Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selection of Reliable Reference Genes for Gene Expression Studies on Rhododendron molle G. Don

The quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) approach has become a widely used method to analyze expression patterns of target genes. The selection of an optimal reference gene is a prerequisite for the accurate normalization of gene expression in qRT-PCR. The present study constitutes the first systematic evaluation of potential reference genes in Rhododendron molle G. Don. Eleven candidate reference genes in different tissues and flowers at different developmental stages of R. molle were assessed using the following three software packages: GeNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper. The results showed that EF1-α (elongation factor 1-alpha), 18S (18s ribosomal RNA), and RPL3 (ribosomal protein L3) were the most stable reference genes in developing rhododendron flowers and, thus, in all of the tested samples, while tublin (TUB) was the least stable. ACT5 (actin), RPL3, 18S, and EF1-α were found to be the top four choices for different tissues, whereas TUB was not found to favor qRT-PCR normalization in these tissues. Three stable reference genes are recommended for the normalization of qRT-PCR data in R. molle. Furthermore, the expression profiles of RmPSY (phytoene synthase) and RmPDS (phytoene dehydrogenase) were assessed using EF1-α, 18S, ACT5, RPL3, and their combination as internals. Similar trends were found, but these trends varied when the least stable reference gene TUB was used. The results further prove that it is necessary to validate the stability of reference genes prior to their use for normalization under different experimental conditions. This study provides useful information for reliable qRT-PCR data normalization in gene studies of R. molle.
Electrophysiological evidence of adult human skeletal muscle fibres with multiple endplates and polyneuronal innervation

Electromyographic (EMG) signals were recorded using intramuscular electrodes at six different sites in the brachioradialis muscles during voluntary isometric contractions in four subjects. The potential waveforms and discharge patterns of up to 12 simultaneously active motor units were identified from each signal using computer‐aided decomposition. Out of a total of 301 motor unit potentials identified, 23 potentials exhibited behaviour consistent with having been generated by muscle fibres that were innervated by two different motoneurons at widely separated endplates. These potentials discharged in association with two different motor units, but were blocked or delayed whenever the two motor units discharged within a few milliseconds of one another. The blocking was consistent with a collision or refractoriness when one motoneuron tried to excite the fibre while it was already conducting an action potential initiated by the other motoneuron. The delays were consistent with decreased conduction velocity associated with incomplete recovery of the fibre after a preceding action potential. From the temporal separation between the discharges of the two motoneurons that resulted in blocking, the spatial separation between the endplates was estimated to be between 26 and 44 mm. These findings challenge the classical concept of the motor unit as an anatomically distinct and functionally independent entity. It is suggested that the human brachioradialis muscle may contain both long, polyneuronally innervated fibres and short, serially linked, singly innervated fibres.
Older adults' use of, and satisfaction with, electric powered indoor/outdoor wheelchairs.

BACKGROUND Research documenting the experiences of electric powered indoor/outdoor wheelchair (EPIOC) users has generally failed to take into account the specific needs and concerns of older adults. This study sought to qualitatively examine the older EPIOC users' satisfaction with the chair and service providers. METHOD Eight women and nine men aged between 60 and 81 (mean 69) years were recruited through a specialist wheelchair service database. All had severe mobility disabilities. Analysis was performed using a qualitative framework approach. RESULTS Participants reported a variety of EPIOC uses, including shopping and some social contact. Moderate satisfaction with the chair was reported. Use was compromised by indoor and outdoor environmental barriers; and the chair not meeting users' needs. Accidents were rare, but many users still experienced insecurity in the chair. High levels of satisfaction with the service were reported, although concern was expressed over length of waiting times. CONCLUSIONS EPIOCs proved useful to most older people with disabilities. However, even those who were satisfied reported only moderate use of the chair outdoors. Limited use related to an infrequent need for outings, outdoor barriers, feelings of insecurity over chair safety and lengthy waiting times for chair delivery and required modifications. Service providers should be aware that older EPIOC users may require extra support and the provision of timely adjustments to increase chair use.
Respect And Care: Toward Moral Integration1

In her provocative discussion of the challenge posed to the traditional impartialist, justice-focused conception of morality by the new-wave care perspective in ethics, Annette Baier calls for ‘a “marriage” of the old male and newly articulated female . moral wisdom,’ to produce a new ‘cooperative’ moral theory that ‘harmonize[s] justice and care. ’ I want in this paper to play matchmaker, proposing one possible conjugal bonding: a union of two apparently dissimilar modes of what Nel Noddings calls ‘meeting the other morally,’ a wedding of respect and care.
Lessons from lymph: flow-guided vessel formation.

Lymphangiogenesis doesn’t get much attention compared with its better-known cousin, angiogenesis. Perhaps that’s because lymphatic vessels don’t carry blood or platelets, and next to arteries or even veins, lymphatics are flimsy weaklings that are barely able to withstand 20 mm Hg before bursting.1 Yet clinical disorders of the lymphatic system occur commonly. Lymphedema, including the common postsurgical and postradiation forms and the rare inherited forms, has no successful therapy. Cancer metastasis occurs frequently by lymphatics, and lymphatic destruction by the parasitic filariasis diseases is among the leading cause of worldwide chronic disability. The lymphatic system starts as an open-ended transport system in interstitial spaces, in contrast with the closed-loop circulation for blood.R2-128041 2,3 Protein-rich fluid is gathered by open lymphatic capillaries that drain into progressively larger lymphatic vessels. Collecting lymphatics converge into two major ducts, the thoracic duct, which drains most of the body’s lymph into the left subclavian vein, or the smaller right lymphatic duct, which drains into the right subclavian vein. Along the way back to the blood circulation, lymph passes through at least one lymph node, where immunological presentation of antigens and filtering can occur. Despite the obvious macroscopic differences between the lymphatic and blood circulations, there are close parallels as well (Table). Larger lymphatics have valves like veins and also have smooth muscle–regulated tone that is nitric oxide–responsive.4 In fact, Sabin proposed in 1902 that the lymphatic system …
Transformational leadership within virtual teams: Examining the mediating influence of trust and role clarity for performance and knowledge sharing

Virtual teams differ from tradidonal, co-located teams in that they primarily communicate via informadon technolog}' such as email, video conferencing and web based coUaboradve environments rather than in a face-to-face medium. There has been a lack of empirical research into the influence that leadership has within virtual teams upon key outcomes such as performance and knowledge sharing. This paper examines antecedents of knowledge sharing and performance, namely role clarit)' and trust in a team leader. We predicted that transformadonal leadership would posidvely influence both performance and knowledge sharing within virtual teams. We also h^'pothesised that trust in a leader and role clarit)' would mediate both the associadon between transformadonal leadership and performance as well as the associadon between transformadonal leadership and knowledge sharing within virtual teams. Data was collected from a public sector organisadon using virtual teams, Pardcipants responded to a self-report quesdonnaire. Supervisor radngs of performance and knowledge sharing were also obtained. In general we found support for a posidve reladonship between transformadonal leadership and performance and knowledge sharing within virtual teams. Using mediated muldple regression, we found support for the mediadng role of trust in the leader and role clarit}' between transformadonal leadership and performance and knowledge sharing. Implicadons of the results are provided.
Biomechanics of Posterior Dynamic Stabilization Systems

Spinal rigid instrumentations have been used to fuse and stabilize spinal segments as a surgical treatment for various spinal disorders to date. This technology provides immediate stability after surgery until the natural fusion mass develops. At present, rigid fixation is the current gold standard in surgical treatment of chronic back pain spinal disorders. However, such systems have several drawbacks such as higher mechanical stress on the adjacent segment, leading to long-term degenerative changes and hypermobility that often necessitate additional fusion surgery. Dynamic stabilization systems have been suggested to address adjacent segment degeneration, which is considered to be a fusion-associated phenomenon. Dynamic stabilization systems are designed to preserve segmental stability, to keep the treated segment mobile, and to reduce or eliminate degenerative effects on adjacent segments. This paper aimed to describe the biomechanical aspect of dynamic stabilization systems as an alternative treatment to fusion for certain patients.
Color Gradients in Early-Type Galaxies in Abell 2199

We performed B- and R-band surface photometry for E/S0 galaxies in the nearby rich cluster Abell 2199 to investigate their B-R color gradients [d(B-R)/d log r]. Our aims are to study statistical properties of the color gradients and, by comparing them with those in less dense environments, to examine environmental dependence of color gradients in elliptical galaxies. We studied the distribution of the B-R color gradients in the cluster elliptical galaxies and found that the mean value of the color gradients is -0.09 ± 0.04 mag dex-1, which can be converted to a metallicity gradient (d log Z/d log r) of -0.3 ± 0.1. The gradient seems to be comparable to that expected by a recent monolithic collapse model. We further studied the relations between the B-R color gradients and global properties of the galaxies. Our data suggest that for the galaxies brighter than an R-band magnitude of ∼15 mag, which is roughly equivalent to L* at the distance of the cluster, brighter galaxies tend to have steeper color gradients. In addition, for the galaxies with effective radii larger than ∼3″, which nearly corresponds to L* considering the correlation between galaxy luminosity and effective radius for elliptical galaxies, the galaxies with larger effective radii seem to have steeper color gradients. These trends could appear if elliptical galaxies formed through the monolithic collapse scenario. On the contrary, it is found based on the published data that such trends are not clearly seen for elliptical galaxies in less dense environments, suggesting that elliptical galaxies in sparse environments formed by galaxy mergers, although the distribution of the color gradients is quite similar to that in the rich cluster. In other words, our data and those in the literature suggest that there is an environmental dependence in the relationship between color gradient and global properties of elliptical galaxies, while the distribution of the values of color gradients is nearly independent of galaxy environment. These results do not fully support the view that elliptical galaxies in rich clusters formed through monolithic collapse, while those in sparse environments formed through galaxy mergers, because the latter elliptical galaxies are expected to have color gradients shallower on average than the former. This apparent conflict may be reconciled by taking into account star formation and subsequent chemical enrichment induced by a galaxy merger, which may allow a merger remnant to acquire a metallicity gradient and thus compensate the dilution of the existing metallicity gradients in the progenitors by mixture of stars during the galaxy merger.
I.V. paracetamol as an adjunct to patient-controlled epidural analgesia with levobupivacaine and fentanyl in labour: a randomized controlled study.

BACKGROUND Use of i.v. paracetamol for postoperative pain is well documented, but it is unclear if it can reduce the consumption of opioids during patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) in labouring parturients. METHODS In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted in a tertiary care hospital, 80parturients were randomly assigned to two groups of 40 each, to receive either 1000 mg (100 ml) i.v. paracetamol or 100 ml normal saline as placebo, 30 min before the procedure. After insertion of the epidural catheter, all patients received 10 ml of levobupivacaine 0.1% with 2 μg ml-1 fentanyl, followed by continuous background epidural infusion of 6 ml h-1 with a provision of patient-controlled bolus 5 ml of same drug with a lock-out interval of 12 min.The primary outcome was hourly mean consumption of levobupivacaine and fentanyl mixture (ml.h-1). Secondary outcomes included pain score ,: sensory and motor block, haemodynamic parameters of mother, duration of second stage of labour, mode of delivery, Apgar scores, foetal heart rate and adverse effects. RESULTS The hourly mean drug consumption in the Paracetamol group was significantly lower as compared with the Placebo group (7.03 ml.h-1, SD 0.83 vs. 8.12 ml.h-1, SD 1.34; p < 0.001). The mean number of boluses taken were also significantly less in the paracetamol group (1.00, SD 0.93 vs. 1.43, SD 0.90; p = 0.036). Pain scores decreased in both the groups without significant inter-group differences. CONCLUSIONS Use of 1000 mg i.v. paracetamol decreases the mean hourly drug consumption through epidural route. Thus i.v. paracetamol is a safe and effective adjunct to PCEA in labour analgesia. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION Clinical Trials Registry-India (http://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/login.php), trial registration number 2013/09/003968.
Physical Randomness Extractors: Generating Random Numbers with Minimal Assumptions

How to generate provably true randomness with minimal assumptions? This question is important not only for the efficiency and the security of information processing, but also for understanding how extremely unpredictable events are possible in Nature. All current solutions require special structures in the initial source of randomness, or a certain independence relation among two or more sources. Both types of assumptions are impossible to test and difficult to guarantee in practice. Here we show how this fundamental limit can be circumvented by extractors that base security on the validity of physical laws and extract randomness from untrusted quantum devices. In conjunction with the recent work of Miller and Shi (arXiv:1402:0489), our physical randomness extractor uses just a single and general weak source, produces an arbitrarily long and near-uniform output, with a close-to-optimal error, secure against all-powerful quantum adversaries, and tolerating a constant level of implementation imprecision. The source necessarily needs to be unpredictable to the devices, but otherwise can even be known to the adversary. Our central technical contribution, the Equivalence Lemma, provides a general principle for proving composition security of untrusted-device protocols. It implies that unbounded randomness expansion can be achieved simply by cross-feeding any two expansion protocols. In particular, such an unbounded expansion can be made robust, which is known for the first time. Another significant implication is, it enables the secure randomness generation and key distribution using public randomness, such as that broadcast by NIST's Randomness Beacon. Our protocol also provides a method for refuting local hidden variable theories under a weak assumption on the available randomness for choosing the measurement settings.
Progressive Polycomb Assembly on H3K27me3 Compartments Generates Polycomb Bodies with Developmentally Regulated Motion

Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are conserved chromatin factors that maintain silencing of key developmental genes outside of their expression domains. Recent genome-wide analyses showed a Polycomb (PC) distribution with binding to discrete PcG response elements (PREs). Within the cell nucleus, PcG proteins localize in structures called PC bodies that contain PcG-silenced genes, and it has been recently shown that PREs form local and long-range spatial networks. Here, we studied the nuclear distribution of two PcG proteins, PC and Polyhomeotic (PH). Thanks to a combination of immunostaining, immuno-FISH, and live imaging of GFP fusion proteins, we could analyze the formation and the mobility of PC bodies during fly embryogenesis as well as compare their behavior to that of the condensed fraction of euchromatin. Immuno-FISH experiments show that PC bodies mainly correspond to 3D structural counterparts of the linear genomic domains identified in genome-wide studies. During early embryogenesis, PC and PH progressively accumulate within PC bodies, which form nuclear structures localized on distinct euchromatin domains containing histone H3 tri-methylated on K27. Time-lapse analysis indicates that two types of motion influence the displacement of PC bodies and chromatin domains containing H2Av-GFP. First, chromatin domains and PC bodies coordinately undergo long-range motions that may correspond to the movement of whole chromosome territories. Second, each PC body and chromatin domain has its own fast and highly constrained motion. In this motion regime, PC bodies move within volumes slightly larger than those of condensed chromatin domains. Moreover, both types of domains move within volumes much smaller than chromosome territories, strongly restricting their possibility of interaction with other nuclear structures. The fast motion of PC bodies and chromatin domains observed during early embryogenesis strongly decreases in late developmental stages, indicating a possible contribution of chromatin dynamics in the maintenance of stable gene silencing.
Reducing lung function decline in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: potential of nintedanib

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive, fibrotic lung disease with no clear etiology and a paucity of therapeutic options. Nintedanib (previously known as BIBF 1120) is a tyrosine kinase receptor antagonist which inhibits a number of key receptors, including those for platelet derived growth factor (PDGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and fibroblast growth factor (FGF). These growth factors are profibrotic and each has been investigated as a potential standalone therapeutic target in IPF. Simultaneous inhibition of these receptors, with an analog of nintedanib, has proved to be effective in experimental animal models of pulmonary fibrosis. This observation, together with extensive safety and pharmacokinetic data from studies of nintedanib in malignancy, paved the way for the clinical development of this drug in IPF. The Phase IIb TOMORROW trial demonstrated that treatment with nintedanib may potentially slow decline in lung function, decrease the frequency of acute exacerbations, and improve quality of life in patients with IPF. While these observations are drawn from a single clinical trial, taken together with the preclinical data they suggest that nintedanib may yet become an important therapeutic option for individuals with IPF. The results of ongoing parallel, international, multicenter Phase III clinical trials are therefore eagerly awaited.
Genetic Analysis of 430 Chinese Cynodon dactylon Accessions Using Sequence-Related Amplified Polymorphism Markers

Although Cynodon dactylon (C. dactylon) is widely distributed in China, information on its genetic diversity within the germplasm pool is limited. The objective of this study was to reveal the genetic variation and relationships of 430 C. dactylon accessions collected from 22 Chinese provinces using sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers. Fifteen primer pairs were used to amplify specific C. dactylon genomic sequences. A total of 481 SRAP fragments were generated, with fragment sizes ranging from 260–1800 base pairs (bp). Genetic similarity coefficients (GSC) among the 430 accessions averaged 0.72 and ranged from 0.53–0.96. Cluster analysis conducted by two methods, namely the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) and principle coordinate analysis (PCoA), separated the accessions into eight distinct groups. Our findings verify that Chinese C. dactylon germplasms have rich genetic diversity, which is an excellent basis for C. dactylon breeding for new cultivars.
Iron deposits in post‐mortem brains of patients with neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases: a semi‐quantitative 7.0 T magnetic resonance imaging study

Accumulation of iron (Fe) is often detected in brains of people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. However, no studies have compared the Fe load between these disease entities. The present study investigates by T2*‐weighted gradient‐echo 7.0 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) the Fe content in post‐mortem brains with different neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases.
Öğretmenlik Meslek Bilgisi ve Tezsiz Yüksek Lisans Programlarının Tutum ve Özyeterlik Açısından Değerlendirilmesi

Bu calisma, tezsiz yuksek lisans (TYL) ve ogretmenlik meslek bilgisi programlarinin (OMBP) ogrencilerin ogretmenlik meslegine iliskin tutum ve oz yeterlik algilari acisindan karsilastirilmasi amaciyla yapilmistir. Ogretmenlik meslegine yonelik tutum ozelligine iliskin karsilastirmalar OMBP’den 145 kiz, 84 erkek, TYL’den 63 kiz, 96 erkek ogrenci uzerinde; ogretmenlik meslegine yonelik oz yeterlik ozelligine iliskin karsilastirmalar ise OMBP’den 139 kiz 95 erkek, TYL’den 63 kiz 96 erkek ogrenci uzerinde yurutulmustur. Elde edilen veriler uzerinde t testi ve varyans analizi yapilmis, betimsel istatistikler hesaplanmis ve alt problemler dogrultusunda yorumlanmistir. Sonuc olarak; tezsiz yuksek lisans programlarinin ogretmenlik meslegine iliskin tutum ve oz yeterlik algilari uzerinde daha olumlu bir etkiye sahip oldugu bulgulanmistir.