Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Clustering of Axonal Sodium Channels during Development of the Peripheral Nervous System

The distribution of Na+ channels in rat peripheral nerve was measured during development by using immunofluorescence. Small segments of sciatic nerve from postnatal day 0–13 (P0–P13) pups were labeled with an antibody raised against a well conserved region of the vertebrate Na+channel. At day P0 axons contained almost no Na+channel aggregates. The number of clusters increased dramatically throughout the first week. In almost all cases Na+ channels clustered in the vicinity of Schwann cell processes. At least four classes of aggregates were noted. Clusters formed singly at Schwann cell edges, in pairs or in broad regions between neighboring Schwann cells, and in more focal zones at presumptive nodes. Almost all Na+ channel aggregates had reached the latter stage by the end of the first week. Histograms plotting the frequency of occurrence of each cluster type suggested a sequence of events in node formation involving the initiation of channel aggregation by Schwann cell processes. The requirement for Schwann cells during sodium channel clustering was tested by blocking proliferation of these cells with the antimitotic agent mitomycin C. Na+ channel clustering was sharply reduced, whereas node formation was normal at a distal site along the same nerve. Immunocytochemical detection of myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) indicated that Schwann cells must begin to ensheathe axons before inducing Na+ channel clustering.
Strathprints Institutional Repository Pulmonary Vasoconstrictor Action of Kcnq Potassium Channel Blockers

Pulmonary vasoconstrictor action of KCNQ potassium channel blockers. Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Unless otherwise explicitly stated on the manuscript, Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Please check the manuscript for details of any other licences that may have been applied. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or private study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in Strathprints to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the url Abstract Background: KCNQ channels have been widely studied in the nervous system, heart and inner ear, where they have important physiological functions. Recent reports indicate that KCNQ channels may also be expressed in portal vein where they are suggested to influence spontaneous contractile activity. The biophysical properties of K + currents mediated by KCNQ channels resemble a current underlying the resting K + conductance and resting potential of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells. We therefore investigated a possible role of KCNQ channels in regulating the function of pulmonary arteries by determining the ability of the selective KCNQ channel blockers, linopirdine and XE991, to promote pulmonary vasoconstriction.
Genotype-Specific Incidence and Clearance of Human Papillomavirus in Oral Mucosa of Women: A Six-Year Follow-Up Study

Background There are no previous longitudinal studies on genotype-specific natural history of human papillomavirus (HPV) infections in oral mucosa of women. Methods In the Finnish Family HPV Study, 329 pregnant women were enrolled and followed up. HPV-genotyping of oral scrapings was performed with nested PCR and Multimetrix® test (Progen, Heidelberg, Germany). Incidence and clearance times and rates for each HPV-genotype identified in oral mucosa were determined. Predictors for incident and cleared HPV infections for species 7/9 genotypes were analyzed using Poisson regression model. Results Altogether, 115 baseline HPV-negative women acquired incident oral HPV infection, and 79 women cleared their infection. HPV16 and multiple HPVs most frequently caused incident infections (65% and 12%) in 13.3 and 17.1 months respectively, followed by HPV58, HPV18 and HPV6 (close to 5% each) in 11–24 months. HPV58, HPV18 and HPV66 were the most common to clear. HPV6 and HPV11 had the shortest clearance times, 4.6 months and 2.5 months, and the highest clearance rates, 225.5/1000 wmr and 400/1000 wmr, respectively. The protective factors for incident oral HPV-species 7/9 infections were 1) new pregnancy during follow-up and 2) having the same sexual partner during FU. Increased clearance was related with older age and a history of atopic reactions, whereas previous sexually transmitted disease and new pregnancy were associated with decreased clearance. Conclusions HPV16 was the most frequent genotype to cause an incident oral HPV-infection. Low risk HPV genotypes cleared from oral mucosa more quickly than high risk HPV genotypes. Pregnancy affected the outcome of oral HPV infection.
Scavenger Receptor Class B Type I–Mediated Protection Against Atherosclerosis in LDL Receptor–Negative Mice Involves Its Expression in Bone Marrow–Derived Cells

Objective—Scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-BI) is a cell-surface HDL receptor that is implicated in reverse cholesterol transport and protection against atherosclerosis. We have previously demonstrated that SR-BI/apolipoprotein E double-knockout mice develop severe occlusive coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction and die at ≈6 weeks of age. To determine if this is a general effect of a lack of SR-BI, we generated mice deficient in both SR-BI and the LDL receptor. Methods and Results—Complete ablation of SR-BI expression in LDL receptor knockout mice resulted in increased plasma cholesterol associated with HDL particles of abnormally large size and a 6-fold increase in diet-induced aortic atherosclerosis but no macroscopic evidence of early-onset coronary artery disease, cardiac pathology, or early death. Furthermore, selective elimination of SR-BI expression in bone marrow–derived cells resulted in increased diet-induced atherosclerosis in LDL receptor knockout mice without concomitant alterations in the distributions of plasma lipoprotein cholesterol. Conclusions—SR-BI expression protects against atherosclerosis in LDL receptor–deficient as well as apolipoprotein E–deficient mice, and its expression in bone marrow–derived cells contributes to this protection.
READING UNDER INVESTIGATION: DISPOSITIONS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN AN EFL SETTING

Metacognitive awareness in reading has been subject to much concern in various language levels and learning environments. This study aims to explore university students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies in English as a foreign language from both qualitative and quantitative aspects. The study adopted a mixed method approach to explore the reading dispositions of 187 preparatory class students who were enrolled in Adana Science and Technology University. Students’ metacognitive awareness for reading was investigated under Global Reading Strategies, Problem-Solving Strategies, Support Strategies, and General Reading Tendencies sub-categories. Data obtained from the study revealed students’ various reading habits which provided insights from their perspectives and implications for the learning and teaching processes in the context of preparatory programs at university level.
Proactive personality and proactive behaviour: Perspectives on person–situation interactions

We conducted a field survey of leaders and their followers to examine factors that moderate the relationship between employee proactive personality and proactive behaviour. As hypothesized, random coefficient modelling analysis showed that two situational factors – transformational leadership and a climate of innovation and flexibility – moderated the relationship between employee proactive personality and proactive behaviour. Conceptually, we draw from situational strength theory to predict the pattern of these interactions. Our findings indicated that organizations desiring proactive employee behaviour would be well advised to take one of three courses of action: select employees with proactive personality who will generally behave proactively regardless of the situation; develop transformational leaders who will motivate, inspire, and support proactive employee behaviour; or cultivate a climate of innovation and flexibility which will create a strong situation that fosters proactivity regardless of employee individual differences.
Optimal power flow over tree networks

The optimal power flow (OPF) problem is critical to power system operation but it is generally non-convex and therefore hard to solve. Recently, a sufficient condition has been found under which OPF has zero duality gap, which means that its solution can be computed efficiently by solving the convex dual problem. In this paper we simplify this sufficient condition through a reformulation of the problem and prove that the condition is always satisfied for a tree network provided we allow over-satisfaction of load. The proof, cast as a complex semi-definite program, makes use of the fact that if the underlying graph of an n × n Hermitian positive semi-definite matrix is a tree, then the matrix has rank at least n − 1.
SPEED AND YOUNG DRIVERS: DEVELOPING COUNTERMEASURES TO TARGET EXCESSIVE SPEED BEHAVIOURS AMONGST YOUNG DRIVERS

The purpose of this project was the provision of recommendations concerning the development of enforcement methods or procedures that will better target excessive speed amongst younger drivers. An analysis of crash data confirmed general predictions that young drivers, and young males in particular, are more likely to be involved in crashes defined as speed-related than are older drivers. The results of a survey of younger drivers were ambiguous with respect to the likely effect of an enforcement program. It was clear that exposure to enforcement has an effect on the perceived risk of detection for speeding, but it was also clear that the perceived risk of detection was not related to other speed-related attitudes such as the driver's comfort exceeding the speed limit or the effect of the speed limit on driving behaviour. This confirms that factors other than enforcement contribute to speeding behaviour, and that increased enforcement levels are unlikely, on their own, to impact on the actual behaviour of younger drivers. This issue is discussed, and it is concluded that some characteristics of a successful enforcement program might include additional nighttime enforcement activity; a focus on the personal risk of detection as opposed to a focus on the theoretical risk of detection; a reliance on uncertainty in the placement of enforcement activity; and the use of visible enforcement. (a)
The effect of montelukast on respiratory symptoms and lung function in wheezy infants

Our aim was to investigate the effectiveness of montelukast in recurrently wheezy infants. We randomised 113, 6–24-month-old children with recurrent wheezing to receive either placebo or montelukast daily for an 8-week period. The primary end-point was symptom-free days. The secondary aims were to evaluate the effect of montelukast on rescue medication, on lung function, airway responsiveness and exhaled nitric oxide fraction (FeNO). Clinical response and FeNO were determined, the functional residual capacity (FRC) and specific airway conductance (sGaw) were measured using an infant whole-body plethysmograph, the maximal flow at functional residual capacity (V′max,FRC) was recorded using the squeeze technique and airway responsiveness was evaluated by performing a dosimetric methacholine challenge test. There was no significant difference in changes in weekly symptom-free days between the montelukast and the placebo group (3.1–3.7 days versus 2.7–3.1 days, p = 0.965). No significant differences were detected in the secondary end-points, i.e. use of rescue medication, FRC, sGaw, V′max,FRC, FeNO or airway responsiveness between groups. Montelukast therapy did not influence the number of symptom-free days, use of rescue medication, lung function, airway responsiveness or airway inflammation in recurrently wheezy, very young children.
The Role of Autonomy Support in Summer Camp Programs: Preparing Youth for Productive Behaviors

Parks and recreation professionals focused on youth development are uniquely positioned to provide young adults with requisite competencies and motivation for successful adulthood. Moreover, longer term behavioral goals that may be less inherently interesting (e.g. exercise, diet, medical self-management) may be profoundly influenced through enhanced self-regulation. Self-determination theory, through the use of autonomy supportive contexts, has been shown to be effective in enhancing self-regulation for activities perceived as generally uninteresting yet beneficial. Behaviors are autonomous to the degree that they provide for choice and volition. Autonomy support (providing rationale, choice, and perspective; limiting control) has been shown to be a critical prerequisite for enhancing self-determination for particular goal-oriented behaviors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore common recreation related mechanisms on youth’s perceptions of autonomy support. A two-level hierarchical linear model was created with experience-level and participant-level variables. The findings indicate that a noncompetitive and camper-centered instructional approach produced increased perceptions of autonomy support. Arts were found to be more autonomy supportive than sports, games, and athletics, suggesting that certain activities may be better suited to affording autonomy support for youth. Biological sex was also found to influence perceptions of autonomy support. In general, female campers were more positively influenced by non-competitive activities and camper-centered instructional approaches. The findings aid youth professionals in better understanding and engineering programs for particular outcomes such as increased autonomy support. The findings also support the application of theoretical approaches from which to influence behavior change in youth. In meeting the needs of youth, practitioners may apply the findings and create programs that have long-term benefits (e.g. diet change or increase in activity levels). Programs seeking to address long-term, lifestyle, behavioral changes might design programs that use more participant-centered leadership, de-emphasize competition, and include creative and cooperative activities, such as arts and crafts, which allow for more individual choice and allow participants to have a voice and a variety of options. Providing youth with options may be effectively accomplished in a variety of activities through offering choices, providing a rationale where choices are constrained, and demonstrating an understanding of the participant’s perspective. The current research supports park and recreation professionals’ drive to better meet the needs of youth through the realization that providing skills alone may not be enough to change behaviors. Practitioners can also influence behaviors through the creation of social contextual autonomy supportive environments.
Erim Report Series Research in Management a Study on the Applicability of Servqual Dimensions for Web Sites Bibliographic Data and Classifications Office Organization and Management Industrial Psychology Library of Congress Classification (lcc) Hd 66+ Quality Management M Business Administration and

A survey has been undertaken amongst students of two universities to study what quality factors are perceived as important in relation to their use of web sites. The results of the questionnaire survey are analysed in relation to the five service quality (SERVQUAL) dimensions (tangibles; reliability; responsiveness; assurance; empathy) as developed by Zeithaml et al [1]. There is evidence that the same dimensions are applicable to E-Business, although the underlying aspects have to be specified within the E-Business context. Abstract: A survey has been undertaken amongst students of two universities to study what quality factors are perceived as important in relation to their use of web sites. The results of the questionnaire survey are analysed in relation to the five service quality (SERVQUAL) dimensions (tangibles; reliability; responsiveness; assurance; empathy) as developed by Zeithaml et al [1]. There is evidence that the same dimensions are applicable to E-Business, although the underlying aspects have to be specified within the E-Business context.
Movements and behaviors of swordfish in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans examined using pop‐up satellite archival tags

Swordfish are highly specialized top-level predators that have been challenging to study. In this paper, data from 31 pop-up satellite archival tags attached to swordfish from (i) the eastern Pacific, (ii) central Pacific, and (iii) western North Atlantic-Caribbean were analyzed. Common across locations was a pronounced diel vertical pattern with daytime hours spent primarily below the thermocline and nighttime hours spent in warmer waters, close to the surface. One exception to this pattern was periodic daytime basking events which were most common in cooler waters off California. Maximum daytime depths were significantly correlated with light penetration as measured by the diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490 nm. Temperature did not appear to influence daytime depths, and swordfish tolerated both extremely low temperatures (4� C) and rapid and dramatic temperature changes (>20� C). Temperature did appear to influence the nighttime depths in the Pacific where fish typically remained in the surface mixed layer. In contrast, in the warm tropical Atlantic this was not the case, and nighttime depths were much deeper. In all areas, nighttime depth increased around the full moon. Given the parallels between the vertical movement patterns of swordfish and those of the deep sound scattering layer we suggest that swordfish vertical distribution patterns, especially during daytime, are influenced largely by resource availability. At night, when swordfish are typically targeted by fisheries, both ambient light and temperature influence movements. Understanding vertical movement patterns of swordfish can help evaluate gear vulnerability, improve population assessments, and potentially reduce fisheries bycatch.
Patch-based image deblocking using geodesic distance weighted low-rank approximation

Transform coding based on the discrete cosine transform (DCT) has been widely used in image coding standards. However, the coded images often suffer from severe visual distortions such as blocking artifacts. In this paper, we propose a novel image deblocking method to address the blocking artifacts reduction problem in a patch-based scheme. Image patches are clustered and reconstructed by the low-rank approximation, which is weighted by the geodesic distance. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves higher PSNR than the state-of-the-art deblocking and denoising methods and the processed images present good visual quality.
Spatial characteristics of AVHRR-NDVI along latitudinal transects in northern Alaska

Abstract Two-weekly AVHRR images were used to examine spatial patterns of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and their relationships with environmental variables for moist acidic tundra (MAT) and moist non-acidic tundra (MNT) along two latitudinal transects in northern Alaska. The NDVI database was derived from a 5-yr time series (1995–1999) of two-weekly AVHRR composites for Alaska. A digital climate map, digital elevation map and vegetation map were processed and overlain with the NDVI grid. Homogeneous vegetation patches for both MAT and MNT were defined as sample sites using infrared aerial photos, MSS images and the vegetation map along the transects. Linear and non-linear regression modeling were performed between NDVI indices and environmental variables, total summer warmth (TSW) and elevation. It was demonstrated that along both western and eastern transects, there were obvious latitudinal trends of peak NDVI (AP-NDVI), average growing season NDVI (GS-NDVI), and early June NDVI (EJ-NDVI). In most cases, MNT had lower NDVI values than MAT throughout the year. There were significant (p < 0.01) relations between NDVI (AP-NDVI, GS-NDVI and EJ-NDVI) and total summer warmth (TSW) and elevation in the region. EJ-NDVI showed the strongest correlation with TSW or elevation, making it the most sensitive NDVI indicator along environmental gradients in northern Alaska. NDVI was likely controlled by TSW and elevation, with the former being dominant. Nomenclature: Yurtsev (1994). Abbreviations: AK = Alaska; AP-NDVI = Annual peak NDVI; AVHRR = Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer; DEM = Digital elevation model; EJ-NDVI = Early June NDVI; GS-NDVI = Growing season NDVI; LAI = Leaf-area index; MAT = Moist acidic tundra; MNT = Moist non-acidic tundra; NDVI = Normalized difference vegetation index; TSW = Total summer warmth.
Developing emotional intelligence in student nurse leaders: a mixed methodology study

Objective: The purpose of this mixed method, exploratory study was to measure the impact of a peer coaching program on the measured emotional intelligence (EI) of a group of student nurse leaders. Methods Participation in the study was offered to nurses in the Student Ambassador program. Students who consented received instruction on EI and its importance in leadership. Participants then took a preintervention EI test (The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso EI Test, version 2 [MSCEIT]) to obtain a baseline EI ability score. Students then participated in a series of peer coaching sessions across a semester. Participants then completed a postintervention MSCEIT test, and also a qualitative survey. Results: The analysis of the paired sample t-test showed that there was not a statistically significant difference in the total group EI scores from pre to posttest, t (8) = 0.036 >0.05; however, 80% of participants reported perceived changes in EI ability due to the intervention and 90% reported that peer coaching was beneficial to their leadership development. Conclusions: This study contributes to the body of EI literature and research on nursing education and leadership development.