Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lumbar spine forces during manoeuvring of ceiling-based and floor-based patient transfer devices

Patient handling continues to represent a high risk task for low back pain (LBP) among health caregivers. Previous studies indicated that manual transfers of patients impose unacceptable loads on the spine even when two caregivers perform the transfer. Patient lift devices are considered a potential intervention; however, few biomechanical analyses have investigated the spine loads and LBP risk associated with these transfer devices. This study analysed the 3-D spine forces imposed upon the lumbar spine when 10 subjects manipulated ceiling-based and floor-based patient lifts through various patient handling conditions and manoeuvres. The results indicated that ceiling-mounted patient lift systems imposed spine forces upon the lumbar spine that would be considered safe, whereas floor-based patient handling systems had the potential to increase anterior/posterior shear forces to unacceptable levels during patient handling manoeuvres. Given these findings, ceiling-based lifts are preferable to floor-based patient transfer systems.
Energy spectra of the soft X-ray diffuse emission in fourteen fields observed with Suzaku

The soft diffuse X-ray emission of twelve fields observed with Suzaku are presented together with two additional fields from previous analyses. All have galactic longitudes 65 deg < l < 295 deg to avoid contributions from the very bright diffuse source that extends at least 30 deg from the Galactic center. The surface brightnesses of the Suzaku nine fields for which apparently uncontaminated ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) were available were statistically consistent with the RASS values, with an upper limit for differences of 17 x 10^{-6} c s^{-1} amin^{-2} in R45}-band. The Ovii and Oviii intensities are well correlated to each other, and Ovii emission shows an intensity floor at ~2 photons s^{-1} cm^{-2 str^{-1} (LU). The high-latitude Oviii emission shows a tight correlation with excess of Ovii emission above the floor, with (Oviii intensity) = 0.5 x [(Ovii intensity) -2 LU], suggesting that temperatures averaged over different line-of-sight show a narrow distribution around ~0.2 keV. We consider that the offset intensity of Ovii arises from the Heliospheric solar wind charge exchange and perhaps from the local hot bubble, and that the excess Ovii (2-7 LU) is emission from more distant parts of the Galaxy. The total bolometric luminosity of this galactic emission is estimated to be 4 x 10^{39} erg s^{-1}, and its characteristic temperature may be related to the virial temperature of the Galaxy.
Engineered exosome-mediated delivery of functionally active miR-26a and its enhanced suppression effect in HepG2 cells

Introduction Exosomes are closed-membrane nanovesicles that are secreted by a variety of cells and exist in most body fluids. Recent studies have demonstrated the potential of exosomes as natural vehicles that target delivery of functional small RNA and chemotherapeutics to diseased cells. Methods In this study, we introduce a new approach for the targeted delivery of exosomes loaded with functional miR-26a to scavenger receptor class B type 1-expressing liver cancer cells. The tumor cell-targeting function of these engineered exosomes was introduced by expressing in 293T cell hosts, the gene fusion between the transmembrane protein of CD63 and a sequence from Apo-A1. The exosomes harvested from these 293T cells were loaded with miR-26a via electroporation. Results The engineered exosomes were shown to bind selectively to HepG2 cells via the scavenger receptor class B type 1–Apo-A1 complex and then internalized by receptor-mediated endocytosis. The release of miR-26a in exosome-treated HepG2 cells upregulated miR-26a expression and decreased the rates of cell migration and proliferation. We also presented evidence that suggest cell growth was inhibited by miR-26a-mediated decreases in the amounts of key proteins that regulate the cell cycle. Conclusion Our gene delivery strategy can be adapted to treat a broad spectrum of cancers by expressing proteins on the surface of miRNA-loaded exosomes that recognize specific biomarkers on the tumor cell.
Diel movements of juvenile smalltooth sawfish: implications for defining the size of a nursery hotspot

Habitat use and movements of juvenile (<3 yr old) Critically Endangered smalltooth sawfish Pristis pectinata were studied in the Peace River nursery in southwest Florida to estimate the size of a known nursery hotspot (high-use area). A total of 23 smalltooth sawfish were tagged during the peak recruitment period of April and May 2014 and tracked until the end of September 2014 using passive acoustic monitoring. Active tracking was also used to estimate positions of individuals relative to the shoreline and major habitat types. During the day, sawfish <1500 mm stretch total length (STL; n = 11), representing <1-yr-old fish, and those between 1504 and 1881 mm STL (n = 12), representing ≥1-yr-old fish (1 to 3 yr old), remained along the northern shoreline of the river, in a protected cove. The younger age class remained closer (<25 m) to redmangrovedominated shorelines than did the older age class. At night, both age classes moved further away from the shoreline and away from the protected cove; the older individuals made the longest excursions (~5 km), toward the southern shoreline of the river. The discovery of these regular diel movements led to the expansion of the boundaries of the single recognized nursery hotspot in the Peace River, which was previously defined solely on daytime catch data. If another layer of protection is needed in the hotspots relative to other areas within the sawfish critical habitat, then defining the boundaries of the hotspots has implications with respect to management plans, federal permitting activities, and restoration opportunities.
Biosynthesis of Chlorogenic Acids in Growing and Ripening Fruits of Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora Plants

Chlorogenic acids are major secondary metabolites found in coffee seeds. The accumulation of chlorogenic acids and free quinic acids was studied in Coffea arabica cv. Tall Mokka and Coffea canephora seeds. Growth stages are specified from I to V, corresponding to rapid expansion and pericarp growth (I), endosperm formation (II), mature (green) (III), ripening (pink) (IV), and fully ripened (red) (V) stages. We detected monocaffeoylquinic acids (3CQA, 4CQA and 5CQA), dicaffeoylquinic acids (3,4diCQA, 3,5diCQA and 4,5diCQA) and a monoferuloylquinic acid (5FQA) in whole fruits (stage I), pericarps and seeds. The most abundant chlorogenic acid was 5CQA, which comprised 50-60% of the total of C. arabica and 45-50% of C. canephora seeds. The content of dicaffeoylquinic acid, mainly 3,5d diCQA, was high in C. canephora. A high content of 5FQA was found in seeds of stages III to V, especially in C. canephora. Total chlorogenic acids were accumulated up to 14 mg per fruit in C. arabica and 17 mg in C. canephora, respectively. In contrast, free quinic acid varied from 0.4-2.0 mg (C. arabica) and 0.2-4.0 mg (C. canephora) per fruit during growth. High biosynthetic activity of 5CQA, which was estimated via the incorporation of [U-14C]phenylalanine into chlorogenic acids, was found in young fruits (perisperm and pericarp) in stage I, and in developing seeds (endosperm) in stages II and III. The biosynthetic activity of chlorogenic acids was clearly reduced in ripening and ripe seeds, especially in C. canephora. Transcripts of PAL1, C3′H and CCoAMT, three genes related to the chlorogenic acid biosynthesis, were detected in every stage of growth, although the amounts were significantly less in stage V. Of these genes, CCoAMT, a gene for FQA biosynthesis, was expressed more weakly in stage I. The transcript level of CCoAMT was higher in seeds than in pericarp, but the reverse was found in PAL1. The pattern of expression of genes for the CQA and FQA synthesis is roughly related to the estimated biosynthetic activity, and to the accumulation pattern of chlorogenic acids.
Seismic Remote Sensing of Super Typhoon Lupit (2009) with Seismological Array Observation in NE China

The p-wave double-frequency (DF) microseisms generated by super typhoon Lupit (14–26 October 2009) over the western Pacific Ocean were detected by an on-land seismological array deployed in Northeastern China. We applied a frequency-domain beamforming method to investigate their source regions. Comparing with the best-track data and satellite observations, the located source regions of the p-wave DF microseisms, which corresponded to the strongest ocean wave–wave interactions, were found to be comparable to the typhoon centers in the microseismic frequency band of ~0.18–0.21 Hz. The p-wave DF microseisms were probably excited by the nonlinear interaction of ocean waves generated by the typhoon at different times, in good agreement with the Longuet–Higgins theory for the generation of DF microseisms. The localization deviation, which was ~120 km for typhoon Lupit in this study, might depend on the speed and direction of typhoon movement, the geometry of the seismological array, and the heterogeneity of the solid Earth structure. The p-wave DF microseisms generated in coastal source regions were also observed in the beamformer outputs, but with relatively lower dominant frequency band of ~0.14–0.16 Hz. These observations show that the p-wave DF microseisms generated near typhoon centers could be used as a seismic remote sensing proxy to locate and track typhoons over the oceans from under water in a near-real-time and continuous manner.
Seismic Behavior of Short Coupling Beams with Different Reinforcement Layouts

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete coupling beams. The reinforcement layout and the loading history were the main variables of the tests. Fifteen short coupling beams with four different reinforcement arrangements were tested. They were subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading by a suitable experimental setup. All specimens were characterized by a shear span-depth ratio of 0.75. The reinforcement layouts consisted of a classical scheme, diagonal scheme without confining ties, diagonal scheme with confining ties, and inclined bars to form a rhombic configuration. Concrete compressive strengths of the specimens varied from 40 MPa to 54 MPa. Test results showed that the beams with diagonal or rhombic reinforcement layouts behaved better than beams with longitudinal arrangement of the steel bars. These results were produced by the different resisting truss mechanisms that were developed in the coupling beams after the first cracking. The differences in energy dissipation were negligible between the diagonal and rhombic layouts. The rhombic arrangement, however, was more advantageous in terms of rotational ductility capacity and decay in strength and stiffness of the beams. Moreover, cyclic tests demonstrated that the behavior of the rhombic layout was less affected by the different loading histories.
Competition for Water and Light in Closed-Canopy Forests: A Tractable Model of Carbon Allocation with Implications for Carbon Sinks

The dependence of forest productivity and community composition on rainfall is the result of complex interactions at multiple scales, from the physiology of carbon gain and water loss to competition among individuals and species. In an effort to understand the role of these multiscale interactions in the dependence of forest structure on rainfall, we build a tractable model of individual plant competition for water and light. With game-theoretic analyses, we predict the dominant plant allocation strategy, forest productivity, and carbon storage. We find that the amount and timing of rainfall are critical to forest structure. Comparing two forests that differ only in the total time plants spend in water saturation, the model predicts that the wetter forest has fewer fine roots, more leaves, and more woody biomass than the drier forest. In contrast, if two forests differ only in the amount of water available during water limitation, the model predicts that the wetter forest has more fine roots than the drier forest and equivalent leaves and woody biomass. The difference in these responses to increases in water availability has significant implications for potential carbon sinks with rising atmospheric CO2. We predict that enhanced productivity from increased leaf-level water-use efficiency during water limitation will be allocated to fine roots if plants respond competitively, producing only a small and short-lived carbon sink.
Calculating the Berry curvature of Bloch electrons using the KKR method

We propose and implement a particularly effective method for calculating the Berry curvature arising from adiabatic evolution of Bloch states in wave vector k space. The method exploits a unique feature of the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker (KKR) approach to solve the Schr\"odinger or Dirac equations. Namely, it is based on the observation that in the KKR method k enters the calculation via the structure constants which depend only on the geometry of the lattice but not the crystal potential. For both the Abelian and non-Abelian Berry curvature we derive an analytic formula whose evaluation does not require any numerical differentiation with respect to k. We present explicit calculations for Al, Cu, Au, and Pt bulk crystals.
Changes in the content of immunostimulating components of colostrum obtained from dairy cows at different levels of production.

BACKGROUND Recent data indicate that almost 60% of colostrum samples do not have enough antibodies to provide adequate protection for the calf. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the influence of the level of production of cows on the content of immunostimulating components of protein fraction of colostrum. The observations were conducted on two farms that keep dairy cows. One of the farms was selected to represent a typical performance level for the mass population of dairy cows in Poland, about 5500 kg of milk per cow per year (LI) and the second one was characterized by a higher level of production, about 8000 kg (HI). RESULTS Based on the data obtained, 100% of the samples collected from LI had an immunoglobulin G (IgG) content >50 gL-1 , in the first collection. In the case of HI, 63% of the samples had an IgG content >50 gL-1 , with a distribution in the range of 10.7 to 72.7 gL-1 . The colostrum of LI cows was characterized by a higher content of lactoferrin, lysozyme, α-lactalbumin, and β-lactoglobulin compared to the milk of HI cows. CONCLUSIONS The immunostimulating components of colostrum declined rapidly in subsequent milkings or with the increased productivity of the cows. The concentration of IgG was negatively correlated with the performance level of cows, which means that high-producing cows had colostrum with a low concentration of IgG. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.
High-Resolution Imaging of Molecular Line Emission from High-Redshift QSOs

We present moderate- (1″) and high-resolution (0.″2) observations of the CO (2–1) emission at 43 GHz and radio continuum emission at 1.47 GHz from the z = 4.7 QSO BRI 1202-0725 and the z = 4.4 QSO BRI 1335-0417 using the Very Large Array. The moderate-resolution observations show that in both cases the CO emission is spatially resolved into two components separated by 1″ for BRI 1335-0417 and 4″ for BRI 1202-0725. The high-resolution observations show that each component has substructure on scales ∼0. ″2–0. ″5, with intrinsic brightness temperatures ≥20 K. The CO ladder from (2–1) up to (7–6) suggests a high kinetic temperature for the gas (Tkin ≃ 70 K) and a high column density [N(H2) ≃ 1024 cm-2]. In both sources the continuum-to-line ratio is LFIR/L ≃ 335. All these characteristics (brightness temperature, excitation temperature, column density, and continuum-to-line ratio) are comparable to conditions found in low-redshift, ultraluminous nuclear starburst galaxies. We find that the CO-emitting regions in BRI 1202-0725 and BRI 1335-0417 must be close to face-on in order to avoid having the gas mass exceed the gravitational mass, implying perhaps unreasonably large rotational velocities. While this problem is mitigated by lowering the CO luminosity–to–H2 mass conversion factor (X), the required X values become comparable to, or lower than, the minimum values dictated by optically thin CO emission. We considered the possibility of magnification by gravitational lensing in order to reduce the molecular gas masses.
Biosorption of Ni 2 + and Cd 2 + from Aqueous Solutions Using NaOH-Treated Biomass of Eupenicillium ludwigii : Equilibrium and Mechanistic Studies

The removal of Ni2+ and Cd2+ ions by Eupenicillium ludwigii biomass was studied in a batch system. The optimum pH for the biosorption was 6 for Ni2+ and 5 for Cd2+. Temperature changes in the range from 15 ̊C to 40 ̊C affected the biosorption capacity, and the nature of the reaction was found to be endothermic for both metal ions. HCl was the best desorbing agent for the desorption of both metals. Chemical modifications of the biomass demonstrated that carboxyl and amine groups played an important role in Ni2+ and Cd2+ biosorption. Ion exchange mechanism was also suggested in the biosorption process.
Stem cell-based therapies to treat spinal cord injury: a review

: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition and major burden on society and individuals. Currently, neurorestorative strategies, including stem cell therapy products or mature/ functionally differentiated cell-derived cell therapy products, can restore patients with chronic complete SCI to some degree of neurological functions. The stem cells for neurorestoration include neural stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, etc. A better understanding of the merits, demerits and precise function of different stem cells in the treatment of SCI may aid in the development of neurorestorative strategies
Accuracy of the Spot Sign on Computed Tomography Angiography as a Predictor of Haematoma Enlargement after Acute Spontaneous Intracerebral Haemorrhage: A Systematic Review

Background: A common early complication of intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) is haematoma enlargement (HE), a strong independent predictor of a poor outcome. Therapeutic options to limit haematoma progression are currently scarce. Haemostatic therapy may be effective in patients with ICH, but it carries the risk of thromboembolic events in unselected patients. Accurate patient selection would, therefore, be of key importance for delivering potentially successful therapeutic strategies. Currently, there is no gold standard to accurately predict HE. The presence of contrast extravasation within the haematoma on computed tomography angiography (CTA), the ‘spot sign', has been reported in several studies and seems a particularly promising marker but lacks a standardised evaluation so far. Summary: We conducted a systematic review of published data to address the research question: In adults with acute spontaneous ICH, how accurately does the spot sign predict HE on follow-up imaging and thus poor functional outcome or mortality? We searched PubMed and Embase databases (from 1980 to May 2012), using a highly sensitive search strategy and including all studies involving adult patients with spontaneous ICH evaluated with CTA and follow-up CT scans, reporting any measure of clinical outcome, and reporting or allowing calculation of accuracy measures of the spot sign in predicting HE and clinical outcome. Baseline characteristics, accuracy measures and effect measures, as well as bias assessment, were reported according to PRISMA recommendations. The quality of the studies was appraised using an adapted version of the REMARK reporting recommendations. From 259 potentially relevant studies, we finally selected 6 studies (1 of them was a multicentre cohort study) covering a total of 709 patients. Studies varied substantially in terms of size, methodological quality, definitions of terms, outcomes selected and results. In particular, definition of the spot sign was not consistent in all studies. Furthermore, the only outcome measure consistently available was HE, while definitions and analyses of clinical outcomes seemed not adequate. Lastly, the choice of candidate variables for univariate and multivariate analyses did not include all determinants of HE and poor functional outcome. High heterogeneity was demonstrated (I2: 94% for HE) with substantial potential of bias. Key Messages: Studies of the spot sign are diverse and therefore complex to interpret. Our research question could not be answered due to heterogeneity and potential of bias in the selected studies. Further appropriately powered studies using standardised definitions and taking all predictors of HE and poor clinical outcome into account are required for a proper clinical implementation.
Dietary patterns of Hispanic elders are associated with acculturation and obesity.

The association of dietary patterns and obesity, particularly in Hispanics, is relatively poorly understood. This large U.S. population subgroup has a high prevalence of obesity and associated chronic conditions, and Hispanics are changing their dietary practices as they acculturate. Our objectives were 1) to identify dietary patterns among elderly Hispanics in Massachusetts, compared with those of non-Hispanic whites; 2) to associate dietary patterns with acculturation; and 3) to associate dietary patterns with total and central obesity. We used a representative sample of 449 Puerto Rican and 133 Dominican elders and a neighborhood-based sample of 243 non-Hispanic white elders, aged 60 to 92 y, from the cross-sectional Massachusetts Hispanic Elders Study. Obesity and central obesity were assessed with BMI (kg/m2) and waist circumference measurement, respectively. Acculturation was assessed by evaluating language use. Usual diet was assessed with a food frequency questionnaire specifically designed for use with this population. Dietary patterns were defined by cluster analysis of food group variables. We identified five clusters of individuals by dietary pattern, with proportionately greater energy intake from 1) fruit and breakfast cereal, 2) starchy vegetables, 3) rice, 4) whole milk and 5) sweets, respectively. Hispanics were less likely to follow the fruit and cereal or sweets patterns, and more likely to follow the starchy vegetables or milk patterns, than were non-Hispanic whites. Only Hispanics followed the rice pattern. Among Hispanics, acculturation was positively associated with the fruit and cereal pattern, and negatively with the rice pattern. Total and central obesity were positively associated with the rice pattern. Longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the causal nature of these associations.