Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development and Applications of Portable Biosensors

The significance of microfluidics-based and microelectromechanical systems–based biosensors has been widely acknowledged, and many reviews have explored their potential applications in clinical diagnostics, personalized medicine, global health, drug discovery, food safety, and forensics. Because health care costs are increasing, there is an increasing need to remotely monitor the health condition of patients by point-of-care-testing. The demand for biosensors for detection of biological warfare agents has increased, and research is focused on ways of producing small portable devices that would allow fast, accurate, and on-site detection. In the past decade, the demand for rapid and accurate on-site detection of plant disease diagnosis has increased due to emerging pathogens with resistance to pesticides, increased human mobility, and regulations limiting the application of toxic chemicals to prevent spread of diseases. The portability of biosensors for on-site diagnosis is limited due to various issues, including sample preparation techniques, fluid-handling techniques, the limited lifetime of biological reagents, device packaging, integrating electronics for data collection/analysis, and the requirement of external accessories and power. Many microfluidic, electronic, and biological design strategies, such as handling liquids in biosensors without pumps/valves, the application of droplet-based microfluidics, paper-based microfluidic devices, and wireless networking capabilities for data transmission, are being explored.
Physical properties of the Sh2-104 HII region as seen by Herschel

Context: Sh2-104 is a Galactic H ii region with a bubble morphology, detected at optical and radio wavelengths. It is considered the first observational confirmation of the collect-and-collapse model of triggered star-formation. Aims: We aim to analyze the dust and gas properties of the Sh2-104 region to better constrain its effect on local future generations of stars. In addition, we investigate the relationship between the dust emissivity index {\beta} and the dust temperature, T_dust. Methods: Using Herschel PACS and SPIRE images at 100, 160, 250, 350 and 500 {\mu}m we determine T_dust and {\beta} throughout Sh2-104, fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) obtained from aperture photometry. With the SPIRE Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) we obtained spectra at different positions in the Sh2-104 region. We detect J-ladders of CO and 13CO, with which we derive the gas temperature and column density. We also detect proxies of ionizing flux as the [NII] 3P1-3P0 and [CI] 3P2-3P1 transitions. Results: We find an average value of {\beta} ~ 1.5 throughout Sh2-104, as well as a T dust difference between the photodissociation region (PDR, ~ 25 K) and the interior (~ 40 K) of the bubble. We recover the anti-correlation between {\beta} and dust temperature reported numerous times in the literature. The relative isotopologue abundances of CO appear to be enhanced above the standard ISM values, but the obtained value is very preliminary and is still affected by large uncertainties.
Dispersive interactions in water bilayers at metallic surfaces: A comparison of the PBE and RPBE functional including semiempirical dispersion corrections

The accuracy and reliability of the density functional theory (DFT)‐D approach to account for dispersion effects in first‐principles studies of water–metal interfaces has been addressed by studying several water–metal systems. In addition to performing periodic DFT calculations for semi‐infinite substrates using the popular PBE and RPBE functionals, the water dimer and water–metal atom systems have also been treated by coupled‐cluster calculations. We show that indeed semiempirical dispersion correction schemes can be used to yield thermodynamically stable water bilayers at surfaces. However, the actual density functional needs to be chosen carefully. Whereas the dispersion‐corrected RPBE functional yields a good description of both the water–water and the water–metal interaction, the dispersion‐corrected PBE functional overestimates the energies of both systems. In contrast thereto, the adsorption distances predicted by the PBE functional is hardly changed due to the additional dispersion interaction, explaining the good performance of previous DFT‐PBE studies of water–metal systems. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2012
Pathbreaking verbs in syntactic development and the question of prototypical transitivity

The first verbs to participate in VO and SVO combinations, and the temporal parameters of the spread of these combinatory patterns over different verbs were investigated. The longitudinal language observations of 16 children, one acquiring English, the others Hebrew, were examined. The children were observed once a week for 3–12 months, the observations starting when the children were still in the single-word stage (1;1–2;1) and ending when they were well into multiword speech (1;8–2;7). The results indicate that the more verbs children already know to combine in a certain pattern, the faster they learn new ones. Apparently children induce from individual word-combinations some general principles that facilitate further learning. The ‘pathbreaking verbs’ that begin the acquisition of a novel syntactic rule tend to be generic verbs expressing the relevant combinatorial property in a relatively pure fashion: the same verbs that children first combine with direct objects, are typical grammaticalized markers of transitivity in many languages. These verbs do not have HIGH TRANSITIVITY as defined by Hopper & Thompson (1980). Rather, they express fundamental ‘object relations’ of incorporation into, and ejection from the personal. Crosslinguistic evidence indicates that this may be the basic transitivity construct in languages. The results raise the possibility that lexical-specific learning of positional patterns is sufficient to account for the formation of syntactic abstractions.
Identifying inferences in focus

This paper investigates the relationship between inferential pragmatics and the grammar, as manifested in the structure and interpretation of the Hungarian ‘focus position’ construction. Typically, this is analysed as the use of an abstract syntactic projection whose semantic effect is to introduce an ‘exhaustivity’ or ‘identificational focus’ operator. This analysis is shown to be unsustainable, the apparent ‘focus position’ being in fact a particular kind of predicative position which hosts also the main verb stem and any of a set of ‘verbal modifier’ items which are in complementary distribution with syntactically focused expressions. This position has highly underspecified, procedural semantics, triggering different inferences in the course of parsing, according to the nature of the expression encountered there. This calls for an incremental processing-based approach to modelling grammar and its interpretation, as argued in Wedgwood (2005). In this paper, I concentrate in particular on the status of the ‘identificational’ reading associated with the ‘focus position’, an issue which gives a new slant on the supposed close similarity of this construction to the English it-cleft. 1 The FP phenomenon and conventional analysis Kehler (2002, 1) points out that the following quotation, from the psychologist Abraham Maslow, seems to have some relevance for modern linguistics1: I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. (Maslow 1966, 15–16) In this article, I suggest that the analysis generally afforded to the Hungarian ‘focus position’ constitutes a case study of the problem described in this quotation. Specifically, linguists, under the influence of assumptions such as those of Montague and even Grice, have wielded the tools of hierarchical syntactic representations and truth-conditional semantics almost exclusively and have assumed that these can and should be related to each other directly. A fresh look at the ‘focus position’ phenomenon shows (i) that this kind of conventional syntactico-semantic analysis is unsustainable and (ii) that this follows from an over-simplified methodology: the effects of inferential pragmatic processes must be investigated as a prerequisite to identifying the semantic contribution of the relevant parts of the grammar. This has consequences for the very nature of the grammar itself, since it proves to be the case that crucial inferences are drawn on the basis of the particular kind of expression found in a certain position at a certain point in parsing a Hungarian sentence. This calls for the adoption of a model of grammar that provides partial representations of meaning as they are constructed in the course of processing (such as the Dynamic Syntax model of Kempson, Meyer-Viol & Gabbay 2001). 1Acknowledgements to be added here.
Utility of adjunctive macrolide therapy in treatment of children with asthma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background The purpose of this study was to investigate macrolides as an adjunct to an asthma controller regimen in children with asthma. Methods Prospective clinical trials of macrolide therapy in children with asthma using outcome measures of change in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and/or oral corticosteroid requirement were searched for in PubMed up to December 2009. The reference lists of studies were also included in the analysis, as well as those listed in published meta-analyses. Results The literature search yielded 116 studies, six of which were included in this meta-analysis. The change in FEV1 from baseline with adjunctive use of macrolide therapy in all children was not significant (0.25% predicted; 95% confidence interval [CI] −0.37, 0.86 predicted, P = 0.43); however, the change in FEV1 among children receiving daily oral corticosteroids was significant (3.89% predicted; 95% CI −0.01, 7.79, P = 0.05). Addition of macrolide therapy to the treatment of children with oral corticosteroid-dependent asthma resulted in a statistically significant decrease in daily corticosteroid dosage (−3.45 mg/day; 95% CI −5.79, −1.09 mg/day, P = 0.004). This reduction in daily corticosteroid dosage was directly proportional to the duration of macrolide therapy (−0.17 mg methylprednisolone per week of macrolide therapy; 95% CI −0.33, −0.021, P = 0.025). Conclusion Addition of macrolides to the treatment regimen of children with oral corticosteroid-dependent asthma improves FEV1 and decreases the daily dosage of corticosteroids required for control in these children. The degree of dose reduction is directly related to the duration of macrolide therapy. Additional large, randomized, placebo-controlled trials of adjunctive macrolide use in children with oral corticosteroid-dependent asthma are required to verify this observation.
Early Prediction of the Outcome Using Tumor Markers and mRECIST in Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients Who Underwent Transarterial Chemoembolization

Objective: We examined early predictors of the outcome in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients after transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). Methods: We analyzed 116 patients with unresectable HCC treated with initial TACE. α-Fetoprotein (AFP) or des-γ-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) response was assessed in patients who had baseline AFP levels ≥200 ng/ml or DCP ≥60 mAU/ml; a positive response was defined as a reduction of >50% compared to baseline 1 month after TACE. Results: A baseline AFP level ≥200 ng/ml was associated with a poor overall survival (OS) (29.4 vs. 6.1 months; p <0.0001). AFP response had no significantly prognostic effects on the OS. Conversely, although the baseline DCP did not influence the OS, DCP responders showed a significantly better OS than nonresponders (67.0 vs. 19.8 months, p = 0.020). The baseline AFP (p = 0.004) and initial tumor response evaluated by the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (mRECIST) (p = 0.012) were found to be independent predictors of the OS. The combination of the baseline AFP and initial assessment by mRECIST allowed stratification of the OS. Conclusions: The combination of the baseline AFP level and mRECIST is useful for the early prediction of the OS in HCC patients who underwent TACE.
Brainstem and Forebrain Contributions to the Generation of Learned Motor Behaviors for Song

Brainstem nuclei have well established roles in generating nonlearned rhythmic behaviors or as output pathways for more complex, forebrain-generated behaviors. However, the role of the brainstem in providing information to the forebrain that is used to initiate or assist in the control of complex behaviors is poorly understood. In this study, we used electrical microstimulation in select nuclei of the avian song system combined with recordings of acoustic and respiratory output to examine how forebrain and brainstem nuclei interact in the generation of learned vocal motor sequences. We found that brief stimulation in the forebrain nuclei HVC (used as a proper name) and RA (robust nucleus of the arcopallium) caused a short-latency truncation of ongoing song syllables, which ultimately led to a cessation of the ongoing motor sequence. Stimulation within the brainstem inspiratory-related nucleus paraambigualis, which receives input from RA and projects back to HVC via the thalamus, caused syllable truncations and interruptions similar to those observed in HVC and RA. In contrast, stimulation in the tracheosyringal portion of the hypoglossal nucleus, which innervates the syrinx (the avian vocal organ) but possesses no known projections back into the song system, did not cause any significant changes in the song motor pattern. These findings suggest that perturbation of premotor activity in any nucleus within the recurrent song system motor network will disrupt the ongoing song motor sequence. Given the anatomical organization of this network, our results are consistent with a model in which the brainstem respiratory nuclei form an integral part of the song motor programming network by providing timing signals to song control nuclei in the forebrain.
Informed Trading Through the Accounts of Children

type="main"> This study shows that the guardians behind underaged accounts are successful at picking stocks. Moreover, they tend to channel their best trades through the accounts of children, especially when they trade just before major earnings announcements, large price changes, and takeover announcements. Building on these results, we argue that the proportion of total trading activity through underaged accounts (labeled BABYPIN) should serve as an effective proxy for the probability of information trading in a stock. Consistent with this claim, we show that investors demand a higher return for holding stocks with a greater likelihood of private information, proxied by BABYPIN.
INFERENCE OF INHOMOGENEOUS CLOUDS IN AN EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERE

We present new visible and infrared observations of the hot Jupiter Kepler-7b to determine its atmospheric properties. Our analysis allows us to (1) refine Kepler-7b's relatively large geometric albedo of Ag = 0.35 ± 0.02, (2) place upper limits on Kepler-7b thermal emission that remains undetected in both Spitzer bandpasses and (3) report a westward shift in the Kepler optical phase curve. We argue that Kepler-7b's visible flux cannot be due to thermal emission or Rayleigh scattering from H2 molecules. We therefore conclude that high altitude, optically reflective clouds located west from the substellar point are present in its atmosphere. We find that a silicate-based cloud composition is a possible candidate. Kepler-7b exhibits several properties that may make it particularly amenable to cloud formation in its upper atmosphere. These include a hot deep atmosphere that avoids a cloud cold trap, very low surface gravity to suppress cloud sedimentation, and a planetary equilibrium temperature in a range that allows for silicate clouds to potentially form in the visible atmosphere probed by Kepler. Our analysis does not only present evidence of optically thick clouds on Kepler-7b but also yields the first map of clouds in an exoplanet atmosphere.
Small Molecule Control of Virulence Gene Expression in Francisella tularensis

In Francisella tularensis, the SspA protein family members MglA and SspA form a complex that associates with RNA polymerase (RNAP) to positively control the expression of virulence genes critical for the intramacrophage growth and survival of the organism. Although the association of the MglA-SspA complex with RNAP is evidently central to its role in controlling gene expression, the molecular details of how MglA and SspA exert their effects are not known. Here we show that in the live vaccine strain of F. tularensis (LVS), the MglA-SspA complex works in concert with a putative DNA-binding protein we have called PigR, together with the alarmone guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp), to regulate the expression of target genes. In particular, we present evidence that MglA, SspA, PigR and ppGpp regulate expression of the same set of genes, and show that mglA, sspA, pigR and ppGpp null mutants exhibit similar intramacrophage growth defects and are strongly attenuated for virulence in mice. We show further that PigR interacts directly with the MglA-SspA complex, suggesting that the central role of the MglA and SspA proteins in the control of virulence gene expression is to serve as a target for a transcription activator. Finally, we present evidence that ppGpp exerts its effects by promoting the interaction between PigR and the RNAP-associated MglA-SspA complex. Through its responsiveness to ppGpp, the contact between PigR and the MglA-SspA complex allows the integration of nutritional cues into the regulatory network governing virulence gene expression.
Implementation of a Structured Guideline–Based Program for the Secondary Prevention of Ischemic Stroke in China

Background and Purpose— High rates of ischemic stroke and poor adherence to secondary prevention measures are observed in the Chinese population. Methods— We used a national, multicenter, cluster-randomized controlled trial in which 47 hospitals were randomized to either a structured care program group (n=23) or a usual care group (n=24). The structured care program consisted of a specialist-administered, guideline-recommended pharmaceutical treatment and a lifestyle modification algorithm associated with written and Internet-accessed educational material for patients for the secondary prevention of ischemic stroke. The primary efficacy outcome was the proportion of patients who adhered to the recommended measures at 12-month postdischarge. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrial.gov (NCT00664846). Results— At 12 months, 1287 (72.1%) patients in the Standard Medical Management in Secondary Prevention of Ischemic Stroke in China (SMART) group and 1430 (72%) patients in the usual care group had completed the 12-month follow-up (P=0.342). Compared with the usual care group, those in the SMART group showed higher adherence to statins (56% versus 33%; P=0.006) but no difference in adherence to antiplatelet (81% versus 75%; P=0.088), antihypertensive (67% versus 69%; P=0.661), or diabetes mellitus drugs (73% versus 67%; P=0.297). No significant difference in the composite end point (new-onset ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, acute coronary syndrome, and all-cause death) was observed (3.56% versus 3.59%; P=0.921). Conclusions— The implementation of a program to improve adherence to secondary ischemic stroke prevention efforts in China is feasible, but these programs had only a limited impact on adherence and no impact on 1-year outcomes. Further development of a structured program to reduce vascular events after stroke is needed. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00664846.
Validation of the WHOQOL-BREF quality of life questionnaire for use with medical students.

PURPOSE The purpose of the present study was to validate the use of the abbreviated version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire with medical students. METHODS A sample of 274 medical students in their fourth and fifth years of study (80% response rate) completed the WHOQOL-BREF instrument. The four-domain factor structure of the questionnaire was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. A variety of other tests of reliability and validity were conducted. RESULTS Goodness-of-fit indices from the confirmatory factor analysis were acceptable, and the factor structure of the WHOQOL-BREF was confirmed in this sample. Reliability was good, but three of the items showed strong ceiling effects. CONCLUSION The WHOQOL-BREF is valid to use with medical students to assess health-related quality of life. Some items, such as those inquiring about pain and medication, may not be suitable for medical students or young people in general.
Detection of Carbapenemase Genes in Aquatic Environments in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

ABSTRACT This study reveals the presence of different carbapenemase genes (blaKPC, blaNDM, blaGES, and blaOXA48-like genes) detected directly from water samples and clonal dispersion (by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis [PFGE] and multilocus sequence typing [MLST]) of KPC-2-producing Enterobacteriaceae in two important urban aquatic matrixes from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, highlighting the role of aquatic environments as gene pools and the possibility of community spreading.
Sex-specific developmental plasticity in response to yolk corticosterone in an oviparous lizard

SUMMARY Corticosterone exposure during prenatal development as a result of maternal upregulation of circulating hormone levels has been shown to have effects on offspring development in mammals. Corticosterone has also been documented in egg yolk in oviparous vertebrates, but the extent to which this influences phenotypic development is less studied. We show that maternal corticosterone is transferred to egg yolk in an oviparous lizard (the mallee dragon, Ctenophorus fordi Storr), with significant variation among clutches in hormone levels. Experimental elevation of yolk corticosterone did not affect hatching success, incubation period or offspring sex ratio. However, corticosterone did have a sex-specific effect on skeletal growth during embryonic development. Male embryos exposed to relatively high levels of corticosterone were smaller on average than control males at hatching whereas females from hormone-treated eggs were larger on average than control females. The data thus suggest that males are not just more sensitive to the detrimental effects of corticosterone but rather that the sexes may have opposite responses to corticosterone during development. Positive selection on body size at hatching for both sexes in this species further suggests that increased corticosterone in egg yolk may have sex-specific fitness consequences, with potential implications for sex allocation and the evolution of hormone-mediated maternal effects.