Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nerve guidance conduit with a hybrid structure of a PLGA microfibrous bundle wrapped in a micro/nanostructured membrane

Nerve repair in tissue engineering involves the precise construction of a scaffold to guide nerve cell regeneration in the desired direction. However, improvements are needed to facilitate the cell migration/growth rate of nerves in the center of a nerve conduit. In this paper, we propose a nerve guidance conduit with a hybrid structure comprising a microfibrous poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) bundle wrapped in a micro/nanostructured PLGA membrane. We applied sequential fabrication processes, including photolithography, nano-electroforming, and polydimethylsiloxane casting to manufacture master molds for the repeated production of the PLGA subelements. After demolding it from the master molds, we rolled the microfibrous membrane into a bundle and then wrapped it in the micro/nanostructured membrane to form a nerve-guiding conduit. We used KT98/F1B-GFP cells to estimate the migration rate and guidance ability of the fabricated nerve conduit and found that both elements increased the migration rate 1.6-fold compared with a flat PLGA membrane. We also found that 90% of the cells in the hybrid nano/microstructured membrane grew in the direction of the designed patterns. After 3 days of culturing, the interior of the nerve conduit was filled with cells, and the microfiber bundle was also surrounded by cells. Our conduit cell culture results also demonstrate that the proposed micro/nanohybrid and microfibrous structures can retain their shapes. The proposed hybrid-structured conduit demonstrates a high capability for guiding nerve cells and promoting cell migration, and, as such, is feasible for use in clinical applications.
Clustering Properties of Rest-Frame UV-Selected Galaxies. I. the Correlation Length Derived from GALEX Data in the Local Universe

We present the first measurements of the angular correlation function of galaxies selected in the far (1530 Å) and near (2310 Å) ultraviolet from the GALEX survey fields overlapping SDSS DR5 in low Galactic extinction regions. The area used covers 120 deg2 (GALEX Medium Imaging Survey) down to magnitude AB = 22, yielding a total of 100,000 galaxies. The mean correlation length is ~3.7 ± 0.6 Mpc, and no significant trend is seen for this value as a function of the limiting apparent magnitude or between the GALEX bands. This estimate is close to that found from samples of blue galaxies in the local universe selected in the visible and similar to that derived at z≃ 3 for LBGs with similar rest frame selection criteria. This result supports models that predict antibiasing of star-forming galaxies at low redshift and brings an additional clue to the downsizing of star formation at z < 1.
Electrostatic transition state stabilization rather than reactant destabilization provides the chemical basis for efficient chorismate mutase catalysis

Significance Chorismate mutase (CM) is a textbook model for enzyme catalysis. Although it promotes a simple unimolecular reaction, the origins of its 2-million–fold rate acceleration have been debated for decades. The relative importance of electrostatic transition state stabilization versus ground state destabilization has been a particularly contentious issue. High-resolution crystallographic snapshots of an engineered CM variant and its complexes with substrate, transition state analog, and product now provide strong experimental evidence that properly positioned active-site charges are essential in this system and that preorganization of the substrate in a reactive conformation contributes relatively little to catalysis. A proper understanding of the role of electrostatics in this and other enzymes is important for ongoing efforts to design new enzymes de novo. For more than half a century, transition state theory has provided a useful framework for understanding the origins of enzyme catalysis. As proposed by Pauling, enzymes accelerate chemical reactions by binding transition states tighter than substrates, thereby lowering the activation energy compared with that of the corresponding uncatalyzed process. This paradigm has been challenged for chorismate mutase (CM), a well-characterized metabolic enzyme that catalyzes the rearrangement of chorismate to prephenate. Calculations have predicted the decisive factor in CM catalysis to be ground state destabilization rather than transition state stabilization. Using X-ray crystallography, we show, in contrast, that a sluggish variant of Bacillus subtilis CM, in which a cationic active-site arginine was replaced by a neutral citrulline, is a poor catalyst even though it effectively preorganizes chorismate for the reaction. A series of high-resolution molecular snapshots of the reaction coordinate, including the apo enzyme, and complexes with substrate, transition state analog and product, demonstrate that an active site, which is only complementary in shape to a reactive substrate conformer, is insufficient for effective catalysis. Instead, as with other enzymes, electrostatic stabilization of the CM transition state appears to be crucial for achieving high reaction rates.
Depression, Stress, Anxiety and Mindfulness in Nursing Students

Purpose: This study was designed to explore the relationship of depression with stress, anxiety and mindfulness in nursing students in 2010. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used and data was collected through structured questionnaires. Depression, stress, anxiety, and mindfulness were measured by using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) and the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). The data were analyzed using t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression. Results: A total of 131 nursing students participated in this study. Depression was positively associated with stress (r=. 81, p
Mobile Introns Shape the Genetic Diversity of Their Host Genes

Self-splicing introns populate several highly conserved protein-coding genes in fungal and plant mitochondria. In fungi, many of these introns have. Self-splicing introns populate several highly conserved protein-coding genes in fungal and plant mitochondria. In fungi, many of these introns have retained their ability to spread to intron-free target sites, often assisted by intron-encoded endonucleases that initiate the homing process. Here, leveraging population genomic data from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, and Lachancea kluyveri, we expose nonrandom patterns of genetic diversity in exons that border self-splicing introns. In particular, we show that, in all three species, the density of single nucleotide polymorphisms increases as one approaches a mobile intron. Through multiple lines of evidence, we rule out relaxed purifying selection as the cause of uneven nucleotide diversity. Instead, our findings implicate intron mobility as a direct driver of host gene diversity. We discuss two mechanistic scenarios that are consistent with the data: either endonuclease activity and subsequent error-prone repair have left a mutational footprint on the insertion environment of mobile introns or nonrandom patterns of genetic diversity are caused by exonic coconversion, which occurs when introns spread to empty target sites via homologous recombination. Importantly, however, we show that exonic coconversion can only explain diversity gradients near intron–exon boundaries if the conversion template comes from outside the population. In other words, there must be pervasive and ongoing horizontal gene transfer of self-splicing introns into extant fungal populations.
HIV prevalence and related risk behaviours among female sex workers in Iran: results of the national biobehavioural survey, 2010

Objectives To determine the prevalence of HIV and related behavioural risks among Iranian female sex workers (FSW) via the first national biobehavioural surveillance survey. Methods In 2010, 1005 FSW were approached and 872 recruited using facility-based sampling from 21 sites in 14 cities in Iran. We collected dried blood samples and conducted face-to-face interviews using a standardised questionnaire. Data were weighted based on the response rate and adjusted for the clustering effect of the sampling site. Adjustment was performed by weighting based on the sampling fraction of each site using a prior estimate of its total size of the FSW population. Results The prevalence of HIV infection (95% CI) was 4.5% (2.4 to 8.3) overall, 4.8% (2.2 to 9.8) among those who had reported a history of drug use and 11.2% (5.4 to 21.5) among those who had a history of injection drug use. The frequencies of condom use in the last sexual act with paying clients and non-paying partners were 57.1% and 36.3%, respectively. Any drug use was reported by 73.8% of participants, and among this subgroup, 20.5% had a history of injection drug use. Conclusions The prevalence of HIV was considerable among FSW particularly those who had a history of drug injection. A combination of prevention efforts addressing unsafe sex and injection are needed to prevent further transmission of HIV infection.
Optimal Model for the Controller Placement Problem in Software Defined Networks

In this letter, we propose a mathematical model for the controller placement problem in Software Defined Networks (SDN). More precisely, given a set of switches that must be managed by the controller(s), the model simultaneously determines the optimal number, location, and type of controller(s) as well as the interconnections between all the network elements. The goal of the model is to minimize the cost of the network while considering different constraints. The simulation results show that the model can be used to plan small scale SDN. When trying to solve larger instances of the problem, the solver is taking too much time and also running out of memory. The proposed model could be used by various enterprises and cloud-based networks to start integrating SDN or plan a new SDN.
A Social-Ecological Framework for Urban Stewardship Network Research to Promote Sustainable and Resilient Cities

To realize more sustainable and resilient urban social-ecological systems, there is great need for active engagement from diverse public agencies, non-profit organizations, businesses, natural resource managers, scientists, and other actors. Cities present unique challenges and opportunities for sustainability and resilience, as issues and organizations are frequently intertwined in networks of relations. Understanding and leveraging the range of knowledge types, motivations, skills, and goals of diverse participants and their networks is fundamental to sustainable and resilient cities. As efforts to examine and understand urban stewardship networks continue to emerge, it is increasingly clear that there are no structured or systematic frameworks to guide the integration of social and ecological phenomena. Such a framework could facilitate planning new urban stewardship network research, and provide a basis for comparisons among cities and their urban stewardship networks. In this paper, we develop and present a social-ecological framework for examining and understanding urban stewardship networks. To illustrate this framework and provide examples of its prospective and evaluative utility, we use examples from the U.S. Forest Service’s Stewardship Mapping (STEW-MAP) network in the United States from Baltimore, MD, USA, New York City, NY, USA, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA, and Seattle, WA, USA.
The parietal cortex and attentional modulations of activities of the visual cortex

We recorded high density event-related brain potentials (ERPs) from a patient with focal left parietal damage in a covert visual orienting task requiring detection of targets in the attended or unattended hemifield. A positivity peaking at 120 ms (P1) to the left visual field stimuli was enlarged when attended than unattended and was localized to the right extrastirate cortex. However, spatial attention did not influence the ERPs to the right visual field stimuli. The leftward cue elicited an enlarged P1 relative to the rightward cue. The results suggest that human parietal cortex is critical for the attentional modulation of the neural activities in the extrastriate cortex associated with stimuli in the contralateral hemifield.
The Pursuit of Organizational Intelligence: Decisions and Learning in Organizations

From the Publisher: The Pursuit of Organizational Intelligence brings together the writing of one of the best-known academics in the field of decision-making and organizational theory. While this is a new book, not a new edition, it acts as a sequel to March's earlier Decisions and Organizations. The collection of republished articles reflects the shift in March's thinking, and therefore the shift in teaching of organizational theory generally, towards a 'softer', more European approach since the late 1980s.
Studies on the immune response to penicillin and cephalothin in humans. II. Immunohematologic reactions to cephalothin administration.

The characteristics of immunohematologic reactions to cephalothin were investigated with emphasis on the incidence and mechanism of development of positive antiglobulin tests. Three hundred twenty direct antiglobulin tests were performed on 97 patients who received cephalothin at an average dose of 6.3 g/day and for an average of 5.5 days. Four of the 97 patients developed a positive antiglobulin test for an incidence of 4%. Studies were done concerning the mechanism of the positive direct antiglobulin tests. The data indicate that nonimmunologic binding of proteins occurs in vitro since multiple absorptions of a serum with cephalothin-sensitized erythrocytes revealed that the cephalothin-sensitized cells absorb IgG and other serum proteins, even after repeated absorptions sufficient to remove all cephalothin antibodies. Non-immunologic binding of proteins to cephalothin-sensitized red cells was further confirmed by demonstrating the absorption of complement (C3) from EDTA-plasma, and by the absorption of albumin. Such a mechanism may operate in vivo since cephalothin, when added to whole blood at a concentration of 500 µg/ml, causes protein absorption to the erythrocytes. An immune mechanism causes positive antiglobulin tests in vivo as evidenced by the fact that eluates from patients9 erythrocytes react with cephalothin-and penicillin-sensitized erythrocytes but not with non-sensitized erythrocytes. Further, eluates from Rh sensitized erythrocytes did not react with cephalothin-sensitized red cells indicating that the concentration of antibody protein in such eluates is not high enough to produce positive indirect antiglobulin tests by the mechanism of non-immunologic absorption of proteins. Studies characterizing the serum cephalothin antibodies revealed IgM antibodies in 88% of 40 sera tested. Although IgG antibodies occurred in only 25% of these sera, the sera of four patients having a positive antiglobulin test all contained high titer IgG antibodies. Absorption of sera of patients with positive antiglobulin tests with penicillin-sensitized erythrocytes revealed varying degrees of cross-reactivity with such erythrocytes.
Twenty Years of Experience with the Preoperative Diagnosis of Medullary Cancer in a Moderately Iodine-Deficient Region

Background. There is a current debate in the medical literature about plasma calcitonin screening in patients with nodular goiter (NG). We decided on analyzing our 20-year experience with patients in an iodine-deficient region (ID). Patients and Methods. 22,857 consecutive patients with NG underwent ultrasonography and aspiration cytology (FNAC). If FNAC raised suspicion of medullary cancer (MTC), the serum calcitonin was measured. Results. 4,601 patients underwent surgery; there were 23 patients among them who had MTC (0.1% prevalence). Significantly more MTC cases were diagnosed cytologically in the second decade than in the first: 11/12 and 6/11, respectively. The frozen section was of help in 2 cases out of 3. Two patients suffered from a 3-year delay in proper therapy, and reoperation was necessary in 1 case. FNAC raised the suspicion of MTC in 20 cases that were later histologically verified and did not present MTC. The diagnostic accuracy of FNAC in diagnosing MTC was 99.2%. Two false-positive serum calcitonin tests (one of them in a hemodialyzed patient) and one false-negative serum calcitonin test occurred in 40 cases. Conclusion. Regarding the low prevalence of MTC in ID regions, calcitonin screening of all NG patients does not only appear superfluously but may have more disadvantages than advantages.
A Hybrid System for Spanish Text Simplification

This paper addresses the problem of automatic text simplification. Automatic text simplifications aims at reducing the reading difficulty for people with cognitive disability, among other target groups. We describe an automatic text simplification system for Spanish which combines a rule based core module with a statistical support module that controls the application of rules in the wrong contexts. Our system is integrated in a service architecture which includes a web service and mobile applications.
Ziziphora clinopodioides Essential Oil and Nisin as Potential Antimicrobial Agents against Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Doogh (Iranian Yoghurt Drink)

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of Ziziphora clinopodioides essential oil (0.1 and 0.2%) and nisin (250 and 500 IU/mL) separately and in combination on survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 inoculated in Doogh (Iranian yoghurt drink) during storage under refrigerated temperature (4 ± 1°C) for 9 days. Viability of Lactobacillus casei at different concentrations of Z. clinopodioides essential oil (0.1 and 0.2%) in Doogh was also examined. The major components were carvacrol (64.22%), thymol (19.22%), γ-terpinene (4.63%), and p-cymene (4.86%). There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between samples treated with nisin and those of untreated samples. Samples treated with both concentrations of the essential oil (0.1 and 0.2%) showed populations of E. coli O157:H7 significantly (p < 0.05) lower than those of untreated samples. The essential oil of Z. clinopodioides in combination with nisin had a potential synergistic effect against E. coli O157:H7 in Doogh samples after 5 days. The count of L. casei was not inhibited by different concentrations of the Z. clinopodioides essential oil. It is concluded that the leaf essential oil of Z. clinopodioides in combination with nisin can be applied as alternative antimicrobial agents in Doogh to inhibit the growth of E. coli O157:H7.
Standardized terminology and nomenclature for pancreatobiliary cytology: The Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology Guidelines

The Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology has developed a set of guidelines for pancreatobiliary cytology including indications for endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy, techniques of EUS-FNA, terminology and nomenclature of pancreatobiliary disease, ancillary testing and post-biopsy treatment and management. All documents are based on the expertise of the authors, a review of the literature, discussion of the draft document at several national and international meetings over an 18 month period and synthesis of online comments of the draft document on the Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology web site [www.papsociety. org]. This document selectively presents the results of these discussions and focuses on a proposed standardized terminology scheme for pancreatobiliary specimens that correlate cytological diagnosis with biological behavior and increasingly conservative patient management of surveillance only. The proposed terminology scheme recommends a six-tiered system: Non-diagnostic, negative, atypical, neoplastic [benign or other], suspicious and positive. Unique to this scheme is the “neoplastic” category separated into “benign” (serous cystadenoma) or “other” (premalignant mucinous cysts, neuroendocrine tumors and solid-pseudopapillary neoplasms (SPNs)). The positive or malignant category is reserved for high-grade, aggressive malignancies including ductal adenocarcinoma, acinar cell carcinoma, poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas, pancreatoblastoma, lymphoma and metastases. Interpretation categories do not have to be used. Some pathology laboratory information systems require an interpretation category, which places the cytological diagnosis into a general category. This proposed scheme provides terminology that standardizes the category of the various diseases of the pancreas, some of which are difficult to diagnose specifically by cytology. In addition, this terminology scheme attempts to provide maximum flexibility for patient management, which has become increasingly conservative for some neoplasms.
Role of Motility in Adherence to and Invasion of a Fish Cell Line by Vibrio anguillarum

ABSTRACT To understand further the role of the flagellum of Vibrio anguillarum in virulence, invasive and adhesive properties of isogenic motility mutants were analyzed by using a chinook salmon embryo cell line. Adhesion was unaffected but invasion of the cell line was significantly decreased in nonmotile or partially motile mutants, and the chemotactic mutant was hyperinvasive. These results suggest that active motility aids invasion by V. anguillarum, both in vivo and in vitro.
Oxidative neurotoxicity in rat cerebral cortex neurons: Synergistic effects of H2O2 and NO on apoptosis involving activation of p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase and caspase‐3

Oxidative stress in the brain has been increasingly associated with the development of numerous human neurological diseases. Microglia, activated upon neuronal injury or inflammatory stimulation, are known to release superoxide anion (·O 2− ), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and nitric oxide (NO), thereby further contributing to oxidative neurotoxicity. The reaction of NO and ·O 2− , forming the toxic peroxynitrite (ONOO−), has been proposed to play a pathogenic role in neuronal injury. However, the interactions between H2O2 and NO during oxidative stress, which may promote or diminish cell death, is less clear. In this study, we explored oxidative neurotoxicity induced by H2O2 plus NO in primary cultures of rat cerebral cortex neurons. As the mechanisms may involve reactions between H2O2 and NO, we monitored the production of ONOO−and reactive oxygen species (ROS) throughout the experiments. Results indicated that the NO donor S‐nitroso‐N‐acetyl‐D, L‐penicillamine (SNAP) and H2O2 by themselves elicited neuronal death in a concentration‐ and time‐dependent manner. Sublytic concentrations of H2O2 plus SNAP were sufficient to induce neuronal apoptosis as determined by DNA laddering and fluorescent staining of apoptotic nuclei. Transient ONOO−increase was accompanied by rapid H2O2 decay and NO production, whereas ROS slowly decreased following treatment. Furthermore, p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation and the cleavage of caspase‐3 were observed. Conversely, inhibition of p38 MAPK and caspase‐3 significantly reduced apoptotic death induced by H2O2 plus SNAP. These data suggest that H2O2 and NO act synergistically to induce neuronal death through apoptosis in which activation of p38 MAPK and caspase‐3 is involved. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.