Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HB-EGF function in cardiac valve development requires interaction with heparan sulfate proteoglycans

HB-EGF, a member of the EGF family of growth factors, plays an important role in cardiac valve development by suppressing mesenchymal cell proliferation. Here, we show that HB-EGF must interact with heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) to properly function in this process. In developing valves, HB-EGF is synthesized in endocardial cells but accumulates in the mesenchyme by interacting with HSPGs. Disrupting the interaction between HB-EGF and HSPGs in an ex vivo model of endocardial cushion explants resulted in increased mesenchymal cell proliferation. Moreover, homozygous knock-in mice (HBΔhb/Δhb) expressing a mutant HB-EGF that cannot bind to HSPGs developed enlarged cardiac valves with hyperproliferation of mesenchymal cells; this resulted in a phenotype that resembled that of Hbegf-null mice. Interestingly, although Hbegf-null mice had abnormal heart chambers and lung alveoli, HBΔhb/Δhb mice did not exhibit these defects. These results indicate that interactions with HSPGs are essential for the function of HB-EGF, especially in cardiac valve development, in which HB-EGF suppresses mesenchymal cell proliferation.
Senile Confusion: Assessment with a New Stimulus Recognition Test

ABSTRACT: There is a need for rapid and convenient assessment instruments to test the aged for senile confusion due to organic brain syndrome (OBS). The Mental Status Questionnaire (MSQ) and the Face‐Hand Test (FHT) have certain limitations. A valid instrument must measure short‐term memory loss and recognition. Sixty‐two patients were examined in 17 different trials of the Stimulus Recognition Test (SRT), which involves 10 items. Each item classified the patients according to staff ratings (P < .001), MSQ scores (P < .005), and FHT scores (P < .005). The composite MSQ score on a scale of 0–10 also served to separate the patients according to staff ratings (P < .005). The SRT scores correlated . 81 to . 67 with the MSQ and FHT scores. The SRT does not show the same false positive patterns as the MSQ and FHT. For that reason, it constitutes a useful diagnostic supplement. Suggestions for further research are made.
Understanding e-Service Users' WOM Behavior from Expectation Confirmation Perspective

Recently WOM has become popular with the penetration of Internet and the popularity of social media, and attracted the attention of IS researchers. This study develops a model to explore the factors motivating e-service users’WOM behavior from the expectation confirmation paradigm together with trust. The research model was empirical tested with 543 valid responses from the online travel service users. The research results indicate that perceived usefulness and user satisfaction affect e-service users’ WOM behavior positively together with trust. Perceived usefulness was found to exert the strongest influence on WOM than satisfaction and trust. The implications to theories and practice are discussed as well.
Bangladesh J

Genetic transformation of rice (Oryza sativa L.) mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens has been confirmed for japonica varieties and extended to include more recalcitrant indica varieties. Scutellum-derived calli from mature seeds of Kasalath and BR-5 were used. The Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain, EHA101, harboring the binary vector pIG121Hm/Km/GUS was used for transformation. The vector contains -glucuronidase (GUS) gene as a reporter gene and hygromycin resistance (HPT) as well as kanamycin resistance gene (NPTII) as selection genes in the T-DNA region. After co-cultivation with the bacteria, calli were inoculated on selection medium in which hygromycin concentration was 50 mg/l for Kasalath and 20 mg/l for BR-5. Carbenicillin (500 mg/l) was used for removal of Agrobacterium after co-cultivation. Inclusion of acetosyringone 50–100 M in the Agrobacterium suspension in co-culture medium increased the frequency of transformation. Frequency of transformed calli (hygromycin resistant cells) was 82% in Kasalath and 6% in BR-5. Regeneration efficiency from transformed calli in Kasalath was about 63% and in BR-5 was about 34%. Most of the transgenic plants were morphologically normal but seed fertility was lower than the control. In transformed calli, roots and immature inflorescence showed positive response in GUS assay. Presence of GUS, HPT and NPTII genes was confirmed by PCR analysis and PCR Southern blot analysis. Expression of GUS gene was 100% in T1 progeny of Kasalath, whereas that of HPT gene was 51%. BR-5 could not be tested because of low seed fertility of T0 plants. In T1 plants, seed fertility of transformed Kasalath was 79% which is lower than that of the respective non-transformants.
Influence of Active Packaging on the Shelf Life of Apple-Black Currant Marmalade Candies

The research object was apple-black currant marmalade candies. Experiments were carried out at the Faculty of Food Technology of the Latvia University of Agriculture. An active packaging in combination with modified atmosphere (MAP, CO2 100%) was examined and compared with traditional packaging in air ambiance. Polymer Multibarrier 60 and paper bags were used. Influence of iron based oxygen absorber in sachets of 500 cc obtained from Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Europe Ageless was tested on the quality during the shelf of marmalade. Samples of 80±5 g were packaged in polymer pouches (110 mm x 110 mm), hermetically sealed by MULTIVAC C300 vacuum chamber machine, and stored in room temperature +20.0±1.0 °C. The physiochemical properties – weight losses, moisture content, hardness, aw, pH, colour, changes of atmosphere content (CO2 and O2) in headspace of packs, and microbial conditions were analysed before packaging and in the 1, 3 , 5, 8, 11 and 15 weeks of storage. Keywords—Active packaging, marmalade candies, shelf life
Comparative Analysis of the Combined Effects of Different Water and Phosphate Levels on Growth and Biological Nitrogen Fixation of Nine Cowpea Varieties

Water deficit and phosphate (Pi) deficiency adversely affect growth and biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) of legume crops. In this study, we examined the impact of interaction between soil water conditions and available soil-Pi levels on growth, nodule development and BNF potential of nine cowpea varieties grown on dry savanna soils. In our experimental design, soils with different available soil-Pi levels, i.e., low, moderate, and high soil-Pi levels, collected from various farming fields were used to grow nine cowpea varieties under well-watered and water-deficit conditions. Significant and severe water deficit-damaging effects on BNF, nodulation, growth, levels of plant-nitrogen (N) and -phosphorus (P), as well as shoot relative water content and chlorophyll content of cowpea plants were observed. Under well-watered and high available soil-Pi conditions, cowpea varieties IT07K-304-9 and Dan'Ila exhibited significantly higher BNF potential and dry biomass, as well as plant-N and -P contents compared with other tested ones. Significant genotypic variations among the cowpeas were recorded under low available soil-Pi and water-deficit conditions in terms of the BNF potential. Principal component (PC) analysis revealed that varieties IT04K-339-1, IT07K-188-49, IT07K-304-9, and IT04K-405-5 were associated with PC1, which was better explained by performance for nodulation, plant biomass, plant-N, plant-P, and BNF potential under the combined stress of water deficit and Pi deficiency, thereby offering prospects for development of varieties with high growth and BNF traits that are adaptive to such stress conditions in the region. On another hand, variety Dan'Ila was significantly related to PC2 that was highly explained by the plant shoot/root ratio and chlorophyll content, suggesting the existence of physiological and morphological adjustments to cope with water deficit and Pi deficiency for this particular variety. Additionally, increases in soil-Pi availability led to significant reductions of water-deficit damage on dry biomass, plant-N and -P contents, and BNF potential of cowpea varieties. This finding suggests that integrated nutrient management strategies that allow farmers to access to Pi-based fertilizers may help reduce the damage of adverse water deficit and Pi deficiency caused to cowpea crop in the regions, where soils are predominantly Pi-deficient and drought-prone.
The Fractionation of Supervisory Control

Three different frameworks for understanding the functions of different regions of prefrontal cortex-working memory, general intelligence, the Supervisory System approach-are compared. Three different lines of neuropsychological evidence are discussed with respect to the third of these frameworks. The contrasting functions of the human left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are then considered. The left is held to be involved in top-down strategic modulation of lower-level systems while the right is considered to be more concerned with the control of checking that on-going behaviour accords with task goals. Finally, the functions of anterior prefrontal cortex are assessed; it is argued that they are concerned with changes in cognitive mode, particularly when that involves the realization of previously set-up intentions.
Teletraffic modeling of peer-to-peer traffic

The paper contributes to the development of a framework concerning the teletraffic modeling and analysis of peer-to-peer systems that are based on a mesh-pull architecture. We look at the packet transmission processes induced by a swarm of peers disseminating multimedia objects. We provide a survey on some statistical techniques that are used to characterize the observed hierarchical popularity structure of a peer population. Using collected flow data at a single peer, we show how Generalized Pareto and exponential models can be applied to classify the behavior of the feeding peers. Our approach is illustrated by real packet data of P2P sessions generated by BitTorrent clients in a mobile WiMAX testbed in Korea. The stated techniques can be used to cope with an efficiency adaptation of P2P dissemination protocols to mobile environments.
An Operational Model of Motor Skill Diagnosis

The ability to diagnose motor skills is one of the most important competences of a teacher of physical education and sport. Teacher education programs fall short of providing prospective teachers with courses in motor skill diagnosis. To be successful, any effort to teach it must rest on a sound conceptual framework or model. This article provides the theoretical framework for adapting information-processing theory, a widely accepted theory of human thinking, to modeling diagnostic thought processes. It describes specifically the three components of the model: acquisition, cue interpretation, and diagnostic decision. The findings from the model provide a foundation upon which to build instructional strategies for developing diagnostic competence.
Biosensors for the Detection of Circulating Tumour Cells

Metastasis is the cause of most cancer deaths. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are cells released from the primary tumour into the bloodstream that are considered the main promoters of metastasis. Therefore, these cells are targets for understanding tumour biology and improving clinical management of the disease. Several techniques have emerged in recent years to isolate, detect, and characterise CTCs. As CTCs are a rare event, their study requires multidisciplinary considerations of both biological and physical properties. In addition, as isolation of viable cells may give further insights into metastatic development, cell recovery must be done with minimal cell damage. The ideal system for CTCs analysis must include maximum efficiency of detection in real time. In this sense, new approaches used to enrich CTCs from clinical samples have provided an important improvement in cell recovery. However, this progress should be accompanied by more efficient strategies of cell quantification. A range of biosensor platforms are being introduced into the technology for CTCs quantification with promising results. This review provides an update on recent progress in CTCs identification using different approaches based on sensor signaling.
Right Lateral Cerebellum Represents Linguistic Predictability

Mounting evidence indicates that posterolateral portions of the cerebellum (right Crus I/II) contribute to language processing, but the nature of this role remains unclear. Based on a well-supported theory of cerebellar motor function, which ascribes to the cerebellum a role in short-term prediction through internal modeling, we hypothesize that right cerebellar Crus I/II supports prediction of upcoming sentence content. We tested this hypothesis using event-related fMRI in male and female human subjects by manipulating the predictability of written sentences. Our design controlled for motor planning and execution, as well as for linguistic features and working memory load; it also allowed separation of the prediction interval from the presentation of the final sentence item. In addition, three further fMRI tasks captured semantic, phonological, and orthographic processing to shed light on the nature of the information processed. As hypothesized, activity in right posterolateral cerebellum correlated with the predictability of the upcoming target word. This cerebellar region also responded to prediction error during the outcome of the trial. Further, this region was engaged in phonological, but not semantic or orthographic, processing. This is the first imaging study to demonstrate a right cerebellar contribution in language comprehension independently from motor, cognitive, and linguistic confounds. These results complement our work using other methodologies showing cerebellar engagement in linguistic prediction and suggest that internal modeling of phonological representations aids language production and comprehension. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The cerebellum is traditionally seen as a motor structure that allows for smooth movement by predicting upcoming signals. However, the cerebellum is also consistently implicated in nonmotor functions such as language and working memory. Using fMRI, we identify a cerebellar area that is active when words are predicted and when these predictions are violated. This area is active in a separate task that requires phonological processing, but not in tasks that require semantic or visuospatial processing. Our results support the idea of prediction as a unifying cerebellar function in motor and nonmotor domains. We provide new insights by linking the cerebellar role in prediction to its role in verbal working memory, suggesting that these predictions involve phonological processing.
Stem cells - biological update and cell therapy progress

In recent years, the advances in stem cell research have suggested that the human body may have a higher plasticity than it was originally expected. Until now, four categories of stem cells were isolated and cultured in vivo: embryonic stem cells, fetal stem cells, adult stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Although multiple studies were published, several issues concerning the stem cells are still debated, such as: the molecular mechanisms of differentiation, the methods to prevent teratoma formation or the ethical and religious issues regarding especially the embryonic stem cell research. The direct differentiation of stem cells into specialized cells: cardiac myocytes, neural cells, pancreatic islets cells, may represent an option in treating incurable diseases such as: neurodegenerative diseases, type I diabetes, hematologic or cardiac diseases. Nevertheless, stem cell-based therapies, based on stem cell transplantation, remain mainly at the experimental stages and their major limitation is the development of teratoma and cancer after transplantation. The induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) represent a prime candidate for future cell therapy research because of their significant self-renewal and differentiation potential and the lack of ethical issues. This article presents an overview of the biological advances in the study of stem cells and the current progress made in the field of regenerative medicine.
Socio-Economic, Religious and Educational Significance of Miraa (Cartha Edulis): A Case of Meru North Region, Kenya

For a long time, there have been conflicting stand points with regard to Cartha Edulis (Miraa). On one hand Miraa is a substance that affects the psychological and physiological functioning of the human body, and therefore, falls under the category of drugs of abuse like alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana and heroin among others. Studies conducted by the National Campaign against Drug Abuse Authority (NACADA, 2007) and other scholars have confirmed this. The dilemma of many people, however, is that whereas there are numerous negativisms emanating from Miraa (Catha endulis) farming, trade and consumption, there are also immense social, religious and economic benefits derived and associated with the same. This study was an attempt to address the impact of Miraa on the religion-socio-economic and educational spheres of the society especially in the growing areas of Meru North. The research was motivated by the diversity of conflicting incidences encountered by Miraa farmers and traders who also happen to be members of churches located within the study area and the alleged income purported to be derived from the trade used for social and economic developments. The findings of the research showed that there are both positive and negative contributions brought about by Miraa farming and trade upon the families, schools and churches within Meru North region. Nonetheless, although the negatives outweigh the positives in terms of both short and long term intangible damages to individuals, family and society, there are strong social, religious and economic attachments to this product. In fact for the last few decades, the product has assumed political dimension. Exclusive focuses on negativisms only, have overshadowed the potential financial, social, educational and religious gains associated with the product. This is because apart from the economic contribution, Miraa is also alleged to have cultural, religious as well as medicinal values. These contentions strongly agree with that of Kobia, (2014), that miraa creates a contextual foundation for communication. However, the negative implications of Miraa and which greatly affect the individual user, the institution of marriage, school and church cannot be ignored. The study concluded that, Miraa has diverse negative effects, but it could also serve a better purpose and value if handled properly since it has certain social-cultural values especially among the community where is grown. Keywords: Miraa , Socio-cultural, religious, economic impact, demystification
Postantibiotic Effect of Trovafloxacin against Gram-Positive and -Negative Organisms

ABSTRACT Trovafloxacin pneumococcal and staphylococcal postantibiotic effects (PAEs) were 0.7 to 1.8 and 0.7 to 2.4 h, respectively. ForEscherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, PAEs were 2.4 to 4.4 h. Pneumococcal and staphylococcal postantibiotic sub-MIC effects (PA-SMEs) (0.4 times the MIC) were 2.3 to 3.7 and 2.4 to >9.2 h, respectively, and E. coliPA-SMEs (0.3 times the MIC) were 6.8 to >12.0 h. For one P. aeruginosa strain, the PA-SME (0.4 times the MIC) was >10 h; in the other, rapid bactericidal activity precluded measurement.
Impact of Temporary Fiscal Shocks on the Canadian Economy

In this paper, we assess the e¤ects of temporary scal shocks on the Canadian economy using the structural vector autoregression approach. We consider distinct shocks to government spending and tax revenues, and we confront three types of identi cation approaches. The rst one is the recursive approach based on the Cholesky decomposition. The second approach follows Blanchard and Perotti (2002) and Perotti (2004) who employed elasticities estimated using information on the tax system to identify the VAR model. In the last one, we impose restrictions on the sign of the variablesresponses to the shocks along the lines of Mountford and Uhlig (2005). We nd that the e¤ects of the government revenues shock are more robust across the identi cation approaches than the shock to government expenditures. For all the identi cation approaches, the shock to government expenditures has a bigger impact on GDP than the net tax revenues shock in the very short run. However, on a horizon of two years, the revenues shock dominates because it has a larger stimulating e¤ect on the other components of GDP. In light of our ndings, we view a speci cation of the Blanchard and Perotti (2002) model in which the zero output elasticity of government expenditures assumption is dropped as the one leading to the most credible results. JEL classi cation: E60, E62, H20, H50 Bank classi cation: . The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors. No responsibility for them should be attributed to the Bank of Canada.
Two Independent Prostate Cancer Risk–Associated Loci at 11q13

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) at 11q13 were recently implicated in prostate cancer risk by two genome-wide association studies and were consistently replicated in multiple study populations. To explore prostate cancer association in the regions flanking these SNPs, we genotyped 31 tagging SNPs in a ∼110 kb region at 11q13 in a Swedish case-control study (Cancer of the Prostate in Sweden), including 2,899 cases and 1,722 controls. We found evidence of prostate cancer association for the previously implicated SNPs including rs10896449, which we termed locus 1. In addition, multiple SNPs on the centromeric side of the region, including rs12418451, were also significantly associated with prostate cancer risk (termed locus 2). The two groups of SNPs were separated by a recombination hotspot. We then evaluated these two representative SNPs in an additional ∼4,000 cases and ∼3,000 controls from three study populations and confirmed both loci at 11q13. In the combined allelic test of all four populations, P = 4.0 × 10−11 for rs10896449 at locus 1 and P = 1.2 × 10−6 for rs12418451 at locus 2, and both remained significant after adjusting for the other locus and study population. The prostate cancer association at these two 11q13 loci was unlikely confounded by prostate-specific antigen (PSA) detection bias because neither SNP was associated with PSA levels in controls. Unlike locus 1, in which no known gene is located, several putative mRNAs are in close proximity to locus 2. Additional confirmation studies at locus 2 and functional studies for both loci are needed to advance our knowledge on the etiology of prostate cancer. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(6):1815–20)
Nurses’ and patients’ communication in smoking cessation at nurse-led COPD clinics in primary health care

Background Smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have high nicotine dependence making it difficult to quit smoking. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a method that is used in stimulating motivation and behavioral changes. Objective To describe smoking cessation communication between patients and registered nurses trained in MI in COPD nurse-led clinics in Swedish primary health care. Methods A prospective observational study with structured quantitative content analyses of the communication between six nurses with basic education in MI and 13 patients in non-smoking consultations. Results Only to a small extent did nurses’ evoke patients’ reasons for change, stimulate collaboration, and support patients’ autonomy. Nurses provided information, asked closed questions, and made simple reflections. Patients’ communication was mainly neutral and focusing on reasons for and against smoking. It was uncommon for patients to be committed and take steps toward smoking cessation. Conclusion The nurses did not adhere to the principles of MI in smoking cessation, and the patients focused to a limited extent on how to quit smoking. Practice implications To make patients more active, the nurses need more education and continuous training in motivational communication.