Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bmc Complementary and Alternative Medicine Academic Doctors' Views of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (cam) and Its Role within the Nhs: an Exploratory Qualitative Study

Background: There has been a marked increase in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the UK population in recent years. Surveys of doctors' perspectives on CAM have identified a variety of views and potential information needs. While these are useful for describing the proportions of doctors who hold particular attitudes towards CAM, they are less helpful for understanding why. In addition, while the views of non-academic doctors have begun to be studied, the perspective and rationales of academic doctors remains under-researched. It seems important to investigate the views of those with a research-orientation, given the emphasis on the need for more scientific evidence in recent debates on CAM.
Sputum chemotactic activity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: effect of α1–antitrypsin deficiency and the role of leukotriene B4 and interleukin 8

Background: Neutrophil recruitment to the airway is thought to be an important component of continuing inflammation and progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), particularly in the presence of severe α1–antitrypsin (α1–AT) deficiency. However, the chemoattractant nature of secretions from these patients has yet to be clarified. Methods: The chemotactic activity of spontaneous sputum from patients with stable COPD, with (n=11) and without (n=11) α1–AT deficiency (PiZ), was assessed using the under-agarose assay. The contribution of leukotriene B4 (LTB4) and interleukin 8 (IL-8) to the chemotactic activity was examined using an LTB4 receptor antagonist (BIIL 315 ZW) and an IL-8 monoclonal antibody, respectively. Results: Sputum neutrophil chemotactic activity (expressed as % n-formylmethionyl leucylphenylalanine (fMLP) control) was significantly higher in patients with α1–AT deficiency (mean (SE) 63.4 (8.9)% v 36.7 (5.5)%; mean difference 26.7% (95% CI 4.9 to 48.4), p<0.05). The mean (SE) contribution of both LTB4 and IL-8 (expressed as % fMLP control) was also significantly higher in α1–AT deficient patients than in patients with COPD with normal levels of α1–AT (LTB4: 31.9 (6.3)% v 18.0 (3.7)%; mean difference 13.9% (95% CI –1.4 to 29.1), p<0.05; IL-8: 24.1 (5.2)% v 8.1 (1.2)%; mean difference 15.9% (95% CI 4.7 to 27.2), p<0.05). When all the subjects were considered together the mean (SE) contribution of LTB4 (expressed as % total chemotactic activity) was significantly higher than IL-8 (46.8 (3.5)% v 30.8 (4.6)%; mean difference 16.0% (95% CI 2.9 to 29.2), p<0.05). This difference was not significantly influenced by α1–AT phenotype (p=0.606). Conclusions: These results suggest that the bronchial secretions of COPD patients with α1–AT deficiency have increased neutrophil chemotactic activity. This relates to the increased levels of IL-8 and, in particular LTB4, which accounted most of the sputum chemotactic activity in the patients with COPD as a whole. Increased chemotactic activity, together with inhibitor deficiency, may contribute to the more rapid disease progression seen in α1–AT deficiency via increased neutrophil recruitment and release of neutrophil elastase.
Iron(IV)hydroxide pKa and the Role of Thiolate Ligation in C–H Bond Activation by Cytochrome P450

The pKa of P450 Cytochrome P450 enzymes oxidize hydrocarbons through activation of oxygen at heme iron centers. However, the protein backbone has various sites (particularly tyrosine residues) that are also sensitive to oxidation, so how can the enzyme rapidly transform substrates without attacking itself? Yosca et al. (p. 825) explored the energetics of the competition between substrate and self-oxidation by measuring the pKa of the enzyme's iron(IV)hydroxide motif. Cysteine thiolate coordination to iron in the P450 structure raised the pKa almost to 12—rendering the iron oxo far more basic than analogous motifs in other heme environments. Correspondingly, the electronic environment for H-atom transfer from the substrate was relatively favorable, compared to electron transfer from a backbone residue. The basicity of an iron oxo intermediate helps explain what keeps P450 enzymes from oxidizing their own backbone. Cytochrome P450 enzymes activate oxygen at heme iron centers to oxidize relatively inert substrate carbon-hydrogen bonds. Cysteine thiolate coordination to iron is posited to increase the pKa (where Ka is the acid dissociation constant) of compound II, an iron(IV)hydroxide complex, correspondingly lowering the one-electron reduction potential of compound I, the active catalytic intermediate, and decreasing the driving force for deleterious auto-oxidation of tyrosine and tryptophan residues in the enzyme’s framework. Here, we report on the preparation of an iron(IV)hydroxide complex in a P450 enzyme (CYP158) in ≥90% yield. Using rapid mixing technologies in conjunction with Mössbauer, ultraviolet/visible, and x-ray absorption spectroscopies, we determine a pKa value for this compound of 11.9. Marcus theory analysis indicates that this elevated pKa results in a >10,000-fold reduction in the rate constant for oxidations of the protein framework, making these processes noncompetitive with substrate oxidation.
Leg bud mesoderm retains morphogenetic potential to express limb‐like characteristics (“limbness”) in collagen gel culture

Recent in situ hybridization studies have correlated expression of potential regulatory genes with pattern formation in limb bud mesoderm (Tabin: Cell 66:199–217, 1991); however, the mechanism(s) controlling their expression in mesoderm and their relevance to the establishment of a limb morphogenetic pattern remain unknown. One likely candidate for regulating patterning events in limb mesoderm is the apical ectodermal ridge, as its removal in ovo results in a graded truncation of limb skeletal elements in the proximal‐distal axis dependent upon the time of excision (Rowe and Fallon: J Embryol Exp Morph 68:1–7, 1982). In the present study, we investigate whether the hypothetical imprint of ridge ectoderm is retained in cultured mesoderm. Specifically, we sought to determine if a subpopulation of limb mesoderm that forms in collagen gel culture (Markwald et al: Anat Rec 226:91–107, 1990), retains any expression of “limbness” in the absence of limb ectoderm as characterized by the formation of a predictable number and distribution of limb‐like chondrogenic elements in comparison to the temporal and spatial relationships of the in situ proximal, hindlimb skeletal structures. Accordingly, explants of undissociated mesoderm from stage 18–22 chicken leg buds were cultured without ectoderm on collagen gel lattices and the central subpopulation of mesoderm was examined morphologically. We show that this central subset of mesoderm will form chondrogenic cells which were not expressed uniformly throughout the subset, but rather distinct nodules or elements of cartilage were elaborated. Moreover, the number of elements expressed by the central subset increased with the age of the mesoderm at the time of explantation; spatially and temporally, the sequence of elements that formed always proceeded from the proximal, anterior margin of the subset to its distal, posterior border. The shapes of the initial elements (designated I and II) resembled the forms of in situ proximal skeletal structures (girdle and femur‐like), whereas more distal elements (III‐V) were often fused and without structural similarity to in situ skeletal structures. When cultures were established from the posterior mesoderm of stage 19/20 or 21 mesoblasts, the frequency of element I formation was reduced approximately one‐half, whereas formation of more distal elements was unaffected. Conversely, element formation from the central subset established from isolated anterior mesoderm was virtually identical to intact mesoblasts, indicating a capacity to regulate for the loss of mesoderm as occurs in situ (Hampé: Archs Anat Microsc Morph Exp 48:345–378, 1959).
Mosaic Tetracycline Resistance Genes Are Widespread in Human and Animal Fecal Samples

ABSTRACT Mosaic tetracycline resistance genes comprising tet(O), tet(W), and tet(32) sequences were abundant in DNA extracted from pig and human fecal samples, accounting for 78% (50/64) and 46% (37/80) of genes amplified with a tet(O) primer set, respectively, in two samples. The nonmosaic tet(32) gene was isolated from a human saliva bacterium.
Assessing the Risk and Needs of Supervised Sexual Offenders

Effective intervention with offenders requires accurate identification of their risk-relevant propensities. In this prospective study, 139 Canadian community supervision officers were trained to assess the risk factors and criminogenic needs of adult male sexual offenders using structured risk tools. Recidivism outcomes were recorded for 768 offenders (average age of 41 years, approximately half had child victims, 14% Aboriginal) during an average 7-year follow-up period. All forms of recidivism (sexual, violent, any) were predicted by sex crime specific risk tools based on static, historical factors (Static-99R; Static-2002R) and by tools designed to assess psychologically meaningful risk factors of sexual offenders (STABLE-2000; STABLE-2007). Professional overrides of the Static-99 scores did not improve predictive accuracy. STABLE-2007 scores added incrementally over STATIC scores for all recidivism outcomes, but only for complete cases, suggesting meaningful variation in the extent to which community supervision officers can assess psychologically meaningful risk factors for sexual offenders.
A rationale for beach selection by the public on the coast of Wales, UK

Questionnaires were completed by 2306 beach users at 19 Welsh beaches with respect to beach selection parameters. The modal group of respondents was female aged 30–39. Beach choice was primarily determined by clean litter-free sand and seawater, followed by safety. Refreshment facilities and beach awards were deemed minor considerations by the public when choosing a beach to visit. Approximately 58 per cent of respondents were aware of beach award and rating schemes. Of coastal visitors interviewed for this paper, 67 per cent rated a beach as ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to their holiday, with just 2 per cent replying that they were unimportant.
LINGKUNGAN BELAJAR DAN KECERDASAN EMOSIONAL SEBAGAI FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI STRES KULIAH MAHASISWA

Lingkungan belajar merupakan manifestasi mahasiswa dalam proses belajar. Kecerdasan emosional melatih kemampuan mahasiswa untuk mengelola perasaannya, memotivasi dirinya, kesanggupan untuk tegar dalam menghadapi frustasi, kesanggupan mengendalikan dorongan dan menunda kepuasaan sesaat, mengatur suasana hati yang reaktif, serta mampu berempati dan bekerja sama dengan orang lain sehingga dapat mendukung seorang mahasiswa untuk menghadapi stres kuliah dan mencapai tujuan serta cita-citanya.Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji apakah lingkungan belajar dan kecerdasan emosional mahasiswa berpengaruh secara simultan dan parsial terhadap stres kuliah pada mahasiswa Pendidikan Ekonomi, FKIP-UPS Tegal.Populasi dalam penelitian adalah mahasiswa FKIP-Universitas Pancasakti Tegal. Penentuan sampel menggunakan teknik purposive sampling. Responden penelitian ini adalah mahasiswa semester VIII (delapan) sebanyak 87 mahasiswa yang tersebar pada tiga kelas. Data penelitian dianalisis dengan menggunakan alat statistik, yaitu uji F untuk mengetahui secara keseluruhan pengaruh dari semua variabel independent secara simultan tehadap variabel dependent. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Lingkungan Belajar dan Kecerdasan Emosional secara simultan berpengaruh terhadap Stres Kuliah Mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Ekonomi FKIP Universitas Pancasakti Tegal. Pengujian ini menunjukkan hasil yang signifikan dan berarti dapat disimpulkan bahwa lingkungan belajar yang baik dapat mengurangi stres kuliah pada mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Ekonomi FKIP Universitas Pancasakti Tegal. Kecerdasan emosional berpengaruh positif terhadap stres kuliah pada mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Ekonomi FKIP Universitas Pancasakti Tegal. Kata Kunci : Lingkungan Belajar, Kecerdasan Emosional, Stres Kuliah
Assessing the impacts of climate variability on crop yield over Sudano- Sahelian zone in Nigeria

Crop production in Sudano-Sahelian part of Nigeria is highly vulnerable to various challenges of climate variability, land degradation and desertification. This study investigates the impacts of climatic variability on major cereals crop (Maize, Millet and Sorghum) using Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis (SMRA) as an index for the assessment. The crop-yield data was correlated with climate parameters. Parameters with significant relationship where retained while parameters that correlates weakly were discarded. The parameters considered were rainfall, temperatures (T_max; T_min), relative humidity (RH), sunshine duration (SS) and crop yield . The retained parameters were regressed to create crop-yield prediction model. The variability indices (z-value) were also employed in the study and it establishes the impacts of climate that are significant to crop-yield during growing season. The result shows that crops suffered low yield output during the year 1980’s toward the early 1990’s (reflected as negative anomalies) due to unfavourable climatic conditions before a significant recovery afterwards. However, the predictive model generated for the crops were significant at α ≤ 0.05 (p-value). It was also observed crop yield are sensitive to June and September rainfall as well as daily Sunshine duration (SS) during the growing season. It was also observed that the predictor variables used in the study accounts for 60% of the crop- yield considered. This implies that climate is a major determinant for the yield of these crops as reflected by their total contribution.
Welcome to Cyberia: Notes on the Anthropology of Cyberculture [and Comments and Reply]

Significant changes in the nature of social life are being brought about by computer, information, and biological technologies, to the extent that-some argue-a new cultural order, "cybercul-ture," is coming into being. This paper presents an overview of the types of anthropological analyses that are being conducted in the area of new technologies and suggests additional steps for the articulation of an anthropology of cyberculture. It builds upon science, technology, and society studies in various fields and on critical studies of modernity. The implications of technoscience for both anthropological theory and ethnographic research are explored.
The overexpression of major antioxidant enzymes does not extend the lifespan of mice

We evaluated the effect of overexpressing antioxidant enzymes on the lifespans of transgenic mice that overexpress copper zinc superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD), catalase, or combinations of either CuZnSOD and catalase or CuZnSOD and manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD). Our results show that the overexpression of these major antioxidant enzymes, which are known to scavenge superoxide and hydrogen peroxide in the cytosolic and mitochondrial compartments, is insufficient to extend lifespan in mice.
Proceedings from the Scientiﬁc Symposium: Sex Differences in Cardiovascular Disease and Implications for Therapies

A consortium of investigator-thought leaders was convened at the Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and produced the following summary points: Point 1: Important sex differences exist in cardiovascular disease (CVD) that affect disease initiation, diagnosis, and treatment. Implication: Research that acknowledges these differences is needed to optimize outcomes in women and men. Point 2: Atherosclerosis is qualitatively and quantitatively different in women and men; women demonstrate more plaque erosion and more diffuse plaque with less focal artery lumen intrusion. Implication: Evaluation of CVD strategies that include devices should be used to explore differing anatomical shapes and surfaces as well as differing drug coating and eluting strategies. Point 3: Bone marrow progenitor cells (PCs) engraft differently based on the sex of the donor cell and the sex of the recipient. Implication: PC therapeutic studies need to consider the sex of cells of the source and the recipient. Point 4: Women have a greater risk of venous but not arterial thrombosis compared with men, as well as more bleeding complications related to anticoagulant treatment. Several genes coding for proteins involved in hemostasis are regulated by sex hormones. Implications: Research should be aimed at evaluation of sex-based differences in response to anticoagulation based on genotype. Point 5: Women and men can have differences in pharmacological response. Implication: Sex-speciﬁc pharmacogenomic studies should be included in pharmacological development. Point 6: CVD progression results from an imbalance of cell injury and repair in part due to insufﬁcient PC repair, which is affected by
Neurite beading is sufficient to decrease the apparent diffusion coefficient after ischemic stroke

Diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) is a sensitive and reliable marker of cerebral ischemia. Within minutes of an ischemic event in the brain, the microscopic motion of water molecules measured with DWI, termed the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), decreases within the infarcted region. However, although the change is related to cell swelling, the precise pathological mechanism remains elusive. We show that focal enlargement and constriction, or beading, in axons and dendrites are sufficient to substantially decrease ADC. We first derived a biophysical model of neurite beading, and we show that the beaded morphology allows a larger volume to be encompassed within an equivalent surface area and is, therefore, a consequence of osmotic imbalance after ischemia. The DWI experiment simulated within the model revealed that intracellular ADC decreased by 79% in beaded neurites compared with the unbeaded form. To validate the model experimentally, excised rat sciatic nerves were subjected to stretching, which induced beading but did not cause a bulk shift of water into the axon (i.e., swelling). Beading-induced changes in cell-membrane morphology were sufficient to significantly hinder water mobility and thereby decrease ADC, and the experimental measurements were in excellent agreement with the simulated values. This is a demonstration that neurite beading accurately captures the diffusion changes measured in vivo. The results significantly advance the specificity of DWI in ischemia and other acute neurological injuries and will greatly aid the development of treatment strategies to monitor and repair damaged brain in both clinical and experimental settings.
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Neural Indices of Improved Attentional Modulation over Middle Childhood

Keywords: Cognitive control Parahippocampal place area Working memory Development a b s t r a c t The ability to control the focus of attention relies on top-down modulation of cortical activity in areas involved in stimulus processing, and this ability is critical for maintaining items in working memory in the presence of distraction. Prior research demonstrates that children are less capable of focusing attention, relative to adults, and that this ability develops significantly during middle childhood. Here, using fMRI and a face/scene working memory task adapted from Gazzaley et al. (2005a,b), we compared top-down modulation in 15 children (aged 8–13) and 15 young adults (aged 19–26). Replicating prior results, in young adults, attention to scenes modulated activity in the parahippocampal place area (PPA). In addition, modulation of PPA activity increased as a function of age in children. PPA activity was also related to performance in this group, on the working memory task as well on a test of subsequent memory. Dorsolateral PFC also demonstrated increasing task-specific activation, as a function of age, in children. The present findings support the idea that chil-dren's reduced ability to maintain items in working memory, especially in the presence of distraction, is driven by weaker top-down modulation of activity in areas involved in stimulus processing.
An Ethnography of Distinction: Dynamics of Collective Taste-Making

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how taste is constructed at the micro-social level of a community of practice and to investigate the dynamics that underlie the process of taste-making. An ethnographic research was conducted in the context of an arts cooperative focusing on how members maintain status boundaries from dissimilar others (inter-group dynamics) and how they negotiate intra-group taste heterogeneity (internal dynamics). The findings indicate that the community symbolically demarcates itself from outgroups in an “us versus them” fashion by continuously juxtaposing its practices to those of competitive actors through “sayings” as well as “doings”. They also begin to mark out the appropriation processes through which members employ distaste to resignify and internalise meaning to their practices (a) by exhibiting tastes of outsiders if they can successfully negotiate their intent (recontextualising exo-cultural elements), (b) by negating tastes that are prevalent in the field in order to criticise subtly outgroup practices (appropriating practice through conspicuous absence) and (c) by negotiating the ‘tastefulness’ of objects that are not valued for their aesthetics by outsiders in order to provoke (resignifying prevailing aesthetics). Finally, the study conceptualises taste-making within the community as an ongoing dialogical process amongst members with heterogeneous views about “tastefulness”. Depending on their status, members employ strategies that help them either to actualise tastes that they favour in the context of the community or to deal with the exhibition of tastes that they are not in accordance with. The thesis makes a theoretical contribution to three areas; First, to literature on taste formation by accounting for the holistic outlook of community-based taste-making practices; Second, to our understanding of negative symbolic consumption by exhibiting the appropriation processes through which distaste endows meaning to practices; Third, to the stream of works on marketplace cultures by proposing a new conceptualisation of intra-group heterogeneity.