Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MALDI TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROMETRY OF SYNTHETIC POLYMERS

Mass spectrometry of intact synthetic polymers has been limited to field desorption (FD) MS for many years. More recently, soft ionization techniques such as electrospray (ESI) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and the revival of time-of-flight analyzers created new opportunities for the characterization of polymers. In this review emphasis is put on MALDI time-of-flight mass spectrometry of polymers. The selection of an appropriate MALDI matrix, cationization salt and sample preparation techniques are critical success factors for obtaining a reliable mass spectrum and to infer structural information such as monomer mass(es) and end-groups. However even under optimized conditions mass discrimination in the analysis of polydisperse polymers and specific oligomer discrimination might occur. Hence hyphenated techniques such as size exclusion chromatography (SEC)/MALDI have been developed. Many different polymer applications appeared in recent literature, but most studies deal with homopolymers. Many challenges remain, particularly in the fields of halogenated polymers, polyolefines, copolymers, blends, and in the sequencing of block-copolymers. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Mass Spec Rev 18: 309–344, 1999
Psychological symptom profile of butchers working in slaughterhouse and retail meat packing business: a comparative study.

In this study we aimed to test the hypothesis that butchers have more psychological problems than any other occupation. For this purpose, we applied SCL-90-R (Symptom Check List-90 Revised) to 43 butchers working in a slaughterhouse and 39 butchers working in meat processing or packing in supermarkets, and as a control group 82 office workers. In the research, a statistical significance between butchers and the control group in that the Global Severity Index (GSI) scores (P<0.001) was found. In terms of the GSI scores, there was no significant relationship between the slaughter house workers and the supermarket workers at P<0.05. However, there were significant relationships among the somatization, anxiety, anger-hostility, and psychotism (P<0.01). As a result, when comparing the two groups, butchers, especially those who work in slaughterhouses, have higher levels of psychological disorders than the office workers.
Compression stockings reduce the incidence of hypotension but not that of cerebral desaturation events in the beach-chair position: a randomized controlled trial

Background The beach-chair position (BCP) results in decreases in venous return, cardiac output, and cerebral perfusion pressure. In this randomized, prospective study, we investigated whether applying thigh-high compression stockings affected the maintenance of regional cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (rSO2) in the BCP. Methods Patients undergoing orthopedic surgery in the BCP under general anesthesia were included and assigned randomly to the control or the compression stocking group. Appropriately sized thigh-high compression stockings were applied to the patients in the stockings group. All patients were tilted, up to 45°, throughout the operation. Non-invasive blood pressure, invasive arterial blood pressure zeroed at the external auditory meatus, and rSO2 were recorded. Results Data were analyzed from 19 patients per group. In the BCP, the values of rSO2 and blood pressure decreased significantly compared with those at baseline, with no significant difference between the groups. The incidences of cerebral desaturation events (CDEs) were similar between the groups; however, that of hypotension was significantly lower in the compression stocking group. During 36 CDEs, the levels of rSO2 and blood pressure decreased significantly compared with those at baseline in both groups. No significant correlation was found between rSO2 and blood pressure. Conclusions Thigh-high compression stockings reduced the incidence of hypotension but not that of CDEs. Our results suggest that other factors, beyond hypotension itself, contribute to CDEs and in other words, efforts just to reduce the incidence of hypotension may not mainly contribute to a reduction of CDEs occurrence in the BCP under general anesthesia.
Sex effects on short-term complications after hip fracture: a prospective cohort study

Objectives To evaluate potential sex differences and other factors associated with complications within 4 months after a hip fracture. Methods A total of 1,915 patients ≥65 years (480 men) with hip fracture were consecutively included in a prospective multicenter cohort study. A review of medical records and patient interviews according to a study protocol based on the Standardized Audit of Hip Fractures in Europe (SAHFE, RIKSHÖFT) was performed. Sex differences in comorbidity according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists score and complications 4 months after a hip fracture were registered. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors related to complications. Results Male sex was associated with worse general health according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists classification (P=0.005) and with more comorbidities (P<0.001). Male sex emerged as a risk factor for developing pneumonia (P<0.001), and additionally, 18% of the men suffered from cardiac complications compared with 13% of the females (P=0.018). Female sex was predisposed for urinary tract infections, 30% vs 23% in males (P=0.001). Mortality was higher in the male vs female group, both within 30 days (15% vs 10%, P=0.001) and at 4 months (24% vs 14%, P=0.001). Conditions associated with pneumonia were male sex, pulmonary disease, and cognitive impairment. Cardiac complications were associated with delayed surgery and cardiovascular and pulmonary disease. Conclusion Before surgery, men with hip fracture already have a poorer health status and higher comorbidity rate than women, thus resulting in a twofold increased risk of pneumonia. Cognitive dysfunction and pulmonary disease contributed to pneumonia in men. Delayed surgery seems to increase the risk for cardiac complications. It is important to consider the sex perspective early on together with cardiopulmonary comorbidity and cognitive dysfunction to be able to counteract serious complications that may lead to death.
Interspecific geographic range size–body size relationship and the diversification dynamics of Neotropical furnariid birds

Among the earliest macroecological patterns documented, is the range and body size relationship, characterized by a minimum geographic range size imposed by the species’ body size. This boundary for the geographic range size increases linearly with body size and has been proposed to have implications in lineages evolution and conservation. Nevertheless, the macroevolutionary processes involved in the origin of this boundary and its consequences on lineage diversification have been poorly explored. We evaluate the macroevolutionary consequences of the difference (hereafter the distance) between the observed and the minimum range sizes required by the species’ body size, to untangle its role on the diversification of a Neotropical species‐rich bird clade using trait‐dependent diversification models. We show that speciation rate is a positive hump‐shaped function of the distance to the lower boundary. The species with highest and lowest distances to minimum range size had lower speciation rates, while species close to medium distances values had the highest speciation rates. Further, our results suggest that the distance to the minimum range size is a macroevolutionary constraint that affects the diversification process responsible for the origin of this macroecological pattern in a more complex way than previously envisioned.
How to capture the full extent of price stickiness in credit card interest rates

We present a new approach to evaluate the full extent of price stickiness in credit card interest rates by modifying the existing asymmetric models so that they can be adopted for testing both the amount and adjustment asymmetries as well as the lagged dynamic inertia. Consistent with similar studies, banks behave asymmetrically in response to changes in the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) target interest rate. Rate rises are passed onto the consumer faster than rate cuts and the credit card interest rate showed a very significant degree of downward rigidity. Based on the magnitude of the pass-through parameters obtained from short-run dynamic models, rate rises had a full one-to-one and instantaneous impact on credit card interest rates. However, in absolute terms the short-run effects of rate cuts were not only less than half of the rate rises but also were delayed on average by three months.
Reclaiming, proclaiming, and maintaining collective identity in the #YoSoy132 movement in Mexico: an examination of digital frontstage and backstage activism through social media and instant messaging platforms

This article starts from the recognition that digital social movements studies have progressively disregarded collective identity and the importance of internal communicative dynamics in contemporary social movements, in favour of the study of the technological affordances and the organizational capabilities of social media. Based on a two-year multimodal ethnography of the Mexican #YoSoy132 movement, the article demonstrates that the concept of collective identity is still able to yield relevant insights into the study of current movements, especially in connection with the use of social media platforms. Through the appropriations of social media, Mexican students were able to oppose the negative identification fabricated by the PRI party, reclaim their agency and their role as heirs of a long tradition of rebellion, generate collective identification processes, and find ‘comfort zones’ to lower the costs of activism, reinforcing their internal cohesion and solidarity. The article stresses the importance of the internal communicative dynamics that develop in the backstage of social media (Facebook chats and groups) and through instant messaging services (WhatsApp), thus rediscovering the pivotal linkage between collective identity and internal communication that characterized the first wave of research on digital social movements. The findings point out how that internal cohesion and collective identity are fundamentally shaped and reinforced in the social media backstage by practices of ‘ludic activism’, which indicates that social media represent not only the organizational backbone of contemporary social movements, but also multifaceted ecologies where a new, expressive and humorous ‘communicative resistance grammar’ emerges.
Direct esthetic restorations based on translucency and opacity of composite resins.

UNLABELLED Light dynamics is a relevant phenomenon with respect to esthetic restorations, as incorrect analysis of the optical behavior of natural dentition may lead to potential clinical failures. The nature of incident light plays a major role in determining the amount of light transmission or reflection, and how an object is perceived depends on the nature of the light source. Natural teeth demonstrate translucency, opalescence, and fluorescence, all of which must be replicated by restorative materials in order to achieve clinical success. Translucency is the intermediary between complete opacity and complete transparency, making its analysis highly subjective. In nature, the translucency of dental enamel varies from tooth to tooth, and from individual to individual. Therefore, four important factors must be considered when appraising translucency. Presence or absence of color, thickness of the enamel, degree of translucency, and surface texture are essential components when determining translucency. State-of-the-art resin composites provide varying shades and opacities that deliver a more faithful reproduction of the chromaticity and translucency/opacity of enamel and dentin. This enables the attainment of individualized and customized composite restorations. The objective of this article is to provide a review of the phenomena of translucency and opacity in the natural dentition and composite resins, under the scope of optics, and to describe how to implement these concepts in the clinical setting. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Choosing composite resins, based on optical properties alone, in order to mimic the properties of natural tooth structures, does not necessarily provide a satisfactory esthetic outcome. In many instances, failure ensues from incorrect analysis of the optical behaviors of the natural dentition as well as the improper use of restorative materials. Therefore, it is necessary to implement a technique that enables a restorative material to be utilized to its full potential to correctly replicate the natural teeth.
Inhibitors of neutrophil recruitment identified using transgenic zebrafish to screen a natural product library

Cell migration is fundamental to the inflammatory response, but uncontrolled cell migration and excess recruitment of neutrophils and other leukocytes can cause damage to the tissue. Here we describe the use of an in vivo model – the Tg(mpx:GFP)i114 zebrafish line, in which neutrophils are labelled by green fluorescent protein (GFP) – to screen a natural product library for compounds that can affect neutrophil migratory behaviour. Among 1040 fungal extracts screened, two were found to inhibit neutrophil migration completely. Subfractionation of these extracts identified sterigmatocystin and antibiotic PF1052 as the active components. Using the EZ-TAXIScan chemotaxis assay, both compounds were also found to have a dosage-dependent inhibitory effect on murine neutrophil migration. Furthermore, neutrophils treated with PF1052 failed to form pseudopods and appeared round in shape, suggesting a defect in PI3-kinase (PI3K) signalling. We generated a transgenic neutrophil-specific PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 (PIP3) reporter zebrafish line, which revealed that PF1052 does not affect the activation of PI3K at the plasma membrane. In human neutrophils, PF1052 neither induced apoptosis nor blocked AKT phosphorylation. In conclusion, we have identified an antibiotic from a natural product library with potent anti-inflammatory properties, and have established the utility of the mpx:GFP transgenic zebrafish for high-throughput in vivo screens for novel inhibitors of neutrophil migration.
Changes in trunk posture and muscle responses in standing during pregnancy and postpartum

The aim of this study was to analyze the position of the lumbopelvic region and the muscle activation of erector spinae and biceps femoris muscles in a group of pregnant women in the third trimester. The hypothesis was that pregnancy-related biomechanical and morphological changes modify the position of the lumbopelvic region and the activation of extensor muscles. The position of the lumbar spine and pelvis in the sagittal plane, and the EMG activity of the erector spinae and biceps femoris muscles, were recorded during standing in 34 nulliparous and 34 pregnant women in the third trimester, and also two months after birth in the group of pregnant women. No significant differences in the position of the lumbar spine or pelvis between the group of pregnant women and nulliparous or postpartum were observed. A significant increase was observed in the EMG activity of the erector spinae (4.6% vs 2.4% and 2.1% in the nulliparous group and postpartum respectively) and the biceps femoris (3.4% vs 1.2% and 1.4%) in pregnant women compared to the other two groups (p <0.01). We conclude that pregnant women in the third trimester show no alterations in lumbopelvic position compared to nulliparous and postpartum women. However, there is an increase of the EMG activity of the trunk extensors. These results indicate that the extensor muscles of the trunk show, in static positions, adaptive responses to the increase of anterior loads during pregnancy.
Screening of Ethanol extract of Combretum racemosum and Euphorbia hirta leaves for possible activity on Trypanosoma brucei brucei infected mice

Enrichment of medicinal plants with biologically active compounds which induce various chemo-therapeutic effects has made a good turn and philosophy in the science of pharmacology. In the light of the popular notion of the use of Combretum racemosum and Euphorbia hirta as potent ethnopharmaceutical botanicals, this study was done to determine the trypanocidal activity of the ethanol leaf extracts of the plants against Trypanosoma brucei brucei which was induced in Swiss albino mice. The animals were inoculated intraperitoneally (IP) with trypanosome load of 10 6 , and were then kept under standard conditions for 10 days to enable circulation and reproduction of the parasite within them. Parasitaemia level was detected and analysed via microscopy. Both plants proved positive by overall reduction in the mean parasitaemia level as the days progressed at concentrations of 50,100 and 200mg/kg body weight respectively. Acute toxic dose for analysis of the high dose extract toleration was also checked by a 1000mg/kg administration of the extracts, while diminazene aceturate, a standard trypanocidal drug was used as control. Combretum racemosum exhibited its best trypanocidal activity at the 200mg/kg concentration, and Euphorbia hirta was at its best at 50mg/kg. Following the administration of diminazene aceturate (control) the parasites were cleared within four days of administration. The results derived were confirmed with statistical analysis using SPSS 16 software at p<0.05, and posits the possible utilization of these extracts of Combretum racemosum and Euphorbia hirta as trypanocidal agents.
Saddle point equations in Seiberg-Witten theory

N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories for all classical gauge groups, that is, for SU(N), SO(N), and Sp(N) is considered. The equations which define the Seiberg-Witten curve are proposed. In some cases they are solved. It is shown that for (almost) all models allowed by the asymptotic freedom the 1-instanton corrections which follows from these equations agree with the direct computations and with known results.
Automatic summarisation of legal documents

We report on the SUM project which applies automatic summarisation techniques to the legal domain. We describe our methodology whereby sentences from the text are classified according to their rhetorical role in order that particular types of sentence can be extracted to form a summary. We describe some experiments with judgments of the House of Lords: we have performed automatic linguistic annotation of a small sample set and then hand-annotated the sentences in the set in order to explore the relationship between linguistic features and argumentative roles. We use state-of-the-art NLP techniques to perform the linguistic annotation using XML-based tools and a combination of rule-based and statistical methods. We focus here on the predictive capacity of tense and aspect features for a classifier.
Portion controlled ready-to-eat meal replacement is associated with short term weight loss: a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Strategies to prevent and treat overweight/obesity are urgently needed. This study assessed the effect of a short-term intake of ready-to-eat cereal on body weight and waist circumference of overweight/obese individuals in comparison to a control group. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN A randomized, controlled 2-arm trial was carried out on 101 overweight/obese (Body Mass Index - 29.2±2.4 kg/m2) females aged 18 to 44 years, at St. John's Medical College Hospital. The intervention group received a low fat, ready to eat cereal, replacing two meals/day for two weeks. The control group was provided with standard dietary guidelines for weight loss and energy requirements for both groups were calculated similarly. Anthropometric, dietary, appetite and health status assessments were carried out at baseline and at the end of two weeks. RESULTS At the end of two weeks, the mean reductions in body weight and waist circumference were significantly greater in the intervention group, -0.53 kg; 95% CI (-0.86 to -0.19) for body weight and -1.39 cm; 95% CI (-1.78, -0.99) for waist circumference. The intervention group had a significantly higher increase in dietary intakes of certain vitamins, fiber and sugar, and significantly higher reductions in total and polyunsaturated fats and sodium intakes, as compared to the control group (p<=0.05). No significant differences were observed between the groups, in change of appetite, health and perception scales. CONCLUSIONS Portion controlled, ready to eat cereal could be effective for short-term weight loss, with some improvements in the nutrient intake profile. However, studies of longer duration are needed.
A Review of Software Packages for Structural Equation Modeling: A Comparative Study

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a widely used statistical method in most of social science fields. Similar to other statistical methods, the choice of the appropriate estimation methods affects the results of the analysis, thus it was of importance to review some of SEM software packages and the availability of different estimation methods in these packages. Therefore, in this paper five SEM software packages (AMOS, LISREL, and three packages in R) dealing with SEM analysis were reviewed to guide the researcher about the usage of each package. Moreover, an empirical study was presented to assess the performance of different estimation methods under the existence of missing data. The results showed that full information maximum likelihood (FIML) was the best estimation method to deal with different missingness rates.
In Vitro Cocktail Effects of PCB-DL (PCB118) and Bulky PCB (PCB153) with BaP on Adipogenesis and on Expression of Genes Involved in the Establishment of a Pro-Inflammatory State

(1) Objective: Highlight the in vitro effects of 3T3-L1 cell exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB118 and 153) or benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) alone or as a cocktail on adipogenesis (ADG) by focusing on changes in lipid metabolism and inflammatory-related genes expression (INFG) and ADG-related genes expression (ADGG); (2) Results: Treatment from the early stage of cell differentiation by BaP alone or in combination with PCBs decreased the expression of some of the ADGG (PPARγ Glut-4, FAS, Lipin-1a, Leptin, and Adiponectin). BaP enhanced the INFG, especially MCP-1 and TNFα. Co-exposure to BaP and PCB153 showed a synergistic effect on TNFα and IL6 expression. Treatment with BaP and PCBs during only the maturation period up-regulated the INFG (IL6, TNFα, CXCL-10 & MCP-1). PCB118 alone also enhanced TNFα, CXCL-10, and PAI-1 expression. The change in MCP-1 protein expression was in agreement with that of the gene. Finally, the BaP-induced up-regulation of the xenobiotic responsive element (XRE)-controlled luciferase activity was impaired by PCB153 but not by PCB118; (3) Conclusion: BaP and PCBs down-regulate a part of ADGG and enhance INFG. The direct regulatory effect of PCBs on both ADGG and INFG is usually rather lower than that of BaP and synergistic or antagonistic cocktail effects are clearly observed.