Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Calcium Channel Blockade on Angiotensin II-Induced Peritubular Ischemia in Rats

Recent studies have indicated that derangement of peritubular capillary (PTC) circulation with consequent tubulointerstitial hypoxia plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of renal injury. The present study was performed to determine whether azelnidipine, a new dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker, attenuates angiotensin II (AngII)-induced peritubular ischemia in anesthetized rats. The superficial PTCs were visualized directly using an intravital fluorescence videomicroscope system, and the PTC blood flow was evaluated by analyzing the velocity of fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled erythrocytes. Intravenous infusion of AngII (50 ng/kg/min, 10 min) significantly increased mean arterial pressure (MAP) and renal vascular resistance (RVR) (by 35 ± 3% and 110 ± 32%, respectively), and decreased total renal blood flow (RBF) and PTC erythrocyte velocity (by –34 ± 4 and –37 ± 1%, respectively). Treatment with azelnidipine (5 μg/kg/min i.v., 10 min) had no effect on basal MAP, RBF, RVR, or PTC erythrocyte velocity. However, azelnidipine markedly attenuated the AngII-induced increases in MAP (7 ± 3%) and RVR (40 ± 4%) and decreases in RBF (–24 ± 1%) and PTC erythrocyte velocity (–22 ± 1%). Similar attenuation in the AngII-induced responses of MAP, RBF, RVR, and PTC erythrocyte velocity were observed in rats treated with a higher dose of azelnidipine (20 μg/kg/min i.v., 10 min), which significantly decreased basal MAP and RVR and increased RBF and PTC erythrocyte velocity. These data suggest that calcium channel blockade attenuates AngII-induced peritubular ischemia, which may be involved in its beneficial effects on renal injury.
A contrastive investigation of standard Mandarin and accented Mandarin

Segmental and supra-segmental acoustic features between standard and Shanghai-accented Mandarin were analyzed in the paper. The Shanghai Accented Mandarin was first classified into three categories as light, middle and heavy, by statistical method and dialectologist with subjective criteria. Investigation to initials, finals and tones were then carried out. The results show that Shanghainese always mispronounce or modify some sorts of phonemes of initials and finials. The heavier the accent is, the more frequently the mispronunciation occurs. Initials present more modifications than finals. Nine vowels are also compared phonetically for 10 Standard Chinese speakers and 10 Shanghai speakers with middle-class accent. Additionally, retroflexed finals occur more than 10 times in Standard Chinese. No significant difference exists on durations of initials and finals for these 20 speakers. And no phonological difference is found on four lexical tones. It seems that the prosodic difference is mainly on rhythmic or stress pattern.
Psychological Needs, Engagement, and Work Intentions: A Bayesian Multi-Measurement Mediation Approach and Implications for HRD.

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to empirically examine the utility of self-determination theory (SDT) within the engagement–performance linkage. Design/methodology/approach – Bayesian multi-measurement mediation modeling was used to estimate the relation between SDT, engagement and a proxy measure of performance (e.g. work intentions) (N = 1,586). To best capture the phenomenon of engagement, two measures of engagement (i.e. the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-9 [UWES-9] and the Job Engagement Scale [JES]) and one measure of harmonious and obsessive passion (HOPS) were utilized. The HOPS was split into separate scales (harmonious and obsessive passion). SDT was operationalized through the Basic Psychological Needs at Work Scale (BPNS). Performance was operationalized through a latent proxy of work intentions. Findings – Results demonstrated that the association between SDT and engagement were positive. Indirect effects between SDT and work intentions were significant for only two of the four measure.
Ecological Behavior of Lactobacillus reuteri 100-23 Is Affected by Mutation of the luxS Gene

ABSTRACT The luxS gene of Lactobacillus reuteri 100-23C was amplified by PCR, cloned, and then sequenced. To define a physiological and ecological role for the luxS gene in L. reuteri 100-23C, a luxS mutant was constructed by insertional mutagenesis. The luxS mutant did not produce autoinducers AI-2 or AI-3. Complementation of the luxS mutation by a plasmid construct containing luxS restored AI-2 and AI-3 synthesis. In vitro experiments revealed that neither the growth rate, nor the cell yield, nor cell survival in the stationary phase were compromised in the luxS mutant relative to the wild type and complemented mutant. The ATP content of exponentially growing cells of the luxS mutant was, however, 65% of that of wild-type cells. Biofilms formed by the luxS mutant on plastic surfaces in a bioreactor were thicker than those formed by the wild type. Biofilm thickness was not restored to wild-type values by the addition of purified AI-2 to the culture medium. In vivo experiments, conducted with ex-Lactobacillus-free mice, showed that biofilms formed by the mutant strain on the epithelial surface of the forestomach were approximately twice as thick as those formed by the wild type. The ecological performance of the luxS mutant, when in competition with L. reuteri strain 100-93 in the mouse cecum, was reduced compared to that of a xylA mutant of 100-23C. These results demonstrate that LuxS influences important ecological attributes of L. reuteri 100-23C, the consequences of which are niche specific.
Metaphors of the Moguji : Self-defining othering in Kara political speech

Stereotypes and images are not immaterial mental constructs or ephemeral discursive elements, but social instruments used in discursive contestations. To illustrate this, my text revolves around a specific event, throughout which strong symbolic images were invoked, notably by members of two ethnic categories about members of a third one.2 The objects of this joint imagination were allowed neither to object to this vivid othering, nor were they granted the right to use any images they might have held of the other two, and I draw out the underlying conditions which allow such lopsided relationships to emerge and be sustained. ‘Images of self and other’ which we encounter in the world, are hardly innocent, superficial judgments, or that common bugbear, ‘mere rhetoric,’ or ‘only discourse’ – often, they are direct functions of systems of domination and subordination, and as such warrant our full ethnographic and analytical attention. As ‘group relations’ are not as such accessible to our observation, one cannot afford to not assess what work images are made to do in observable interaction, especially as they shape and naturalize power relationships (see Meyer 2008: 152 for the methodological argument). With this, I now briefly introduce the Kara, their country and their neighbors, as some such context is necessary for the material I present in the main part of this text.
Repair of DNA interstrand crosslinks may take place at the nuclear matrix

Host cell reactivation assay using Trioxsalen‐crosslinked plasmid pEGFP‐N1 showed that human cells were able to repair Trioxsalen interstrand crosslinks (ICL). To study the mechanism of this repair pathway, cells were transfected with the plasmids pEGFP‐1, which did not contain the promoter of the egfp gene, and with pEGFP‐G−, which did not contain the egfp gene. Neither of these plasmids alone was able to express the green fluorescent protein. After cotransfection with the two plasmids, 1%–2% of the cells developed fluorescent signal, which showed that recombination events had taken place in these cells to create DNA constructs containing the promoter and the gene properly aligned. When one or both of the plasmids were crosslinked with Trioxsalen, the recombination rate increased several fold. To identify the nuclear compartment where recombination takes place, cells were transfected with crosslinked pEGFP‐N1 and the amount of plasmid DNA in the different nuclear fractions was determined. The results showed that Trioxsalen crosslinking increased the percentage of matrix attached plasmid DNA in a dose‐dependant way. Immunoblotting experiments showed that after transfection with Trioxsalen crosslinked plasmids the homologous recombination protein Rad51 also associated with the nuclear matrix fraction. These studies provide a model system for investigating the precise molecular mechanisms that appear to couple repair of DNA ICL with nuclear matrix attachment. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Analysis of interaction partners of H4 histone by a new proteomics approach

We describe a modification of the tandem affinity purification method for purification and analysis of multiprotein complexes, termed here DEF‐TAP (for differential elution fractionation after tandem affinity purification). Its essential new feature is the use for last purification step of 6×His‐Ni++ interaction, which is resistant to a variety of harsh washing conditions, including high ionic strength and the presence of organic solvents. This allows us to use various fractionation schemes before the protease digestion, which is expected to improve the coverage of the analyzed protein mixture and also to provide an additional insight into the structure of the purified macromolecular complex and the nature of protein–protein interactions involved. We illustrate our new approach by analysis of soluble nuclear complexes containing histone H4 purified from HeLa cells. In particular, we observed different fractionation patterns of HAT1 and RbAp46 proteins as compared with RbAp48 protein, all identified as interaction partners of H4 histone. In addition, we report all components of the licensing MCM2‐7 complex and the apoptosis‐related DAXX protein among the interaction partners of the soluble H4. Finally, we show that HAT1 requires N‐terminal tail of H4 for its stable association with this histone.
YouTube-BoundingBoxes: A Large High-Precision Human-Annotated Data Set for Object Detection in Video

We introduce a new large-scale data set of video URLs with densely-sampled object bounding box annotations called YouTube-BoundingBoxes (YT-BB). The data set consists of approximately 380,000 video segments about 19s long, automatically selected to feature objects in natural settings without editing or post-processing, with a recording quality often akin to that of a hand-held cell phone camera. The objects represent a subset of the COCO [32] label set. All video segments were human-annotated with high-precision classification labels and bounding boxes at 1 frame per second. The use of a cascade of increasingly precise human annotations ensures a label accuracy above 95% for every class and tight bounding boxes. Finally, we train and evaluate well-known deep network architectures and report baseline figures for per-frame classification and localization. We also demonstrate how the temporal contiguity of video can potentially be used to improve such inferences. The data set can be found at https://research.google. com/youtube-bb. We hope the availability of such large curated corpus will spur new advances in video object detection and tracking.
Insights into Tan Spot and Stem Rust Resistance and Susceptibility by Studying the Pre-Green Revolution Global Collection of Wheat

Tan spot (TS), caused by the fungus Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Died) Drechs, is an important foliar disease of wheat and has become a threat to world wheat production since the 1970s. In this study a globally diverse pre-1940s collection of 247 wheat genotypes was evaluated against Ptr ToxA, P. tritici-repentis race 1, and stem rust to determine if; (i) acquisition of Ptr ToxA by the P. tritici-repentis from Stagonospora nodorum led to increased pathogen virulence or (ii) incorporation of TS susceptibility during development stem rust resistant cultivars led to an increase in TS epidemics globally. Most genotypes were susceptible to stem rust; however, a range of reactions to TS and Ptr ToxA were observed. Four combinations of disease-toxin reactions were observed among the genotypes; TS susceptible-Ptr ToxA sensitive, TS susceptible-Ptr ToxA insensitive, TS resistant-Ptr ToxA insensitive, and TS resistant-Ptr ToxA toxin sensitive. A weak correlation (r = 0.14 for bread wheat and −0.082 for durum) was observed between stem rust susceptibility and TS resistance. Even though there were no reported epidemics in the pre-1940s, TS sensitive genotypes were widely grown in that period, suggesting that Ptr ToxA may not be an important factor responsible for enhanced prevalence of TS.
Mrp14 Deficiency Ameliorates Amyloid β Burden by Increasing Microglial Phagocytosis and Modulation of Amyloid Precursor Protein Processing

Neuroinflammation plays a fundamental role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), resulting in the extensive activation of microglial and astroglial cells. Here we describe the role of myeloid-related protein Mrp14, a recently described amplifier of inflammation, in Alzheimer's disease and in the related amyloid precursor protein/presenilin1 (APP/PS1) mouse model. Detection of Mrp14 in control, mildly cognitive impaired, and AD patients revealed a strong induction of Mrp14 in protein extracts as well as in the cerebrospinal fluid, but not in blood plasma. In APP/PS1 mice, Mrp14 and its heterodimeric partner Mrp8 was found to be upregulated in microglial cells surrounding amyloid plaques. Functionally, loss of Mrp14 led to increased phagocytosis of fibrillar amyloid β (Aβ) in microglia cells in vitro and in vivo. Generating APP/PS1-transgenic mice deficient for Mrp14, we observed a decrease of key cytokines involved in APP processing, a reduction of BACE1 expression and activity, and consequently overall Aβ deposition. We therefore conclude that Mrp14 promotes APP processing and Aβ accumulation under neuroinflammatory conditions.
Discrete-time adaptive control using multiple models

In a recent paper [1] the authors proposed a new methodology for the adaptive control of a linear time-invariant plant using multiple models which is significantly different from the "switching" and "switching and tuning" methods which have been in use for over a decade. Extensive simulation studies have also revealed that the performance using the new method is far superior to earlier methods. In this paper an attempt is made to extend the same concepts to the adaptive control of discrete-time systems. It is well known that the control of discrete-time systems is simpler than the control of their continuous-time counterparts, that they find wider application in practice, and that the proofs of stability are substantially simpler. Also, in many cases (e.g. periodic systems) discrete-time control may be possible when even the formulation of tractable problems in continuous-time is impossible. The objective of this paper is to examine how the methodology proposed differs in the two cases with regard to transparency of the principal concepts, and effectiveness in practical applications.
The Vascularized Fibular Graft in the Pediatric Upper Extremity: A Durable, Biological Solution to Large Oncologic Defects

Skeletal reconstruction after large tumor resection is challenging. The free vascularized fibular graft (FVFG) offers the potential for rapid autograft incorporation as well as growing physeal transfer in pediatric patients. We retrospectively reviewed eleven pediatric patients treated with FVFG reconstructions of the upper extremity after tumor resection. Eight male and three female patients were identified, including four who underwent epiphyseal transfer. All eleven patients retained a functional salvaged limb. Nonunion and graft fracture were the most common complications relating to graft site (27%). Peroneal nerve palsy occurred in 4/11 patients, all of whom received epiphyseal transfer. Patients receiving epiphyseal transplant had a mean annual growth of 1.7 cm/year. Mean graft hypertrophy index increased by more than 10% in all cases. Although a high complication rate may be anticipated, the free vascularized fibula may be used to reconstruct large skeletal defects in the pediatric upper extremity after oncologic resection. Transferring the vascularized physis is a viable option when longitudinal growth is desired.
Spatial Updating in Human Cortex

Single neurons in several cortical areas in monkeys update visual information in conjunction with eye movements. This remapping of stimulus representations is thought to contribute to spatial constancy. The central hypothesis here is that spatial updating also occurs in humans and that it can be visualized with functional MRI.In Chapter 2, we describe experiments in which we tested the role of human parietal cortex in spatial updating. We scanned subjects during a task that involved remapping of visual signals across hemifields. This task is directly analogous to the single-step saccade task used to test spatial updating in monkeys. We observed an initial response in the hemisphere contralateral to the visual stimulus, followed by a remapped response in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the stimulus. Our results demonstrate that updating of visual information occurs in human parietal cortex and can be visualized with fMRI.The experiments in Chapter 2 show that updated visual responses have a characteristic latency and response shape. Chapter 3 describes a statistical model for estimating these parameters. The method is based on a nonlinear, fully Bayesian, hierarchical model that decomposes the fMRI time series data into baseline, smooth drift, activation signal, and noise. This chapter shows that this model performs well relative to commonly-used general linear models. In Chapter 4, we use the statistical method described in Chapter 3 to test for the presence of spatial updating activity in human extrastriate visual cortex. We identified the borders of several retinotopically defined visual areas in the occipital lobe. We then tested for spatial updating using the single step saccade task. We found a roughly monotonic relationship between the strength of updating activity and position in the visual area hierarchy. We observed the strongest responses in area V4, and the weakest response in V1. We conclude that updating is not restricted to brain regions involved primarily in attention and the generation of eye movements, but rather, is present in occipital lobe visual areas as well.
Vowel polygon efficiency induced by middle level psychological stress

This paper presents the comparison of six different methods for finding the most uniform changes in vowel polygons caused by psychological middle level stress. On created database containing real stress, each method cross-correlating two different vowel polygon parameters is applied for reaching the most appropriate formant plane vowel shape to stress detection. The best results have been reached by Method 5 and Method 6, the best vowel shape can be classified as EIOU vowel tetragon, AEI and AEU vowel triangles. The best formant planes contain the fifth formant, i.e. F1F5, F2F5 and F3F5. Further by created efficiency coefficient, the best vowel polygons for stress detection are AEU35 (Method 6), AIO25 (Method 1) and EIOU15 (Method 5). The worst results are reached by methods 3 and 4 which are absolutely unsuitable for stress detection as well as formant plains containing both lower formants.
Omnichannel Customer Behavior: Key Drivers of Technology Acceptance and Use and Their Effects on Purchase Intention

The advance of the Internet and new technologies over the last decade has transformed the retailing panorama. More and more channels are emerging, causing consumers to change their habits and shopping behavior. An omnichannel strategy is a form of retailing that, by enabling real interaction, allows customers to shop across channels anywhere and at any time, thereby providing them with a unique, complete, and seamless shopping experience that breaks down the barriers between channels. This paper aims to identify the factors that influence omnichannel consumers' behavior through their acceptance of and intention to use new technologies during the shopping process. To this end, an original model was developed to explain omnichannel shopping behavior based on the variables used in the UTAUT2 model and two additional factors: personal innovativeness and perceived security. The model was tested with a sample of 628 Spanish customers of the store Zara who had used at least two channels during their most recent shopping journey. The results indicate that the key determinants of purchase intention in an omnichannel context are, in order of importance: personal innovativeness, effort expectancy, and performance expectancy. The theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Trp‐Lys‐Tyr‐Met‐Val‐D‐Met stimulates superoxide generation and killing of Staphylococcus aureus via phospholipase D activation in human monocytes

Among the phagocytic leukocytes, monocytes have the important role of clearing out parasitic microorganisms. They accomplish this through production of toxic metabolites of oxygen. Trp‐Lys‐Tyr‐Met‐Val‐D‐Met (WKYMVm), a peptide that stimulates phosphoinositide (PI) hydrolysis in human leukocytes, including monocytes, binds to a unique cell surface receptor and stimulates superoxide generation, killing of Staphylococcus aureus, and activation of phospholipase D (PLD) in human monocytes. Preincubation of the cells with a PI‐specific phospholipase C (PLC) inhibitor (U‐73122), protein kinase C inhibitor (GF109203X), or intracellular Ca2+ chelator (BAPTA/AM) before the peptide stimulus totally inhibits the peptide‐induced PLD activation and superoxide generation. On the other hand, tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein only partially inhibits the peptide‐induced processes. The peptide‐induced bacteria killing activity shares regulatory mechanisms for PLD activation with the superoxide generation, which is inhibited in the presence of 1‐butanol. We suggest that the peptide stimulates PLD downstream of PLC activation and PLD activation in turn is essential for the peptide‐induced immunological functions such as the superoxide generation and killing of bacteria by human monocytes. J. Leukoc. Biol. 65:241–248; 1999.