Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bioenergy feedstock‐specific enrichment of microbial populations during high‐solids thermophilic deconstruction

Thermophilic microbial communities that are active in a high‐solids environment offer great potential for the discovery of industrially relevant enzymes that efficiently deconstruct bioenergy feedstocks. In this study, finished green waste compost was used as an inoculum source to enrich microbial communities and associated enzymes that hydrolyze cellulose and hemicellulose during thermophilic high‐solids fermentation of the bioenergy feedstocks switchgrass and corn stover. Methods involving the disruption of enzyme and plant cell wall polysaccharide interactions were developed to recover xylanase and endoglucanase activity from deconstructed solids. Xylanase and endoglucanase activity increased by more than a factor of 5, upon four successive enrichments on switchgrass. Overall, the changes for switchgrass were more pronounced than for corn stover; solids reduction between the first and second enrichments increased by a factor of four for switchgrass while solids reduction remained relatively constant for corn stover. Amplicon pyrosequencing analysis of small‐subunit ribosomal RNA genes recovered from enriched samples indicated rapid changes in the microbial communities between the first and second enrichment with the simplified communities achieved by the third enrichment. The results demonstrate a successful approach for enrichment of unique microbial communities and enzymes active in a thermophilic high‐solids environment. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2011;108:2088–2098. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Clinical, patient-related, and economic outcomes of home-based high-dose hemodialysis versus conventional in-center hemodialysis

Despite technological advances in renal replacement therapy, the preservation of health and quality of life for individuals on dialysis still remains a challenge. The high morbidity and mortality in dialysis warrant further research and insight into the clinical domains of the technique and practice of this therapy. In the last 20 years, the focus of development in the field of hemodialysis (HD) has centered around adequate removal of urea and other associated toxins. High-dose HD offers an opportunity to improve mortality, morbidity, and quality of life of patients with end-stage kidney disease. However, the uptake of this modality is low, and the risk associated with the therapy is not fully understood. Recent studies have highlighted the evidence base and improved our understanding of this technique of dialysis. This article provides a review of high-dose and home HD, its clinical impact on patient outcome, and the controversies that exist.
Corrosion monitoring of flexural reinforced concrete members under service loads using distributed long-gauge carbon fiber sensors

Currently, corrosion of steel reinforcements is a major topic for several researchers because of the early deterioration and shortening of the service life of structures, particularly those prone to salt attacks. This study proposes a new technique for monitoring corrosion of steel reinforcements in flexural reinforced concrete structures using distributed embedded long-gauge packaged carbon fiber line sensors with self-compensation under service loads. Three different approaches including continuous-strain ratio, distributed-strain ratio, and section fiber model were proposed to evaluate corrosion levels using strain measurements. Different groups of distributed packaged carbon fiber line sensors were installed on the concrete surface and steel reinforcements of the reinforced concrete beam to verify the proposed approaches experimentally using the accelerated corrosion technique. The sensors installed on the concrete surface affected by cracks can only localize the corrosion locations but are unable to determine the actual values of corrosion levels. The degree of corrosion calculated using each approach was compared with the weight loss of an experimental corrosion model. The results showed that the continuous-strain ratio approach will be suitable to localize and evaluate the corrosion degrees if corrosion occurs before the formation of cracks, while the distributed-strain ratio is more effective in the presence of cracks. In highly damaged conditions, the section fiber model will be the most accurate method to evaluate and localize corrosion in steel reinforcements.
Soil Respiration in Different Agricultural and Natural Ecosystems in an Arid Region

The variation of different ecosystems on the terrestrial carbon balance is predicted to be large. We investigated a typical arid region with widespread saline/alkaline soils, and evaluated soil respiration of different agricultural and natural ecosystems. Soil respiration for five ecosystems together with soil temperature, soil moisture, soil pH, soil electric conductivity and soil organic carbon content were investigated in the field. Comparing with the natural ecosystems, the mean seasonal soil respiration rates of the agricultural ecosystems were 96%–386% higher and agricultural ecosystems exhibited lower CO2 absorption by the saline/alkaline soil. Soil temperature and moisture together explained 48%, 86%, 84%, 54% and 54% of the seasonal variations of soil respiration in the five ecosystems, respectively. There was a significant negative relationship between soil respiration and soil electrical conductivity, but a weak correlation between soil respiration and soil pH or soil organic carbon content. Our results showed that soil CO2 emissions were significantly different among different agricultural and natural ecosystems, although we caution that this was an observational, not manipulative, study. Temperature at the soil surface and electric conductivity were the main driving factors of soil respiration across the five ecosystems. Care should be taken when converting native vegetation into cropland from the point of view of greenhouse gas emissions.
Breath acetone concentration decreases with blood glucose concentration in type I diabetes mellitus patients during hypoglycaemic clamps

Conventional wisdom is that breath acetone may be markedly elevated in type 1 diabetes, but that this only occurs during poor blood glucose control and/or intercurrent illness. In contrast, little is known about breath acetone at more representative everyday blood glucose levels in diabetes. We used selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry to monitor the breath of eight patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus during ‘insulin clamp’ studies in which insulin and glucose were infused into patients to lower blood glucose levels in steps from normal values into the low glucose (hypoglycaemic) range. The concentration of acetone in breath and the blood sugar concentration of the patients were monitored at each blood glucose concentration. The blood glucose level at the start of the study was typically about 6 mM L−1, whereas the breath acetone concentration at this blood glucose level was unexpectedly variable, ranging from 1 part-per-million to 21 ppm, in contrast to what was previously believed, i.e. that type 1 diabetes mellitus is characterized by high acetone levels. In all eight patients, the breath acetone declined linearly with blood glucose concentration.
Extracellular vesicles from human cardiac progenitor cells inhibit cardiomyocyte apoptosis and improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction.

AIMS Recent evidence suggests that cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) may improve cardiac function after injury. The underlying mechanisms are indirect, but their mediators remain unidentified. Exosomes and other secreted membrane vesicles, hereafter collectively referred to as extracellular vesicles (EVs), act as paracrine signalling mediators. Here, we report that EVs secreted by human CPCs are crucial cardioprotective agents. METHODS AND RESULTS CPCs were derived from atrial appendage explants from patients who underwent heart valve surgery. CPC-conditioned medium (CM) inhibited apoptosis in mouse HL-1 cardiomyocytic cells, while enhancing tube formation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. These effects were abrogated by depleting CM of EVs. They were reproduced by EVs secreted by CPCs, but not by those secreted by human dermal fibroblasts. Transmission electron microscopy and nanoparticle tracking analysis showed most EVs to be 30-90 nm in diameter, the size of exosomes, although smaller and larger vesicles were also present. MicroRNAs most highly enriched in EVs secreted by CPCs compared with fibroblasts included miR-210, miR-132, and miR-146a-3p. miR-210 down-regulated its known targets, ephrin A3 and PTP1b, inhibiting apoptosis in cardiomyocytic cells. miR-132 down-regulated its target, RasGAP-p120, enhancing tube formation in endothelial cells. Infarcted hearts injected with EVs from CPCs, but not from fibroblasts, exhibited less cardiomyocyte apoptosis, enhanced angiogenesis, and improved LV ejection fraction (0.8 ± 6.8 vs. -21.3 ± 4.5%; P < 0.05) compared with those injected with control medium. CONCLUSION EVs are the active component of the paracrine secretion by human CPCs. As a cell-free approach, EVs could circumvent many of the limitations of cell transplantation.
Short Communication Endomorphins, Met-enkephalin, Tyr-mif-1, and the P-glycoprotein Efflux System after Injection of Endomorphin-1 (tyr-pro-trp-phe-nh 2 ), Endo- Morphin-2 (tyr-pro-phe-phe-nh 2 ), Met-enkephalin (tyr-gly-gly- Phe-met-oh), and Tyr-mif-1 (tyr-pro-leu-gly-nh 2 ) into the Lateral Ventri

The P-glycoprotein (P-gp) transport system, responsible for the efflux of many therapeutic drugs out of the brain, recently has been shown to transport the endogenous brain opiate endorphin. We used P-gp knockout mice (Mdr1a) and their controls to determine where P-gp is involved in the saturable efflux systems of four other endogenous opiate-modulating peptides across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). the disappearance of any of these peptides from the brains of knockout mice compared with their controls. This demonstrates that unlike endorphin and morphine, P-gp does not seem to be required for the brain-to-blood transport of the endomorphins, Met-enkephalin, or Tyr-MIF-1 across the BBB. P-Glycoprotein (P-gp 1) is a transport protein expressed at the capillary endothelial cells that make up the blood-brain barrier (BBB). It can transport a large variety of drugs out of the brain, contributing to what misleadingly seems to be their poor penetration of the BBB Knockout mice have been developed for P-gp, which is encoded in the Mdr1a (multidrug resistance 1a) gene (Schinkel et al., 1994). These mice manifest no basic physiological abnormalities (Schinkel et al., 1997), maintain BBB integrity (de Lange et al., 1998), but show increased opiate-induced analgesia (Thompson et al., 2000) and limited transport of morphine (Xie et al., 1999). Recently, the P-gp system was implicated in the transport of i.c. v. administered endor-phin from the brain into the blood (King et al., 2001), raising the possibility that other endogenous brain opiates might be similarly transported. Endomorphin has higher affinity and is more selective for the ␮-opiate receptor than endorphin (Zadina et al., 1997). A saturable brain-to-blood efflux system has been found for both endomorphin-1 and endomorphin-2 (Kastin et al., 2001). This shared transport system is not cross-inhibited by Tyr-MIF-1, another opiate-modulating tet-rapeptide, which, like the endomorphins, we have isolated from brain tissue (Zadina et al., 1989; Hackler et al., 1995). Tyr-MIF-1 has the first saturable transport system across the BBB to be described for a peptide (Banks and Kastin, 1984); it is extremely stable in cerebro-spinal fluid, and its efflux system does not transport any of the peptide fragments contained within the tetrapeptide even though the transporter is shared with Met-enkephalin (Banks et al., 1986, 1990; Kastin et al., 1994). We investigated whether the P-gp system is involved in the transport of the endomorphins, Met-enkephalin, and Tyr-MIF-1. Materials and Methods Male P-gp knockout mice lacking the Mdr1a gene and their male FVB controls were …
Alarm correlation and network fault resolution using the Kohonen self-organising map

A vital role for a large telecommunications operator is the ability to effectively manage its network. With increasing system size, complexity and bandwidth threatening to overload current management systems, it is no surprise that network management is a high priority for leading telecommunications providers. In this paper, a novel approach to fault management is investigated in which the advantages of artificial neural network technologies are used to complement and extend the capability of traditional systems. In particular, it is shown how a system based on Kohonen (1990) self-organising map theory can be successfully implemented as a means of identifying fault scenarios arising in an SDH-based environment.
Patient-derived stem cells: pathways to drug discovery for brain diseases

The concept of drug discovery through stem cell biology is based on technological developments whose genesis is now coincident. The first is automated cell microscopy with concurrent advances in image acquisition and analysis, known as high content screening (HCS). The second is patient-derived stem cells for modeling the cell biology of brain diseases. HCS has developed from the requirements of the pharmaceutical industry for high throughput assays to screen thousands of chemical compounds in the search for new drugs. HCS combines new fluorescent probes with automated microscopy and computational power to quantify the effects of compounds on cell functions. Stem cell biology has advanced greatly since the discovery of genetic reprograming of somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). There is now a rush of papers describing their generation from patients with various diseases of the nervous system. Although the majority of these have been genetic diseases, iPSCs have been generated from patients with complex diseases (schizophrenia and sporadic Parkinson’s disease). Some genetic diseases are also modeled in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) generated from blastocysts rejected during in vitro fertilization. Neural stem cells have been isolated from post-mortem brain of Alzheimer’s patients and neural stem cells generated from biopsies of the olfactory organ of patients is another approach. These “olfactory neurosphere-derived” cells demonstrate robust disease-specific phenotypes in patients with schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. HCS is already in use to find small molecules for the generation and differentiation of ESCs and iPSCs. The challenges for using stem cells for drug discovery are to develop robust stem cell culture methods that meet the rigorous requirements for repeatable, consistent quantities of defined cell types at the industrial scale necessary for HCS.
Is language a barrier to the use of preventive services?

To isolate the effect of spoken language from financial barriers to care, we examined the relation of language to use of preventive services in a system with universal access. Cross-sectional survey. Household population of women living in Ontario, Canada, in 1990. Subjects were 22,448 women completing the 1990 Ontario Health Survey, a population-based random sample of households. We defined language as the language spoken in the home and assessed self-reported receipt of breast examination, mammogram and Pap testing. We used logistic regression to calculate odds ratios for each service adjusting for potential sources of confounding: socioeconomic characteristics, contact with the health care system, and measures reflecting culture. Ten percent of the women spoke a non-English language at home (4% French. 6% other). After adjustment, compared with English speakers, French-speaking women were significantly less likely to receive breast exams or mammography, and other language speakers were less likely to receive Pap testing. Women whose main spoken language was not English were less likely to receive important preventive services. Improving communication with patients with limited English may enhance participation in screening programs.
Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography

Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a noninvasive approach that can visualize blood vessels down to the capillary level. With the advent of high-speed OCT and efficient algorithms, practical OCTA of ocular circulation is now available to ophthalmologists. Clinical investigations that used OCTA have increased exponentially in the past few years. This review will cover the history of OCTA and survey its most important clinical applications. The salient problems in the interpretation and analysis of OCTA are described, and recent advances are highlighted.
PML Regulates Apoptosis at Endoplasmic Reticulum by Modulating Calcium Release

Promoting Apoptosis During acute disease, the promyelocytic leukemia (PML) protein becomes fused to another protein as a result of a chromosomal translocation. This protein appears to have multiple and varied functions, including the ability to form distinctive complexes in the nucleus that suppress tumorigenesis and promote apoptotic cell death. Giorgi et al. (p. 1247, published online 28 October; see the Perspective by Culjkovic-Kraljacic and Borden) have proposed a mechanism by which PML influences the cellular signals that promote apoptosis. The protein was localized at sites of contact between the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria, where it associated with a calcium channel, a protein kinase, and a protein phosphatase, to regulate calcium mobilization into the mitochondrion, which then triggers the cell death program. The promyelocytic leukemia protein likely influences apoptosis by influencing a calcium channel in the endoplasmic reticulum. The promyelocytic leukemia (PML) tumor suppressor is a pleiotropic modulator of apoptosis. However, the molecular basis for such a diverse proapoptotic role is currently unknown. We show that extranuclear Pml was specifically enriched at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and at the mitochondria-associated membranes, signaling domains involved in ER-to-mitochondria calcium ion (Ca2+) transport and in induction of apoptosis. We found Pml in complexes of large molecular size with the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor (IP3R), protein kinase Akt, and protein phosphatase 2a (PP2a). Pml was essential for Akt- and PP2a-dependent modulation of IP3R phosphorylation and in turn for IP3R-mediated Ca2+ release from ER. Our findings provide a mechanistic explanation for the pleiotropic role of Pml in apoptosis and identify a pharmacological target for the modulation of Ca2+ signals.
Secure attachment promotes the development of effortful control in boys

Although effortful control (EC), a regulatory aspect of temperament, is associated with a wide range of developmental outcomes, knowledge about EC promoters is scarce. This study explored whether secure attachment promoted the development of EC from preschool to school age in a community sample of 903 Norwegian children. EC was measured using the parent-reported Children’s Behavior Questionnaire at four (T1) and six (T2) years of age, and attachment was measured using the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task at T1. Previous research has indicated that a child’s gender and socioeconomic status are possible covariates of EC; hence, these factors were included in the analyses. Despite considerable rank-order stability in EC, secure attachment contributed to an increase in EC. Furthermore, gender moderated the effect of attachment: secure attachment promoted EC in boys only. These findings emphasize preschool boys’ need for emotional security to facilitate effortful capacities in their transition to school.
Learning the Structure of Task-Driven Human-Human Dialogs

Data-driven techniques have been used for many computational linguistics tasks. Models derived from data are generally more robust than hand-crafted systems since they better reflect the distribution of the phenomena being modeled. With the availability of large corpora of spoken dialog, dialog management is now reaping the benefits of data-driven techniques. In this paper, we compare two approaches to modeling subtask structure in dialog: a chunk-based model of subdialog sequences, and a parse-based, or hierarchical, model. We evaluate these models using customer agent dialogs from a catalog service domain.
Patient Centered Long-Term Care

Drawing upon an individual's needs, values, and expectations to guide decisionmaking and care giving is integral to long-term care (LTC). Articles in this issue demonstrate that client values and preferences can be elicited and used to guide decisionmaking about LTC. Service delivery and payment features can be shaped to support the patient/consumer, as well as to support and strengthen her or his informal caregivers. Significant constraints to making LTC more client centered are also identified. Key issues relate to the availability of and methods to process information as well as pressures on provider staff that impede their ability to support clients and their families. More broadly, access to appropriate LTC services is being shaped by programmatic shifts and legal forces that may enhance or impede the ability to place patients/clients at the center of LTC.
Flatfoot in the Adult

&NA; Flatfoot in the adult has long been a poorly understood “wastebasket” diagnosis, often used to unfairly deny asymptomatic individuals equal employment opportunities in our society. Now that flatfoot has been classified into a variety of congenital and acquired conditions, the parameters for assessment have been well defined, and rational treatment protocols have been established. Clearly, if the foot painlessly supinates/inverts to become a rigid lever for push‐off and pronates/everts to absorb stress during stance, then it “functions normally” no matter what the height of the arch. However, the biomechanically offset position of pes planus with excessive heel valgus coupled with rigidity or instability can alter the connected interplay of the bones of the foot and weaken the entire kinetic chain of the lower extremity. Careful clinical and radiographic evaluation, coupled with a thorough understanding of the anatomy and biomechanics of the foot, will allow accurate evaluation and appropriate treatment.
The evolution of iSchool movement (1988-2013): A bibliometric view

The iSchool movement is a controversial topic within the library and information science (LIS) community. While some argue that the movement isolates small size schools and splits the LIS community others insist it will broaden the field of LIS and form an open and boundaryless iField. This study investigates the evolution of the iSchool movement by analyzing the trends of subject terms in LIS doctoral dissertations since 1970s. The results indicate that the iSchool movement reflects the trend of LIS in terms of the change of the dominant research topics and the degree of interdisciplinarity.