Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Supramolecular thermoplastic elastomer with thermally scratch repairable effect from 3‐amino‐1,2,4‐triazole crosslinked maleated polyethylene‐octene elastomer/nylon 12 blends

In this study, nylon 12 (5-25 wt %) was melt blended with a supramolecular thermally repairable thermoplastic elastomer (ATA-POE), which was generated by crosslinking of maleated polyethylene-octene elastomer (mPOE) with 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole (ATA), in an internal mixer. The effect of nylon 12 content on the phase morphology, thermomechanical properties, and thermally triggered scratch repairing effects of the ATA-POE/nylon 12 blends was investigated. Scanning electron microscopy results showed that nylon 12 formed a dispersed phase with submicron scale in a continuous ATA-POE phase. Fourier transform infrared spectros- copy and differential scanning calorimetry analysis revealed that there are extensive hydrogen bonding interactions between the ATA- POE and nylon 12 in the blends, which was manifested by a decrease in the melting temperature of each polymer component. Tensile and dynamic mechanical test showed that tensile modulus increased with increasing nylon 12 contents in the blend with maintaining fairly high elastic recoverability. Furthermore, the blends containing up to 20 wt % of nylon 12 showed good scratch repairing effects when they are heated above melting temperature of the ATA-POE phase in the blend. V C 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 41511.
In vivo cholinergic basal forebrain atrophy predicts cognitive decline in de novo Parkinson’s disease

See Gratwicke and Foltynie (doi:10.1093/brain/awx333) for a scientific commentary on this article. Cognitive impairments in Parkinson’s disease show variable onset, severity and progression. Ray et al. demonstrate that the future cognitive status of newly diagnosed patients can be predicted from the volume of the nucleus basalis of Meynert, with implications for the development of interventions for cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease dementia.
Protective effect of irbesartan, an angiotensin II receptor antagonist, alone and in combination with aspirin on middle cerebral artery occlusion model of focal cerebral ischemia in rats

The present study was designed to test pretreatment multiple doses of irbesartan (IRB) 50 mg, aspirin (ASP) 100 mg and the combination of both drugs for 7 days on middle cerebral artery—occluded (MCAO) rats. Focal cerebral ischemia was induced by MCA occlusion for 2 hours followed by reperfusion for 22 hours. After 24 hours of ischemia, grip strength and locomotor activity tests were performed. Animals were immediately sacrificed, infarct volume was measured followed by the estimation of markers of oxidative stress in the whole brains. Locomotor activity and grip strength were improved in IRB- and ASP-treated rats. Infarct volume was reduced in both IRB and ASP pretreatment as compared with MCAO rats. An elevation of thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) and a reduction in glutathione (GSH) and antioxidant enzymes viz. superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase were observed following MCAO. Pretreatment of IRB and ASP showed the reduction in TBARS, elevation in GSH, SOD and catalase levels as compared with MCAO rats. The protective effects of IRB, an angiotensin II receptor antagonist having affinity for AT1 receptor subtypes, could be due to inhibition of AT 1 receptor expression in addition to its neuroprotective and free radical scavenging properties in cerebral ischemia. Further, it may be possible that the combination of IRB and ASP may be useful as an add-on therapy and would yield beneficial effects, if administered immediately following the ischemia in reducing the severity of the neurological deficits. However, our results are preliminary, further studies with posttreatment of IRB and ASP are required to provide more firm view.
Inhibition of apoptosis in human laryngeal cancer cells by E6 and E7 oncoproteins of human papillomavirus 16

The carcinogenesis of human papillomaviruses type 16 (HPV‐16) is mainly due to its two oncoproteins, E6 and E7. Their carcinogenic features in term of their relationship with Bcl‐2 family are still unclear. We thus aimed to analyze the expression of Bcl‐2 family members, Bcl‐2, Bax, and Bak in laryngeal cancer cells transfected with the E6 or E7 and to determine the sensitivity of these cells to apoptotic stimuli. We employed two human laryngeal cancer cell lines, UMSCC12 and UMSCC11A in this study. These two cell lines were stably transfected with HPV16 E6, E7 or empty vector, pcDNA3.1. We found that E6 and E7 inhibited apoptosis induced by TNF‐α/CHX in both UMSCC11A and UMSCC12 cells, enhanced the stability of Bcl‐2 protein and increased the degradation of Bak protein. Furthermore, it was found that HPV‐16 E7 statistically enhanced the expression of Bcl‐2 in laryngeal cancer. The alteration of Bak by E6 and E7 was not through the influence on the Bak promoter, as the luciferase assay showed that neither E6 nor E7 changed the Bak promoter activity. We conclude that the evasion of apoptosis mediated by HPV‐16 E6 and E7 is associated with increased Bcl‐2 and decreased Bak in laryngeal carcinogenesis and that the decreased level of Bak by E6 and E7 is not caused by the regulation of the Bak promoter but by reducing its protein stability. J. Cell. Biochem. 103: 1125–1143, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Changes in Saturday outpatient volume and billings after introducing the Saturday incentive programme to clinics in South Korea: a longitudinal cohort study using claims data from 2012 to 2014

Objective In October 2013, the South Korean government introduced an incentive programme to increase the availability of Saturday treatment at clinics, hoping to increase the role of primary care providers as gatekeepers to medical care. To the best of our knowledge, no one has yet investigated this programme's effect on overall outpatient care. Our study aims to analyse the change in Saturday outpatient volume and billings in clinics that adopted the Saturday incentive programme. Setting Our study used 3 types of data from the period October 2012 to March 2014: National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) claims data, hospital evaluation data and medical institution data. Participants These data consisted of 66 825 881 outpatient cases from 2837 clinics. Interventions Introducing the Saturday incentive programme. Outcome measure We performed a multilevel analysis that adjusted for clinic-level and outpatient-level variables to examine the difference in the percentage of Saturday outpatient volume and billings after introducing the Saturday incentive programme. Results The percentages of Saturday outpatient volume and billings were higher after introducing the programme (outpatient volume: β=2.065, p<0.001; outpatient billings: β=3.518, p<0.001). In addition, outpatient volume and billings on Friday and Saturday increased after introducing the programme, while those on weekdays, excluding Friday, decreased. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the Saturday incentive programme has affected clinic outpatient care and is a worthwhile health policy in terms of promoting primary care. Thus, it may improve healthcare accessibility and quality of care, and prevent inappropriate usage such as emergency room visits by providing patients with weekend clinic hours.
Electrophysiological Correlates of Familiarity and Recollection in Associative Recognition: Contributions of Perceptual and Conceptual Processing to Unitization

It is generally accepted that associative recognition memory is supported by recollection. In addition, recent research indicates that familiarity can support associative memory, especially when two items are unitized into a single item. Both perceptual and conceptual manipulations can be used to unitize items, but few studies have compared these two methods of unitization directly. In the present study, we investigated the effects of familiarity and recollection on successful retrieval of items that were unitized perceptually or conceptually. Participants were instructed to remember either a Chinese two-character compound or unrelated word-pairs, which were presented simultaneously or sequentially. Participants were then asked to recognize whether word-pairs were intact or rearranged. Event-related potential (ERP) recordings were performed during the recognition phase of the study. Two-character compounds were better discriminated than unrelated word-pairs and simultaneous presentation was found to elicit better discrimination than sequential presentation for unrelated word-pairs only. ERP recordings indicated that the early intact/rearranged effects (FN400), typically associated with familiarity, were elicited in compound word-pairs with both simultaneous and sequential presentation, and in simultaneously presented unrelated word-pairs, but not in sequentially presented unrelated word-pairs. In contrast, the late positive complex (LPC) effects associated with recollection were elicited in all four conditions. Together, these results indicate that while the engagement of familiarity in associative recognition is affected by both perceptual and conceptual unitization, conceptual unitization promotes a higher level of unitization (LOU). In addition, the engagement of recollection was not affected by unitized manipulations. It should be noted, however, that due to experimental design, the effects presented here may be due to semantic rather than episodic memory and future studies should take this into consideration when manipulating rearranged pairs.
The 30-Base-Pair Deletion in Chinese Variants of the Epstein-Barr Virus LMP1 Gene Is Not the Major Effector of Functional Differences between Variant LMP1 Genes in Human Lymphocytes

ABSTRACT One group of sequence variants of Epstein-Barr virus is characterized by a 10-amino-acid deletion within the CTAR-2 functional domain of the latent membrane protein, LMP1. A role for this deletion in enhancing the tumorigenicity of the viral oncogene in rodent fibroblasts was recently demonstrated. We examined the effect of this deletion upon LMP1 function in four human lymphoid cell lines by using three natural variants of LMP1: the prototype B95.8 gene and the CAO and AG876 genes, both of which have codons 343 to 352 of the B95.8-LMP1 deleted. These experiments revealed that LMP1-mediated upregulation of CD40 and CD54 was markedly impaired (by 60 to 90%) with CAO-LMP1 compared with B95.8-LMP1. In contrast, the function of AG876-LMP1 was indistinguishable from that of B95.8-LMP1 in two lines and was only slightly impaired in the other two lines. Activation of NF-κB by CAO-LMP1 was not impaired in any of the lines; rather, activation of an NF-κB reporter by CAO-LMP1 was consistently about twofold greater than the activation with B95.8- or AG876-LMP1. Therefore, while the CAO-LMP1 is functionally distinct from the prototype B95.8-LMP1 in human lymphocytes, the 10-amino-acid deletion appears not to be directly responsible. This conclusion was confirmed by using a B95.8-LMP1 mutant with codons 343 to 352 deleted and chimerae of CAO- and B95.8-LMP1 in which the CTAR-2 domains of these genes were exchanged. Sequences outside the CTAR-2 domain were implicated in the distinct functional characteristics of CAO-LMP1 in human lymphoid cells.
Understanding Nutritional Situation of Farm women in Rural Arid Areas of Rajasthan: A Case Study

The study was undertaken to assess nutritional status of rural women population in arid area of western Rajasthan. The socio-economic status (SES) of families was assessed by using Kuppaswami Scale (modified), and nutritional status was measured using BMIbased classification proposed by WHO, 2004. Undernutrition was found in women of all socio-economic classes and age groups. It was found that highest number of women with low body mass index (BMI) was in upper lower class 25.87 % followed by lower middle 19.57 % and upper middle 3.33 %. It was also observed that the proportion of severe and moderate under nutrition was high in upper lower and lower middle class. The observations indicated that young females of 18-30 year age group were most affected while the extent of under nutrition in the increasing age groups was lesser than the earlier.
Channel measurements for large antenna arrays

Equipping base stations (BSs) with very large antenna arrays is a promising way to increase the spectral and energy efficiency of mobile communication systems without the need for new cell sites. However, the prominently theoretical works on this topic are based on several crucial assumptions about the wireless channel which have not been sufficiently validated by measurements. In this paper, we report on an outdoor measurement campaign with a scalable virtual antenna array consisting of up to 112 elements. The large amount of acquired data allows us to study several important aspects of large-scale MIMO systems. For example, we partially confirm the theoretical results based on uncorrelated channels which predict that the channels at different positions become more and more orthogonal as the number of antennas grows. However, for the measured channels, the marginal gain of an additional antenna quickly diminishes. Nevertheless, our results indicate that most of the theoretical benefits of large-scale MIMO could be realized also over the measured channels.
Temperature rises during tooth bleaching with different light-curing units

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of three different light-curing units on the temperature rise induced in the pulpal cavity, when bleached with 35% hydrogen peroxide (HP). Forty extracted maxillary central incisors were randomly divided into four groups according to photoactivation procedure (n = 10). Whiteness HP (WHP) bleaching agent which contains 35% HP bleach was placed on the facial tooth surface and no photoactivation device was used (control); an blue light-emitting diode (LED, 40 s), a diode laser (4 W, Continous mode, 20 s), and Nd:YAG laser (4 W, 60 Hz frequency, 20 s). Temperature rise in the pulpal chamber was measured with a J-type thermocouple wire that was connected to a data logger before and immediately after each 20–40 s application. One tooth of each group was selected for scanning electron microscope analysis. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed by the Games Howell post hoc test at a preset α of 0.05. One-way ANOVA revealed that there was a significant difference among the light-curing units (p < 0.05) and between control group and light-curing units (p < 0.05). The Nd:YAG induced significantly, which resulted in higher temperature increase than other light-curing units (10.7 °C). The LED unit produced the lowest temperature changes (3.2 °C) among the light-curing units. The presence of the bleaching gel did not cause a temperature increase in control group (0 °C). The results suggested that using light-curing units caused temperature changes in the intrapulpal cavity during tooth bleaching. The use of LED will be more safer for pulpal health when assisted with WHP bleaching gel.
THE INHERENT LIMITS OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Drawing on the Carnegie tradition, this paper examines how the Greek government and its military apparatus handled an incident involving the islets of Imia, which led to a near-war with Turkey in 1996. This came about not merely as a result of escalating circumstances: there were failures in strategic decision making resulting from the organizational structure, which shaped identities, defined repertoires of action, sustained routines, filtered and interpreted information, and provided the platform for interaction between organizational actors. Organizational structure, I observe, shapes the political economy of an organization and affects individual and collective action. Individuals react according to their positions in the organization, rather than to the actual problems encountered; the division of labour within an organization inevitably imposes a set of local responses which, while being cognitively economizing, are not always well calibrated. Hierarchy potentially offers some relief from this excessive compartmentalization, through control over which routines are enacted and the way a problem is framed. Hierarchy and management might, therefore, yield benefits inasmuch as they can help re-frame issues, intervene in the setting in motion of inappropriate routines, or design new routines. In our case-study, these safety valves were not effective; information relevant to framing the issue was neglected; responses were local and disaggregated; each partial reaction worked to worsen the problem; senior decision-makers failed to re-frame the issue, or alter the routinized repertoire of actions; all of which led to the militarization of this crisis.
Hypertension and Risk of Post-Operative Cognitive Dysfunction (POCD): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) occurs frequently after major surgery. Hypertension is well-established as a risk factor for age-related cognitive impairment, but it is unclear whether or not it also increases the risk of POCD. Objective: To evaluate the role of hypertension in POCD risk in a systematic review and meta-analysis. Method: PubMed, Ovid SP and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched for longitudinal studies of adults undergoing surgery with reporting of hypertension, blood pressure and/or anti-hypertensive treatment associations with POCD as relative risks or odds ratios. Fixed-effects meta-analyses were performed using Review Manager (version 5.3). Results: Twenty-four studies on 4317 patients (mean age 63 years) were included. None of the studies had set out to assess hypertension as a risk factor for POCD. Hypertension was used as a categorical predictor throughout and only 2 studies adjusted for potential confounders. Across all 24 studies, hypertension was not significantly associated with POCD risk (RR 1.01; 95% CI 0.93, 1.09; p=0.82), though among 8 studies with >75% males, we found hypertension associations with a 27% increased risk of POCD (RR 1.27, 95% CI 1.07, 1.49; p=0.005). Conclusion: Our findings do not support the hypothesis that hypertension is a risk factor for POCD. However, since none of the studies included in our analysis were hypothesis-driven and most did not adjust for potential confounders, further systematic investigations are needed to evaluate the role of hypertension in the epidemiology of POCD.
Validation Support for Distributed Real-Time Embedded Systems in VDM++

We present a tool-supported approach to the validation of system-level timing properties in formal models of distributed real-time embedded systems. Our aim is to provide system architects with rapid feedback on the timing characteristics of alternative designs in the often volatile early stages of the development cycle. The approach extends the Vienna development method (VDM++), a formal object-oriented modeling language with facilities for describing real-time applications deployed over a distributed infrastructure. A new facility is proposed for stating and checking validation conjectures (assertions concerning real-time properties) against traces derived from the execution of scenarios on VDM++ models. We define validation conjectures and outline their semantics. We describe the checking of conjectures against execution traces as a formally-defined extension of the existing VDM++ tool set, and show tools to visualise traces and validation conjecture violations. The approach and tool support are illustrated with a case study based on an in-car radio navigation system.
Advanced cancer as a risk for major depressive episodes

Major depression adversely affects health communication, quality of life, and survival in patients with advanced cancer. Prior research provides limited insight into how patients with advanced cancer differ from the general population in risk for developing a major depressive episode (MDE). This study aims to determine whether advanced cancer poses distinct risks for initial and recurrent MDEs.
Frailty and risk of falls, fracture, and mortality in older women: the study of osteoporotic fractures.

BACKGROUND A standard phenotype of frailty was associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes including mortality in a recent study of older adults. However, the predictive validity of this phenotype for fracture outcomes and across risk subgroups is uncertain. METHODS To determine whether a standard frailty phenotype was independently associated with risk of adverse health outcomes in older women and to evaluate the consistency of associations across risk subgroups defined by age and body mass index (BMI), we ascertained frailty status in a cohort of 6724 women>or=69 years and followed them prospectively for incident falls, fractures, and mortality. Frailty was defined by the presence of three or more of the following criteria: unintentional weight loss, weakness, self-reported poor energy, slow walking speed, and low physical activity. Incident recurrent falls were defined as at least two falls during the subsequent year. Incident fractures (confirmed with x-ray reports), including hip fractures, and deaths were ascertained during an average of 9 years of follow-up. RESULTS After controlling for multiple confounders such as age, health status, medical conditions, functional status, depressive symptoms, cognitive function, and bone mineral density, frail women were subsequently at increased risk of recurrent falls (multivariate odds ratio=1.38, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.88), hip fracture (multivariate hazards ratio [MHR]=1.40, 95% CI, 1.03-1.90), any nonspine fracture (MHR=1.25, 95% CI, 1.05-1.49), and death (MHR=1.82, 95% CI, 1.56-2.13). The associations between frailty and these outcomes persisted among women>or=80 years. In addition, associations between frailty and an increased risk of falls, fracture, and mortality were consistently observed across categories of BMI, including BMI>or=30 kg/m2. CONCLUSION Frailty is an independent predictor of adverse health outcomes in older women, including very elderly women and older obese women.
Determinants of cell shape and orientation: A comparative Golgi analysis of cell‐axon interrelationships in the developing neocortex of normal and reeler mice

Patterns of dendritic development in the neocortex of normal and reeler E15‐17 mouse embryos are studied in Golgi impregnations. Interactions between dendrites and axon‐rich strata appear to be critical determinants of dendritic morphology in both genotypes. Firstly, axon‐dendrite proximity appears to stimulate dendritic sprouting, elongation and branching. Secondly, the position of the axon‐rich strata with respect to the differentiating cell appears to determine the direction of dendritic growth and thereby the ultimate configuration of the dendritic arbor. With regard to specific cell configuration, a multipolar form is generated when the cell is embedded in an axon‐rich zone. A monopolar or bipolar configuration is achieved when the cell lies in the axon‐poor cortical plate and addresses an axon‐rich stratum with one or both radially extended migratory processes. Such variations in the configuration of neurons with polar dendritic systems may be observed uniquely in the mutant cortex be cause axon‐rich zones are stratified anomalously at multiple levels in the cortical plate. As a consequence, polar dendritic systems develop from either the superior, the inferior or both somatic poles of postmigratory cells. Pyramidal cells may, therefore, develop a normal upright or an abnormal “upside‐down” disposition. Regardless of the orientation of the polar dendritic system, the axon emerges from the inferior aspect of the cell suggesting that there has been no rotation of the original migratory axis of the cell.