du a terme una anàlisi quantitativa del percentatge de casos que presenten el component més pesant en segona posició. D’aquesta manera, es pot demostrar la freqüència amb què se segueix aquesta tendència en la llengua catalana.[eng] The aim of this work is to see the order that adopt the reversible binomials, of the shape ‘noun + and/or + noun’, which appear in a Catalan written corpus and, in particular, if the prosodic weight has an influence on the distribution that their elements take; in other words, if there exists a preference to order the components from less heavy to heavier. In order to verify the incidence of this factor, the prosodic factors acting on the binomials are examined, and a quantitative analysis of the percentage of the cases which present the heavier member in second position is carried out. This way, it is possible to demonstrate the frequency with which this tendency is followed in the Catalan language