Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ganglionic mechanisms contribute to diminished vagal control in heart failure.

BACKGROUND Previous work has shown that spontaneous and stimulated vagal activity is diminished in heart failure (HF) despite upregulation of functional postsynaptic cholinergic mechanisms. We therefore examined function of the postganglionic neuron in the paced canine model of HF as a possible site for diminished control. METHODS AND RESULTS We measured sinus cycle length changes in response to electrical stimulation of preganglionic and postganglionic parasympathetic neurons innervating the sinoatrial node in control and HF dogs (both, n=8). Cervical vagus stimulation (preganglionic) demonstrated attenuated responses in the HF group at all levels of stimulation (P<0.05). Stimulation of the right atrial fat pad, containing both postganglionic nerves and terminals of preganglionic neurons, showed no such difference between control and HF (200+/-25 versus 192+/-18 ms). To ensure that preganglionic input and different levels of baseline sympathetic activity did not contribute to the group difference, similar stimulations were done in the presence of ganglionic and beta-adrenergic blockade. Under these conditions, postganglionic stimulation showed smaller changes in sinus cycle length, but the HF group response remained significantly higher than in controls (76+/-10 versus 20+/-2 ms; P<0. 01), indicating that the difference was independent of preganglionic input and sympathetic activity. CONCLUSIONS A component of attenuated parasympathetic control in HF is located within the peripheral efferent limb. This defect is located within the parasympathetic ganglion. Future work should be focused on determining mechanisms of attenuated ganglionic transmission so that means targeted at restoring vagal activity can be developed.
Development of symptoms of tobacco dependence in youths: 30 month follow up data from the DANDY study

Objective: To determine if there is a minimum duration, frequency or quantity of tobacco use required to develop symptoms of dependence. Design and setting: A retrospective/prospective longitudinal study of the natural history of tobacco dependence employing individual interviews conducted three times annually in two urban school systems over 30 months. Detailed histories of tobacco use were obtained including dates, duration, frequency, quantity, patterns of use, types of tobacco, and symptoms of dependence. Participants: A cohort of 679 seventh grade students (age 12–13 years). Main outcome measures: The report of any of 11 symptoms of dependence. Results: Among 332 subjects who had used tobacco, 40% reported symptoms, with a median latency from the onset of monthly smoking of 21 days for girls and 183 days for boys. The median frequency of use at the onset of symptoms was two cigarettes, one day per week. The report of one or more symptoms predicted continued smoking through the end of follow up (odds ratio (OR) 44, 95% confidence interval (CI) 17 to 114, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Symptoms of tobacco dependence commonly develop rapidly after the onset of intermittent smoking, although individuals differ widely in this regard. Girls tend to develop symptoms faster. There does not appear to be a minimum nicotine dose or duration of use as a prerequisite for symptoms to appear. The development of a single symptom strongly predicted continued use, supporting the theory that the loss of autonomy over tobacco use begins with the first symptom of dependence.
Radiotherapy of chondrosarcoma of bone

A retrospective analysis of 31 cases of chondrosarcoma of bone treated by radiotherapy at the Princess Margaret Hospital between 1958 and 1976 is presented. In comparison with other large series, our group of patients were found to have been unfavourably selected with respect to the known prognostic factors: histology (39% mesenchymal and dedifferentiated), site (75% arising in the trunk and head and neck), adequacy of operative treatment (none having had a complete surgical excision), and presenting symptoms (two‐thirds presenting with pain). Twelve patients with primary (good, moderate, and unknown differentiation) chondrosarcoma were radically irradiated; 6 of these 12 have been alive and well without tumor for periods ranging from three and a half to 16 years and 3 of these are alive and well for 15 years or more following radiotherapy. The other 6 patients responded or disease stabilized following radiotherapy for periods ranging from 16 months to eight years. One poorly differentiated tumor was radically irradiated and did not respond. Eleven patients were irradiated palliatively (5 dedifferentiated and mesenchymal, 4 secondary, and 2 primary chondrosarcomas), generally with low doses of irradiation, and only 4 responded transiently for periods ranging from three to 12 months. Seven patients with mesenchymal and dedifferentiated tumors were radically irradiated. Four responded or disease stabilized, and 1 of these patients was alive and well at 3 years; 3 did not respond. Six died with distant metastasis. It is concluded that chondrosarcoma of bone is a radioresponsive tumor and the place of radiotherapy in the treatment of this disease and the reason for its being labelled a radioresistant tumor are discussed. The problems of assessing response of chondrosarcoma to therapy are also discussed. It is suggested that chemotherapy may have a role in the management of mesenchymal and dedifferentiated chondrosarcoma.
Development of Achievement Motivation and Engagement

In this chapter we review the research on the development of children's motivation and engagement. We organize our review into four major sections: the development of children's achievement motivation; gender, cultural, and ethnic differences in children's motivation; socialization of motivation in the family; and socialization of motivation in school. We take a social-cognitive expectancy-value theoretical perspective to organize our discussion of this work. We first discuss the development of children's motivation and engagement and take another look at the often-observed decline in motivation, focusing on new work showing different patterns in these declines among different groups of children. We also discuss how children's motivation relates to their performance and choice, two kinds of outcomes of major importance to children's healthy development. The second major section discusses gender, ethnic, and cultural differences in children's motivation and the important advances researchers have made in understanding these over the past 10 years. In the family and school socialization sections we focus on processes by which parents, teachers, and schools can impact children's motivation both positively and negatively. We note the similarities of these processes across socializers: Providing appropriate challenges and emotional warmth and support, and having high expectations for children. We discuss the need for more integrative studies of how parents and also teachers impact children's motivation. We conclude the chapter with a discussion of important future directions: A continuing focus on culture and motivation, further examination of motivation in specific domains and contexts, a stronger focus on biological influences on the development of motivation, and a consideration of unconscious processes and their impact on the development of motivation. Keywords: achievement; culture; development; engagement; family influences; gender; goals; intrinsic motivation; motivation; school influences; self-efficacy; self-regulation; values
Creatine Kinase–Mediated ATP Supply Fuels Actin-Based Events in Phagocytosis

Phagocytosis requires locally coordinated cytoskeletal rearrangements driven by actin polymerization and myosin motor activity. How this actomyosin dynamics is dependent upon systems that provide access to ATP at phagosome microdomains has not been determined. We analyzed the role of brain-type creatine kinase (CK-B), an enzyme involved in high-energy phosphoryl transfer. We demonstrate that endogenous CK-B in macrophages is mobilized from the cytosolic pool and coaccumulates with F-actin at nascent phagosomes. Live cell imaging with XFP-tagged CK-B and β-actin revealed the transient and specific nature of this partitioning process. Overexpression of a catalytic dead CK-B or CK-specific cyclocreatine inhibition caused a significant reduction of actin accumulation in the phagocytic cup area, and reduced complement receptor–mediated, but not Fc-γR–mediated, ingestion capacity of macrophages. Finally, we found that inhibition of CK-B affected phagocytosis already at the stage of particle adhesion, most likely via effects on actin polymerization behavior. We propose that CK-B activity in macrophages contributes to complement-induced F-actin assembly events in early phagocytosis by providing local ATP supply.
Degradation of lignins by wet oxidation: model water solutions

Nowadays many paper industries are faced with the problem of wastewaters being badly biodegradable because of tannins, lignins, etc. Wet oxidation (WO) is an appropriate met hod for the destruction of very complex, multi-dimensional, and permanent compounds. This paper studies the WO of lignin water as a model case with the aim of degrading lignin and enhancing water biodegradability. The experiments were performed at various temperatures (110-190 °C), partial oxygen pressures (0.5-1.5 MPa), and pH values (5, 9, and 12) in a batch stainless steel high pressure reactor. The experiments showed that increasing the temperature improved the processes efficiency. At the lowest temperature tested 75% lignin reduction was detected and a temperature increase improved the lignin removal to 100% at 190 °C. The effect of temperature on the COD removal rate was lower, but detectable: 20% of organics was oxidized at 110 °C, but 53% at 190 °C. Oxygen partial pressure changes affected the process results modestly. Lignin removal increased by about 10% and COD removal by 4% with an oxygen partial pressure increase from 0.5 to 1.5 MPa. The effect of pH occurred mostly on lignin removal. Increasing the pH enhanced the lignin removal efficiency from 60% to nearly 100%. In all cases, a good biodegradability (BOD/COD ratio over 0.5) was achieved starting at a temperature of 150 °C, pH 9, irrespective of the experimented pressures. The biodegradability (BOD/COD) of the remaining organic matter increased during WO and approached almost 1 at the highest temperature of 190 °C.
Real Time Intrusion Prediction based on Optimized Alerts with Hidden Markov Model

Cyber attacks and malicious activities are rapidlybecoming a major threat to proper secure organization.Many security tools may be installed in distributed systemsand monitor all events in a network. Security managers oftenhave to process huge numbers of alerts per day, produced bysuch tools. Intrusion prediction is an important technique tohelp response systems reacting properly before the networkis compromised. In this paper, we propose a frameworkto predict multi-step attacks before they pose a serioussecurity risk. Hidden Markov Model (HMM) is used toextract the interactions between attackers and networks.Since alerts correlation plays a critical role in prediction,a modulated alert severity through correlation concept isused instead of just individual alerts and their severity.Modulated severity generates prediction alarms for the mostinteresting steps of multi-step attacks and improves theaccuracy. Our experiments on the Lincoln Laboratory 2000data set show that our algorithm perfectly predicts multi-step attacks before they can compromise the network.
Upregulation of Cytokines Is Detected in the Placentas of Cattle Infected with Neospora caninum and Is More Marked Early in Gestation When Fetal Death Is Observed

ABSTRACT The protozoan parasite Neospora caninum causes fetal death after experimental infection of pregnant cattle in early gestation, but the fetus survives a similar infection in late gestation. An increase in Th1-type cytokines in the placenta in response to the presence of the parasite has been implicated as a contributory factor to fetal death due to immune-mediated pathological alterations. We measured, using real-time reverse transcription-PCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, the levels of cytokines in the placentas of cattle experimentally infected with N. caninum in early and late gestation. After infection in early gestation, fetal death occurred, and the levels of mRNA of both Th1 and Th2 cytokines, including interleukin-2 (IL-2), gamma interferon (IFN-γ), IL-12p40, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), IL-18, IL-10, and IL-4, were significantly (P < 0.01) increased by up to 1,000-fold. There was extensive placental necrosis and a corresponding infiltration of CD4+ T cells and macrophages. IFN-γ protein expression was also highly increased, and a modest increase in transforming growth factor β was detected. A much smaller increase in the same cytokines and IFN-γ protein expression, with minimal placental necrosis and inflammatory infiltration, occurred after N. caninum infection in late gestation when the fetuses survived. Comparison of cytokine mRNA levels in separated maternal and fetal placental tissue that showed maternal tissue was the major source of all cytokine mRNA except for IL-10 and TNF-α, which were similar in both maternal and fetal tissues. These results suggest that the magnitude of the cytokine response correlates with but is not necessarily the cause of fetal death and demonstrate that a polarized Th1 response was not evident in the placentas of N. caninum-infected cattle.
Teacher learning for educational change : a systems thinking approach

Acknowledgements Series editors' preface Introduction Part one: Thinking differently about educational change A mechanistic view of educational change A complexity view of educational change A systems thinking approach to teacher learning Part two: A theoretical framework for a professional learning system The dynamics of professional learning the Oberon high school science project The role of a facilitator in a professional learning system the Frameworks project A reflective cycle for teacher learning the Christchurch ICT cluster project Part three: Extending the possibilities of professional learning Using online technologies for continuity, community and scholarship in teacher learning Designing a professional learning system Appendix References Index.
Metabolic Inhibition Alters Subcellular Calcium Release Patterns in Rat Ventricular Myocytes: Implications for Defective Excitation-Contraction Coupling During Cardiac Ischemia and Failure

Metabolic inhibition (MI) contributes to contractile failure during cardiac ischemia and systolic heart failure, in part due to decreased excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling gain. To investigate the underlying mechanism, we studied subcellular Ca2+ release patterns in whole cell patch clamped rat ventricular myocytes using two-dimensional high-speed laser scanning confocal microscopy. In cells loaded with the Ca2+ buffer EGTA (5 mmol/L) and the fluorescent Ca2+-indicator fluo-3 (1 mmol/L), depolarization from −40 to 0 mV elicited a striped pattern of Ca2+ release. This pattern represents the simultaneous activation of multiple Ca2+ release sites along transverse-tubules. During inhibition of both oxidative and glycolytic metabolism using carbonyl cyanide-p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone (FCCP, 50 nmol/L) and 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG, 10 mmol/L), there was a decrease in inward Ca2+ current (ICa), the spatially averaged Ca2+ transient, and E-C coupling gain, but no reduction in sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ content. The striped pattern of subcellular Ca2+ release became fractured, or disappeared altogether, corresponding to a marked decrease in the area of the cell exhibiting organized Ca2+ release. There was no significant change in the intensity or kinetics of local Ca2+ release. The mechanism is not fully explained by dephosphorylation of L-type Ca2+ channels, because a similar degree of ICa“rundown” in control cells did NOT result in fracturing of the Ca2+ release pattern. We conclude that metabolic inhibition interferes with E-C coupling by (1) reducing trigger Ca2+, and (2) directly inhibiting sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ release site open probability.
Radio emission from the high-mass X-ray binary BP Cru: first detection

BP Cru is a well known high-mass X-ray binary composed of a late B hypergiant (Wray 977) and a neutron star, also observed as the X-ray pulsar GX 301-2. No information about emission from BP Cru in other bands than X-rays and optical has been reported to date in the literature, though massive X-ray binaries containing black holes can have radio emission from a jet. In order to assess the presence of a radio jet, we searched for radio emission towards BP Cru using the Australia Compact Array Telescope during a survey for radio emission from Be/X-ray transients. We probed the 41.5d orbit of BP Cru with the Australia Telescope Compact Array not only close to periastron but also close to apastron. BP Cru was clearly detected in our data on 4, possibly 6, of 12 occasions at 4.8 and 8.6 GHz. Our data suggest that the spectral index of the radio emission is modulated either by the X-ray flux or the orbital phase of the system. We propose that the radio emission of BP Cru probably arises from two components: a persistent component, coming from the mass donor Wray 977, and a periodic component connected to the accretion onto the neutron star, possibly coming from a (weak and short lived) jet.
Broadcasting a common message with variable-length stop-feedback codes

We investigate the maximum coding rate achievable over a two-user broadcast channel for the scenario where a common message is transmitted using variable-length stop-feedback codes. Specifically, upon decoding the common message, each decoder sends a stop signal to the encoder, which transmits continuously until it receives both stop signals. For the point-to-point case, Polyanskiy, Poor, and Verdú (2011) recently demonstrated that variable-length coding combined with stop feedback significantly increases the speed at which the maximum coding rate converges to capacity. This speed-up manifests itself in the absence of a square-root penalty in the asymptotic expansion of the maximum coding rate for large blocklengths, a result a.k. a. zero dispersion. In this paper, we show that this speed-up does not necessarily occur for the broadcast channel with common message. Specifically, there exist scenarios for which variable-length stop-feedback codes yield a positive dispersion.
Beyond testimony and trauma : oral history in the aftermath of mass violence

Survivors of terrible events are often portrayed as unsung heroes or tragic victims but rarely as complex human beings whose lives extend beyond the stories they have told. The contributors to Beyond Testimony and Trauma consider other ways to engage with survivors and their accounts based on valuable insightsgained from their work on long-term oral history projects. While the contexts cary widely, they demonstrate that - through deep listening, long-term relationship building, and collaborative research design - it is possible to move beyond the problematic aspects of otestimonyo to shine a light on the more nuanced lives of survivors of mass violence.
Major Quantitative Trait Loci Affect Resistance to Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis in Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar)

Infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) is a viral disease currently presenting a major problem in the production of Atlantic salmon (Salmon salar). IPN can cause significant mortality to salmon fry within freshwater hatcheries and to smolts following transfer to seawater, although challenged populations show clear genetic variation in resistance. To determine whether this genetic variation includes loci of major effect, a genomewide quantitative trait loci (QTL) scan was performed within 10 full-sib families that had received a natural seawater IPN challenge. To utilize the large difference between Atlantic salmon male and female recombination rates, a two-stage mapping strategy was employed. Initially, a sire-based QTL analysis was used to detect linkage groups with significant effects on IPN resistance, using two to three microsatellite markers per linkage group. A dam-based analysis with additional markers was then used to confirm and position any detected QTL. Two genomewide significant QTL and one suggestive QTL were detected in the genome scan. The most significant QTL was mapped to linkage group 21 and was significant at the genomewide level in both the sire and the dam-based analyses. The identified QTL can be applied in marker-assisted selection programs to improve the resistance of salmon to IPN and reduce disease-related mortality.
Cell entry strategy of clostridial neurotoxins

Tetanus neurotoxin and botulinum neurotoxins are the causative agents of tetanus and botulism. They block the release of neurotransmitters from synaptic vesicles in susceptible animals and man and act in nanogram quantities because of their ability to specifically attack motoneurons. They developed an ingenious strategy to enter neurons. This involves a concentration step via complex polysialo gangliosides at the plasma membrane and the uptake and ride in recycling synaptic vesicles initiated by binding to a specific protein receptor. Finally, the neurotoxins shut down the synaptic vesicle cycle, which they had misused before to enter their target cells, via specific cleavage of protein core components of the cellular membrane fusion machinery. The uptake of four out of seven known botulinum neurotoxins into synaptic vesicles has been demonstrated to rely on binding to intravesicular segments of the synaptic vesicle proteins synaptotagmin or synaptic vesicle protein 2. This review summarizes the present knowledge about the cell receptor molecules and the mode of toxin‐receptor interaction that enables the toxins’ sophisticated access to their site of action.
Using priority, buffering, threshold control, and reservation techniques to improve channel-allocation schemes for the GPRS system

Taking a comprehensive approach, we investigate effects on the channel allocation for the general packet radio service (GPRS) system caused by priority strategy, buffering, threshold control on the buffer, and channel reservation. Moreover, four new dynamic channel-allocation schemes based on various combinations of these techniques are proposed and analyzed using the Markov chain approach. Analytical results obtained include blocking/forced-termination/dropping probabilities, cost-function definition based on the above metrics, and (mean) delay times. Through numerical examples, we demonstrate that: 1) priority and threshold control are efficient strategies to differentiate the quality of service (QoS) between a new voice call and a handoff voice call; 2) buffering allows more admitted rates of voice calls or data packets, but increases the delay time; and 3) channel reservation may directly improve a specific service, but it degrades performance of other services much. At last, better schemes suitable for the GPRS system are suggested after a thorough comparison of system performance.