Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tensile and compressive properties of flax-plain weave preform reinforced epoxy composites

In this article, plain weave flax fabric-reinforced epoxy composites are investigated experimentally for their tensile and compressive properties. The effect of number of preform layers and the effect of lay-up architecture on the above-mentioned properties are also studied. The composite laminates were processed by hand lay-up technique using 2 and 4 mm thick spacers and cured under pressure of 3 bar for 2 hour at 50°C, followed by post curing in an oven at 120°C for 1 h. Specimen preparation and testing were carried out as per ASTM standards. Mechanical data obtained showed that the main parameter governing the tensile properties of the woven preform composites was the flax volume fraction parallel to the direction of the tensile axis. However, the proportion of matrix seems to influence the compressive behaviour. Further, with the increase in number of preform layers the compressive properties improve whereas, the tensile behaviour deteriorates across all combinations considered in this study.
The Impact of Organizational Slack on the Performance of Material Production and Processing Firms

This paper studies the impact of organizational slack on the performance of material production and processing firms by using empirical analysis based on the data get from 54 firms in Henan Province by questionnaire. The result shows that organizational slack is positively related to the performance of material production and processing firms. The analysis also finds that there is the inverted U-shaped relationship between organizational slack and performance, but this relationship is not significant. Overall, results highlight the importance of additional research into intervening factors impacting the slack–performance relationship.
MiR-124 acts as a target for Alzheimer’s disease by regulating BACE1

Although large numbers of microRNAs (miRNAs) expressed in Alzheimer disease (AD) have been detected, their functions and mechanisms of regulation remain to be fully clarified. Beta-site Amyloid precursor protein Cleaving Enzyme 1 (BACE1) has been one of the prime therapeutic targets for AD. Here, we identified that miR-124 levels are gradually decreased in AD. In addition, we demonstrated that miR-124 suppresses BACE1 expression by directly targeting the 3′UTR of Bace1 mRNA in vitro. Inhibition of miR-124 significantly increased BACE1 levels in neuronal cells. In contrast, miR-124 overexpression significantly suppressed BACE1 expression in cells. And finally we determined that downregulation of miR-124 alleviated Aβ-induced viability inhibition and decreased apoptosis in SH-SY5Y cells. Our results demonstrated that miR-124 is a potent negative regulator of BACE1 in the cellular AD phenotype and might be involved in the pathogenesis of AD.
Effect of Ozone, Thermo, and Thermo-oxidative Aging on the Physical Property of Styrene Butadiene Rubber-Organoclay Nanocomposites

The present study describes the effect of thermo, thermo-oxidative, and ozone exposure on the retention of physical property of organoclay nanocomposites. Accelerated thermal aging is carried out at 130°C for 30 h. Accelerated thermo-oxidative aging is carried out at 105°C for 7 days. Samples are exposed to 50 pphm ozone atmosphere for 24 and 48 h. The result indicates that the retention of physical property is better in nanocomposites compared to carbon black-filled compounds under thermal and thermo-oxidative aging. Besides, ozone resistance is also relatively superior for nanocomposites. The superior barrier property of the nanocomposites is attributed to the better retention of the physical property after aging.
Administration of M. leprae Hsp65 Interferes with the Murine Lupus Progression

The heat shock protein [Hsp] family guides several steps during protein synthesis, are abundant in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, and are highly conserved during evolution. The Hsp60 family is involved in assembly and transport of proteins, and is expressed at very high levels during autoimmunity or autoinflammatory phenomena. Here, the pathophysiological role of the wild type [WT] and the point mutated K409A recombinant Hsp65 of M. leprae in an animal model of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus [SLE] was evaluated in vivo using the genetically homogeneous [NZBxNZW]F1 mice. Anti-DNA and anti-Hsp65 antibodies responsiveness was individually measured during the animal's life span, and the mean survival time [MST] was determined. The treatment with WT abbreviates the MST in 46%, when compared to non-treated mice [p<0.001]. An increase in the IgG2a/IgG1 anti-DNA antibodies ratio was also observed in animals injected with the WT Hsp65. Incubation of BALB/c macrophages with F1 serum from WT treated mice resulted in acute cell necrosis; treatment of these cells with serum from K409A treated mice did not cause any toxic effect. Moreover, the involvement of WT correlates with age and is dose-dependent. Our data suggest that Hsp65 may be a central molecule intervening in the progression of the SLE, and that the point mutated K409A recombinant immunogenic molecule, that counteracts the deleterious effect of WT, may act mitigating and delaying the development of SLE in treated mice. This study gives new insights into the general biological role of Hsp and the significant impact of environmental factors during the pathogenesis of this autoimmune process.
Homocysteine Inhibits Arterial Endothelial Cell Growth Through Transcriptional Downregulation of Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 Involving G Protein and DNA Methylation

Homocysteine (Hcy) contributes to atherogenesis and angiostasis by altering the phenotype of arterial endothelial cells (ECs). The present study was aimed at elucidating potential mechanisms by which Hcy can slow EC proliferation and induce EC apoptosis, thereby disrupting endothelial integrity. Given the strong mitogenic and antiapoptotic properties of fibroblast growth factor (FGF)2, we examined whether Hcy can modulate its expression. In cultured human coronary and bovine aortic ECs, Hcy exerted time- and concentration-dependent (0 to 500 &mgr;mol/L) reduction of the mRNA and protein levels of FGF2, whereas vascular endothelial growth factor expression was not affected until Hcy reached a proapoptotic 500 &mgr;mol/L. By testing a panel of signal transduction inhibitors, we found that the Hcy-induced downregulation of FGF2 was specifically attenuated by pertussis toxin, an inhibitor of Gi protein signaling. Hcy induced cell cycle arrest at the G1/S transition and increased TUNEL-positive apoptotic cells in a graded manner. These effects were effectively counteracted by exogenous FGF2. Reporter gene assays showed that Hcy downregulated FGF2 by transcriptional repression of the gene promoter encompassed in a CpG dinucleotide-rich island. This region was heavily methylated at the cytosine residues by Hcy despite decreased methylation potential (S-adenosylmethionine to S-adenosylhomocysteine ratio). Normal levels of FGF2 transcription were restored to ECs simultaneously exposed to Hcy and 5-aza-deoxycytidine. We conclude that homocysteine disrupts the growth and survival of ECs through a G protein–mediated pathway associated with altered promoter DNA methylation and the transcriptional repression of FGF2.
Twenty-four/seven: a mixed-method systematic review of the off-shift literature.

AIM This article is a report of a review that aimed to synthesize qualitative and quantitative evidence of 'off-shifts' (nights, weekends and/or holidays) on quality and employee outcomes in hospitals. BACKGROUND Healthcare workers provide 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week service. Quality and employee outcomes may differ on off-shifts as compared to regular hours. DATA SOURCES Searches for studies occurred between the years 1985-2011 using computerized databases including Business Source Complete, EconLit, ProQuest, PubMed and MEDLINE. REVIEW DESIGN AND METHODS: Design was a mixed-method systematic review with quantitative and qualitative studies. To be included, studies met the following criteria: (1) the independent variable was an off-shift; (2) the article was a research study and peer-reviewed; (3) the article could be obtained in English; and (4) the article pertained to health care. Studies were not excluded on design. RESULTS Sixty studies were included. There were 37 quality outcome, 19 employee outcome and four qualitative studies. In the quality outcome studies, researchers often used quantitative, longitudinal study designs with large sample sizes. Researchers found important differences between patients admitted on weekends and mortality. Important differences were also found between nighttime birth and mortality and rotating night work and fatigue, stress and low mental well-being. Most studies (9 of 12) did not find an important association between patients admitted at night and mortality. CONCLUSION Patient outcomes on weekends and employee outcomes at night are worse than during the day. It is important to further investigate why care on off-shifts differs from weekly day shifts.
The role of sensory nerve endings in neurogenic inflammation induced in human skin and in the eye and paw of the rat.

We have previously shown that some substances which produce inflammation exert their effect by a mechanism which is dependent on the presence of intact sensory nerves. Examples of such substances are capsaicin and related acyl amides, mustard oil, xylene and o-chloroacetophenone. In experiments with animals, an inflammatory response to the administration of these substances could be prevented by chronic denervation or by capsaicin desensitization (Jancs6, 1960; Jancso, Jancso-Gabor & Szolcsanyi, 1967).
Phenolic Antioxidants Isolated from the Flowers of Osmanthus fragrans

O. fragrans has slightly less antioxidative activity than green tea. Five phenolic compounds, tyrosyl acetate (1), (+)-phillygenin (2), (8E)-ligustroside (3), rutin (4), and verbascoside (5), were isolated from the CHCl3 sub-extract of O. fragrans. The structures were elucidated by interpreting their spectral data. Evaluation of the antioxidative property of the isolated (+)-phillygenin (2), rutin (4), and verbascoside (5) revealed strong DPPH radical scavenging activity, with IC50 values of 19.1, 10.3, and 6.2 μM, respectively. These isolates also exhibited an H2O2 scavenging ability, with IC50 values of 10.5, 23.4, and 13.4 μM, respectively.
Genome-Wide Search for Gene-Gene Interactions in Colorectal Cancer

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified a number of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk. However, these susceptibility loci known today explain only a small fraction of the genetic risk. Gene-gene interaction (GxG) is considered to be one source of the missing heritability. To address this, we performed a genome-wide search for pair-wise GxG associated with CRC risk using 8,380 cases and 10,558 controls in the discovery phase and 2,527 cases and 2,658 controls in the replication phase. We developed a simple, but powerful method for testing interaction, which we term the Average Risk Due to Interaction (ARDI). With this method, we conducted a genome-wide search to identify SNPs showing evidence for GxG with previously identified CRC susceptibility loci from 14 independent regions. We also conducted a genome-wide search for GxG using the marginal association screening and examining interaction among SNPs that pass the screening threshold (p<10−4). For the known locus rs10795668 (10p14), we found an interacting SNP rs367615 (5q21) with replication p = 0.01 and combined p = 4.19×10−8. Among the top marginal SNPs after LD pruning (n = 163), we identified an interaction between rs1571218 (20p12.3) and rs10879357 (12q21.1) (nominal combined p = 2.51×10−6; Bonferroni adjusted p = 0.03). Our study represents the first comprehensive search for GxG in CRC, and our results may provide new insight into the genetic etiology of CRC.
Joint Designs of Fronthaul Compression and Precoding for Full-Duplex Cloud Radio Access Networks

This letter studies a joint design of fronthaul compression and precoding for full-duplex (FD) cloud radio access networks (C-RAN). In this system, each radio unit (RU) takes the role of FD transmission and a control unit connected to all of the RUs via finite-capacity links performs co-operative interference management by centralized baseband processing. There exists non-negligible self-interference (SI) due to FD transmission even after analog SI cancellation (SIC) is applied at the RU. To efficiently alleviate the residual SI, we propose the implementation of additional digital SIC at each RU, which mitigates the SI in baseband and thus reduces the burden of the finite uplink fronthaul capacity. We then consider the problem of maximizing the sum rate of uplink and downlink users while satisfying the per-RU fronthaul capacity and power constraints. The problem is solved by the majorization minimization approach under a difference of convex structure. Through simulation results, we confirm that the proposed FD C-RAN system with SIC implemented at the RUs can achieve substantial gains compared to conventional schemes.
Harnessing the antitumor potential of macrophages for cancer immunotherapy

Macrophages constitute a dominant fraction of the population of immune cells that infiltrate developing tumors. Recruited by tumor-derived signals, tumor-infiltrating macrophages are key orchestrators of a microenvironment that supports tumor progression. However, the phenotype of macrophages is pliable and, if instructed properly, macrophages can mediate robust antitumor functions through their ability to eliminate malignant cells, inhibit angiogenesis, and deplete fibrosis. While much effort has focused on strategies to block the tumor-supporting activity of macrophages, emerging approaches designed to instruct macrophages with antitumor properties are demonstrating promise and may offer a novel strategy for cancer immunotherapy.
Remembering and forgetting: directed forgetting effect in obsessive-compulsive disorder

It has been reported that episodic memory seems to be impaired in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) because the patients repeat a specific checking behavior, but it is still unknown if OCD patients show memory impairments associated with their unique symptoms or not. To study episodic memory in OCD patients, we examined the directed forgetting effect. Patients with OCD and healthy control participants were given a list of 24 emotionally neutral everyday words (12 remember [R]-cued words and 12 forget [F]-cued words) under two conditions: List and Item. The results of our study showed that OCD patients recalled a number of F-cued words similar to that for controls and relatively fewer R-cued words than controls under both List and Item conditions. Consequently, the directed forgetting effect was smaller in OCD patients than controls. Our results demonstrated that both selective encoding and retrieval inhibition processes are impaired in OCD, and we suggest that recall of unfavorable items to be forgotten intruded into necessary items to be remembered. This impairment in episodic memory may partially account for some of the unique clinical symptoms of OCD.
A New Method for Partial Correction of Residual Confounding in Time-Series and Other Observational Studies

Methods exist to detect residual confounding in epidemiologic studies. One requires a negative control exposure with 2 key properties: 1) conditional independence of the negative control and the outcome (given modeled variables) absent confounding and other model misspecification, and 2) associations of the negative control with uncontrolled confounders and the outcome. We present a new method to partially correct for residual confounding: When confounding is present and our assumptions hold, we argue that estimators from models that include a negative control exposure with these 2 properties tend to be less biased than those from models without it. Using regression theory, we provide theoretical arguments that support our claims. In simulations, we empirically evaluated the approach using a time-series study of ozone effects on asthma emergency department visits. In simulations, effect estimators from models that included the negative control exposure (ozone concentrations 1 day after the emergency department visit) had slightly or modestly less residual confounding than those from models without it. Theory and simulations show that including the negative control can reduce residual confounding, if our assumptions hold. Our method differs from available methods because it uses a regression approach involving an exposure-based indicator rather than a negative control outcome to partially correct for confounding.
Effect of AC ageing on space charge evolution in XLPE

This paper reports on space charge dynamics in XLPE samples, which have been pre-stressed under ac electric stress, when subjected to 30 kV/sub dc//mm dc electric stress for 24 hours. The samples used for this study were planar XLPE samples of /spl sim/220 /spl mu/m thick aged under 30 kV/sub pk//mm, 30 kV/sub rms//mm and 60 kV/sub pk//mm at 50 Hz ac condition for 24 hours. In addition, the experiments were also extended to samples that were pre-aged under 1 Hz and 10 Hz ac 30 kV/sub pk//mm for 24 hours.
Communication area synthesis for next generation highway ETC systems

In this paper, some requirements of next generation highway electronic toll collection (ETC) systems are presented. In particular, the trend of moving toward a completely open road free-flow tolling concept that, ideally, comprises the possibility of having vehicles with speed up to 200 km/h, encourages the elongation of the communication area or, however, a more efficient synthesis of the antenna radiation pattern. For this reason, the concept of communication area in the context of highway radio-frequency identification (RFID) based ETC is first investigated, and then a simple methodology with antenna array to synthesize a specific communication area by exploiting well known synthesis techniques, e.g. Tschebyscheff distribution, is proposed.
Intraoperative somatosensory evoked potential findings in acute and chronic spinal canal compromise.

STUDY DESIGN Early and long-term postoperative outcome were analyzed by retrospective record review and compared with results of intraoperative somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) findings in 70 patients with chronic lumbar stenosis. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Adverse SEP changes occur in up to 2% of patients during scoliosis surgery and may reverse with intraoperative intervention. Little is known about the short- or long-term results of intraoperative intervention based on adverse SEP changes in patients with chronic lumbar stenosis during lumbar decompression and fusion. OBJECTIVE To compare intraoperative SEP changes with immediate and long-term neurologic outcome in patients undergoing lumbar decompression, instrumentation and fusion for chronic lumbar stenosis and to determine whether the early correlation between intraoperative SEP deterioration and clinical outcome persisted. METHODS Monitoring SEPs using an alternating arm and leg stimulation paradigm allowed rapid identification of intraoperative changes. Retrospective record review was conducted without knowledge of intraoperative SEP findings. Clinical and SEP findings were then compared, to determine whether the strong association between intraoperative SEP results and early clinical outcome persisted. RESULTS Nine of 12 patients who had unilateral intraoperative SEP deterioration that resolved with intervention had no adverse sequelae; the remaining three had new ipsilateral weakness that persisted during a 9-24-month follow-up. Intraoperative SEPs deteriorated in 15% of patients with normal and abnormal baseline SEPs. Intraoperative SEP deterioration could not be predicted by preoperative radicular pain, focal symptomatology or baseline SEP findings. 80% of patients with normal SEPs but only 54% with abnormal SEPs had immediate and sustained pain relief. SEP deterioration that reversed with surgical intervention or high-dose steroids resulted in no adverse neurologic outcome. CONCLUSIONS Acute, unilateral, unresolved intraoperative SEP deterioration was associated with long-term ipsilateral weakness not predicted by clinical or neurologic findings before surgery. Clinical improvement persisted in 92% of patients, 4% were unchanged, and 4% had persistent neurologic changes during an average 12-month follow-up period. The findings underscore the need for monitoring SEPs during surgery in all patients undergoing invasive lumbar surgery and for rapid identification and intervention should a unilateral SEP change persist.
Generation of genome-modified Drosophila cell lines using SwAP

ABSTRACT The ease of generating genetically modified animals and cell lines has been markedly increased by the recent development of the versatile CRISPR/Cas9 tool. However, while the isolation of isogenic cell populations is usually straightforward for mammalian cell lines, the generation of clonal Drosophila cell lines has remained a longstanding challenge, hampered by the difficulty of getting Drosophila cells to grow at low densities. Here, we describe a highly efficient workflow to generate clonal Cas9-engineered Drosophila cell lines using a combination of cell pools, limiting dilution in conditioned medium and PCR with allele-specific primers, enabling the efficient selection of a clonal cell line with a suitable mutation profile. We validate the protocol by documenting the isolation, selection and verification of eight independently Cas9-edited armadillo mutant Drosophila cell lines. Our method provides a powerful and simple workflow that improves the utility of Drosophila cells for genetic studies with CRISPR/Cas9.
A TECHNIQUE FOR INCREASING THE SENSITIVITY OF A SOLID-STATE FISSION PROBE

A small silicon p-n junction wafer, when coated with uranium 235, can be used as a compact fission probe for low power flux and power mapping. Because of the inverse relation between the magnitude of a neutron-induced fission pulse and the inherent capacitance of the detecting element (capacitance is proportional to area), the size, and hence the sensitivity, of the semiconductor detector has been limited. New developments in the field of semiconductor detectors have made it possible to fabricate large area detectors which are essentially free from the capacitance effect. However, preliminary results indicate that they are much more susceptible to radiation damage than the detectors described in this report and as such may not be suitable for flux mapping. increasing the sensitivity cannot be accomplished by simply fabricating a larger detector. It has been observed that by combining the silicon p-n junction wafers in a series configuration the capacitance effect can be bypassed, and a fission probe can be made with a resultant increase in sensitivity by a factor of ten while sustaining only a minor decrease in pulse height. Analysis further indicates that for n silicon wafers in series, if n(C(sub i)) + C(sub c)/C(sub b) less than 0.1 where C(sub i) and C(sub c) are the preamplifier input and cable capacitances, respectively, and C(sub b) is the junction capacitance of a single silicon wafer, there should be no substantial reduction in pulse height due to series circuitry.