Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biochemical and Expression Analyses of the Rice Cinnamoyl-CoA Reductase Gene Family

Cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR) is the first committed enzyme in the monolignol pathway for lignin biosynthesis and catalyzes the conversion of hydroxycinnamoyl-CoAs into hydroxycinnamaldehydes. In the rice genome, 33 genes are annotated as CCR and CCR-like genes, collectively called OsCCRs. To elucidate the functions of OsCCRs, their phylogenetic relationships, expression patterns at the transcription levels and biochemical characteristics were thoroughly analyzed. Of the 33 OsCCRs, 24 of them encoded polypeptides of lengths similar to those of previously identified plant CCRs. The other nine OsCCRs had much shorter peptide lengths. Phylogenetic tree and sequence similarities suggested OsCCR4, 5, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 as likely candidates for functional CCRs in rice. To elucidate biochemical functions, OsCCR1, 5, 17, 19, 20, 21, and 26 were heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli and the resulting recombinant OsCCRs were purified to apparent homogeneity. Activity assays of the recombinant OsCCRs with hydroxycinnamoyl-CoAs revealed that OsCCR17, 19, 20, and 21 were biochemically active CCRs, in which the NAD(P)-binding and NADP-specificity motifs as well as the CCR signature motif were fully conserved. The kinetic parameters of enzyme reactions revealed that feruloyl-CoA, a precursor for the guaiacyl (G)-unit of lignin, is the most preferred substrate of OsCCR20 and 21. This result is consistent with a high content (about 70%) of G-units in rice lignins. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that OsCCR19 and 20 were grouped with other plant CCRs involved in developmental lignification, whereas OsCCR17 and 21 were closely related to stress-responsible CCRs identified from other plant species. In agreement with the phylogenetic analysis, expression analysis demonstrated that OsCCR20 was constitutively expressed throughout the developmental stages of rice, showing particularly high expression levels in actively lignifying tissues, such as roots and stems. These results suggest that OsCCR20 is primarily involved in developmental deposition of lignins in secondary cell walls. As expected, the expressions of OsCCR17 and 21 were induced in response to biotic and abiotic stresses, such as Magnaporthe grisea and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) infections, UV-irradiation and high salinity, suggesting that these genes play a role in defense-related processes in rice.
Refractory ascites: early experience in treatment with transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt.

PURPOSE To evaluate the transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) in treatment of refractory ascites. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fourteen patients with chronic liver disease and portal hypertension were included in a prospective study. Six patients had Child-Pugh class B disease; eight had class C disease. Indications for TIPS were three previous hospital admissions over 9 months for treatment of tense ascites, no response to diuretic therapy, or an occluded peritoneovenous shunt with tense ascites. The volume of ascitic fluid was sonographically evaluated before and after TIPS placement. RESULTS The technical success rate for TIPS creation was 93%. Mean portosystemic gradient decreased from 22.8 mm Hg +/- 7.2 before TIPS placement to 11.3 mm Hg +/- 3.6 after TIPS (P = .005). Complete resolution of ascites was achieved in seven (50%) patients. Treatment failed in seven; five had Child-Pugh class C disease, and four of these had a Child-Pugh score greater than 11. CONCLUSION These results are comparable to those for other forms of treatment of ascites. The authors do not, however, recommend TIPS in patients with a Child-Pugh score greater than 11.
A Statistical Modelling Approach to the Occurrence and Timing of Reconciliation in Wild Japanese Macaques

In various social species, animals have been observed to share friendly relationships with some group members and to resolve conflicts through reconciliation, the exchange of affiliative behaviour soon after a conflict that functions to restore the relationship between the former opponents. The valuable relationship hypothesis predicts that reconciliation should be observed more often after conflicts between friends. Friendly relationships can be described by three dimensions (i.e. value, security and compatibility); however, research into the relative importance of these dimensions for the occurrence of reconciliation is sparse. Moreover, reconciliation may depend on factors other than the social relationship between opponents including, for example, their social status or the context of the conflict. Our study aimed at analysing which factors are important determinants of reconciliation and at testing the valuable relationship hypothesis, by analysing the relative effects of relationship value, security and compatibility on the occurrence and timing of reconciliation. We collected data on two troops of wild Japanese macaques living on Yakushima Island, Japan, and selected the best predicting variables of reconciliation using linear mixed models. Our results show that reconciliation occurs more frequently, and earlier, after conflicts between opponents who exchange a higher percentage of grooming. Two additional variables related to relationship security and value were selected in the best models: frequency of aggression and of approaches resulting in tolerated co-feeding. Among the variables not related to relationship quality, distance between opponents at the end of the conflict, kinship, sex of the opponents and context of conflict (i.e. during feeding or social time) were included in our models. Our findings support the valuable relationship hypothesis and, in particular, highlight that the fitness-related benefits of social relationships (i.e. the relationship value) are important determinants of the evolution of friendly relationships and reconciliation.
Social attributions of students with learning disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine the social attributions of students with learning disabilities (LD) compared to those of nonlearning-disabled (NLD) low- achieving (LA) and average-achieving (AA) students. Ninety-two subjects partici- pated in the study; 32 students with LD and two matched control groups that consisted of 29 LA and 33 AA students. The results indicated that students with LD were likely to exhibit different social attribution patterns than did their NLD peers. They displayed a greater tendency to use external factors in explaining their social successes and failures, while attributing their successes to internal factors, than did LA and AA students. LA and AA students, conversely, were more likely to use interactional explanations of social events.
A RAPID AND PRECISE METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF UREA

A method is described for the determination of urea in plasma and urine. The effects of variations in the experimental conditions are examined and the results of recovery experiments and other tests of precision and accuracy are reported. In comparison with other methods in current use, this method has distinct advantages in sensitivity, simplicity, and precision, thus economizing in time, sample volume, reagents, and equipment.
Survey on clustering methods: Towards fuzzy clustering for big data

In this report, we propose to give a review of the most used clustering methods in the literature. First, we give an introduction about clustering methods, how they work and their main challenges. Second, we present the clustering methods with some comparisons including mainly the classical partitioning clustering methods like well-known k-means algorithms, Gaussian Mixture Models and their variants, the classical hierarchical clustering methods like the agglomerative algorithm, the fuzzy clustering methods and Big data clustering methods. We present some examples of clustering algorithms comparison. Finally, we present our ideas to build a scalable and noise insensitive clustering system based on fuzzy type-2 clustering methods.
Investigation of ampicillin-intermediate strains of Haemophilus influenzae by using the disk diffusion procedure and current National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards guidelines

It was noted in our laboratory that certain strains of Haemophilus influenzae yielded zone sizes interpreted as resistant to the ampicillin (AMP) disk on chocolate-Mueller-Hinton agar (CMH) but showed no evidence of beta-lactamase (beta-Lac) activity. Although it is known that a second mechanism of AMP resistance exists, strains with this mechanism are uncommon. To investigate this apparent discrepancy, a study of 100 consecutive clinical isolates of H. influenzae collected over a 6-month period was performed. Isolates were simultaneously tested against five antibiotics (AMP, chloramphenicol, cefotaxime, ciprofloxacin, and AMP-sulbactam) on CMH and on two brands of Haemophilus test medium (HTM) by using the disk diffusion procedure and National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) standards. By using CMH and NCCLS standard M2-A3-S2, strains of H. influenzae showing zone sizes of greater than or equal to 20 mm with AMP were considered sensitive. By using HTM and NCCLS standard M2-A4, strains showing zone sizes of greater than or equal to 25 mm to AMP on HTM were considered sensitive. Intermediate strains had zone sizes of 22 to 24 mm. The majority of isolates (68%) were sensitive to all antibiotics. Two percent of the isolates were resistant to chloramphenicol. Seventeen percent of the isolates were AMP-resistant, beta-Lac-producing strains of H. influenzae. Thirteen percent of the isolates gave at least one intermediate or resistant zone for AMP but were beta-Lac negative. MIC determinations with NCCLS standard M7-A2 were performed with resistant and intermediate strains. MICs for beta-Lac-producing strains of H. influenzae were >/= 8.0 microgram/ml. MICs for beta-Lac-negative strains were </= 1.0 microgram/ml and were highly reproducible. If one uses the current NCCLS zone diameter interpretive criteria, results should be viewed with caution. Further investigation of zone size interpretive criteria is warranted. It is suggested that in the case of serious infections with H. influenzae, beta-Lac-negative, AMP-resistant or -intermediate strains be confirmed by the MIC procedure.
Occult subcortical magnetic resonance findings in elderly depressives

Hyperintense signal areas (HSA) on T2‐weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may reflect subtle cerebrovascular insufficiency and are common in elderly depressives. We hypothesized that these HSAs may indicate a vascular etiology for depression in late life, and that patients with late‐onset major depression (MDD) would therfore more often show HSAs than comparably aged recurrent depressives. We reviewed the brain MRI findings of a consecutive series of inpatients aged 50 or over who were treated for MDD during an 18‐month period. Patients with Parkinson's or other brain diseases predisposing to depression were not considered.
Islet Capillary Blood Pressure Increase Mediated by Hyperglycemia in NIDDM GK Rats

This study was performed to measure pancreatic islet capillary pressure under basal conditions and after an acute glucose stimulation of insulin release in normal rats. In addition, the islet capillary pressure was estimated in GK rats, an animal model of NIDDM. Hydrostatic pressure in single pancreatic islet capillaries was determined in vivo by direct measurement using the micropuncture technique. The pancreatic islets were visualized by injection of neutral red. This intravital staining had no effect on islet function, whole pancreatic and islet blood flow, and capillary blood pressure in the exocrine pancreas. Islet capillary blood pressure in normoglycemic Wistar F rats was estimated at 3.1 ± 0.3 mmHg (n = 15). Administration of D-glucose (1g/kg) doubled this value, whereas no effect was seen after injection of an equimolar dose of the non-metabolizable glucose-derivative 3-O-methyl glucose. In GK rats, basal islet capillary blood pressure was increased (5.7 ± 0.4 mmHg; n = 10; P < 0.001) when compared with the control Wistar F rats. Reduction of blood glucose levels in GK rats with phlorizin treatment showed this increased basal islet capillary pressure in GK rats to be glucose dependent and reversible. In the present study, we have for the first time shown that both acute and chronic hyperglycemia augment islet capillary pressure. The effects of a chronically increased islet capillary pressure on long-term islet function remain to be determined.
Identifying challenges to improve the investigation and prosecution of state and local human trafficking cases

The patterns described below should not be generalized beyond the counties studied. In the study sites we found: 85% of the 140 cases we reviewed were sex trafficking, 11% were labor trafficking and 4% both labor and sex trafficking. The majority of human trafficking victims identified were female (89%). 39% of human trafficking cases began as a tip to law enforcement rather than being developed proactively, reflecting a reactive approach to uncovering incidents of human trafficking. 69% of cases went forward to prosecution. 33% were prosecuted in state courts and 36% of cases were prosecuted in federal courts. Few cases were charged with human trafficking offenses (7% sex trafficking offenses, 9% sex trafficking of a minor offenses, and 2% labor trafficking offenses), suggesting despite new human trafficking laws, state and federal prosecutors continue to charge human trafficking offenders with other types of crimes. The most common state charges were for compelling or promoting prostitution and the transport of persons for the purposes of prostitution. Goals of the Study
Efficient Iceberg Query Evaluation Using Compressed Bitmap Index

Decision support and knowledge discovery systems often compute aggregate values of interesting attributes by processing a huge amount of data in very large databases and/or warehouses. In particular, iceberg query is a special type of aggregation query that computes aggregate values above a user-provided threshold. Usually, only a small number of results will satisfy the threshold constraint. Yet, the results often carry very important and valuable business insights. Because of the small result set, iceberg queries offer many opportunities for deep query optimization. However, most existing iceberg query processing algorithms do not take advantage of the small-result-set property and rely heavily on the tuple-scan-based approach. This incurs intensive disk accesses and computation, resulting in long processing time especially when data size is large. Bitmap index, which builds one bitmap vector for each attribute value, is gaining popularity in both column-oriented and row-oriented databases in recent years. It occupies less space than the raw data and gives opportunities for more efficient query processing. In this paper, we exploited the property of bitmap index and developed a very effective bitmap pruning strategy for processing iceberg queries. Our index-pruning-based approach eliminates the need of scanning and processing the entire data set (table) and thus speeds up the iceberg query processing significantly. Experiments show that our approach is much more efficient than existing algorithms commonly used in row-oriented and column-oriented databases.
Primary School Sex Education Programs: Views and experiences of teachers in four primary schools in Sydney, Australia

This small-scale study draws on qualitative data from four government primary schools in Sydney, Australia to investigate the sex education given to grade five and six primary school children by their teachers. This article explores the sexuality issues teachers find difficult to discuss, and reports the concerns teachers have when teaching sexuality education. The practices teachers adopt to encourage parent-teacher partnerships in sex education are also reported. School programs varied in the coverage that was given to contraception and sexually transmitted infections while no school program formally addressed sexual identity and orientation, issues that were brought up by the children through their questions. Teacher concerns included what parents might think about the program and how to manage the different levels of maturity, knowledge and comfort among the children in their class. The article concludes that teachers need to continue fostering their partnership with parents and that many teachers require more opportunities for training so that they can address with comfort the sexuality issues of concern to children and their parents.
Maintenance therapy in multiple myeloma

The treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) has changed dramatically in the past twenty years with the introduction of high-dose therapy plus autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) in younger patients and, more recently, of three novel agents (thalidomide, bortezomib, and lenalidomide). When conventional chemotherapy was the only available possibility, complete responses (CR) were very rare and the objective of maintenance was to prolong remission duration by continuing the same type of treatment that induced the initial response. With recent therapeutic improvements, CR achievement becomes a realistic goal that, in most cases, is significantly correlated with the outcome (1). Therefore, both the nature and the impact of maintenance therapy have changed. Maintenance therapy is based currently on novel agents, and its objective is not only to control the clone but also to further decrease the tumor burden and improve the quality of response. A number of randomized studies show a benefit from maintenance therapy with novel agents (until now, mostly thalidomide), at least in terms of response rate and progression-free survival (PFS). However, there is still a debate as concerns the impact on overall survival (OS) and the optimal administration of maintenance therapy.
Exploring the Interpersonal Transaction of the Brazilian Jeitinho in Bureaucratic Contexts

This paper is a contribution to the existing body of literature on the Brazilian jeitinho (pronounced jaytcheenyoo) as an informal problem-solving strategy in organizations. The jeitinho is a social mechanism that entails bending or breaking the rules in order to deal with difficult or forbidding situations. It is a particularly useful informal strategy to ‘get things done’ in work organizations. The paper focuses on what is involved in the interpersonal transaction of the jeitinho in work settings, acknowledging in particular the role of informal social capital and a highly valued interpersonal attribute in Brazilian society known as simpatia. The first part of the paper explores the defining features and historical roots of the Brazilian jeitinho; the second part provides a theoretical contextualization of the discussion through a brief review of academic works on bureaucratic dysfunctions and informal strategies to deal with these problems; and the third part illustrates the operation of the jeitinho with data from a qualitative study of a partnership sustainability program based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
"Fluent dysfluency" as Congruent Lexicalization: A Special Case of Radical Code-Mixing

Code-switching among bilinguals has been typologically classified into three categories e.g. by Muysken (2000): alternation, insertion, and congruent lexicalization. Congruent lexicalization as usually defined not only requires that the languages in contact be structurally congruent, but also presupposes a high level of bilingual competence, as well relatively equal prestige and no tradition of overt language separation. The present study presents data from several communities in which Spanish is in contact with languages increasingly less cognate: Portuguese, Italian, and English, respectively. The data are drawn from "fluently dysfluent" speakers, meaning that they use their L2 frequently and speak it without hesitation, but with much involuntary intrusion of their L1; these dysfluent bilinguals rely on their interlocutors' passive competence in the speakers' L1, and in so doing exhibit code-switching which fits the typological pattern of congruent lexicalization. A componential analysis of several dysfluent bilingual communities results in the suggestion that the definition of congruent lexicalization be expanded to include the special case of fluently dysfluent bilingualism, a situation that arises in several language contact environments.
Graft‐versus‐leukaemia effect after non‐myeloablative haematopoietic transplantation can overcome the unfavourable expression of ZAP‐70 in refractory chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

ZAP‐70 (zeta‐chain‐associated protein 70 kDa) expression is associated with poor prognosis in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). This study evaluated the efficacy of non‐myeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplantation in patients with advanced CLL and assessed the impact of ZAP‐70 expression on the outcome. Thirty‐nine sequential patients were included. All had previously been treated with fludarabine. All patients received a preparative regimen of fludarabine (30 mg/m2/d for 3 d), intravenous cyclophosphamide (750 mg/m2/d for 3 d), and high‐dose rituximab. Immunohistochemical techniques on marrow biopsy samples were used to determine that ZAP‐70 was expressed in 25 patients, whereas 13 other patients were ZAP‐70 negative, and one was of indeterminate status. With a median follow‐up time of 27 months, the estimated overall survival and current progression‐free survival (CPFS) rates at 4 years were 48% and 44% respectively. Patients who were ZAP‐70 positive had 56% survival, and their CPFS rate increased from 30% to 53% after a donor lymphocyte infusion. Multivariate analysis indicated that chemorefractory disease and mixed T cell chimerism at day 90, but not ZAP‐70 positivity, were associated with the risk of disease progression after transplantation. These results demonstrate a potent graft‐versus‐leukaemia effect that can overcome the adverse prognostic effect of ZAP‐70 expression.
Information combination operators for data fusion: a comparative review with classification

In most data fusion systems, the information extracted from each image or sensor (either numerical or symbolic) is represented as a degree of belief in an event with real values, generally in [0,1], taking in this way into account the imprecise, uncertain and incomplete nature of information. The combination of such degrees of belief is performed through numerical fusion operators. A very large variety of such operators has been proposed in the literature. We propose a classification of these operators issued from different data fusion theories (probabilities, fuzzy sets, possibilities, Dempster- Shafer, etc.) w.r. t. their behaviour. Three classes are thus defined: context independent constant behaviour operators, which have the same behaviour (compromise, disjunction or conjunction) whatever the values to be combined, context independent variable behaviour operators (whose behaviour depends on the combined values), and context dependent operators (where the result depends also on some global knowledge like conflict, reliability of sources). This classification provides a guide for choosing an operator in a given problem. This choice can then be refined from the desired properties of the operators, from their decisiveness, and by examining how they deal with conflictual situations. These aspects are illustrated on simple examples in multispectral satellite imaging. In particular, we stress the interest of the third class for classification problems.