Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mitochondrial and myoplasmic [Ca2+] in single fibres from mouse limb muscles during repeated tetanic contractions

Previous studies on single fast‐twitch fibres from mouse toe muscles have shown marked fatigue‐induced changes in the free myoplasmic [Ca2+] ([Ca2+]i), while mitochondrial [Ca2+] remained unchanged. We have now investigated whether muscle fibres from the legs of mice respond in a similar way. Intact, single fibres were dissected from the soleus and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles of adult mice. To measure [Ca2+]i, indo‐1 was injected into the isolated fibres. Mitochondrial [Ca2+] was measured using Rhod‐2 and confocal laser microscopy. Fatigue was induced by up to 1000 tetanic contractions (70 Hz) given at 2 s intervals. In soleus fibres, there was no significant decrease in tetanic [Ca2+]i at the end of the fatiguing stimulation, whereas tetanic force was significantly reduced by about 30 %. In 10 out of 14 soleus fibres loaded with Rhod‐2 and subjected to fatigue, mitochondrial [Ca2+] increased to a maximum after about 50 tetani; this increase was fully reversed within 20 min after the end of stimulation. The force‐frequency curve of the non‐responding soleus fibres was shifted to higher frequencies compared to that of the responding fibres. In addition, eight out of nine Rhod‐2‐loaded EDL fibres showed similar changes in mitochondrial [Ca2+] during and after a period of fatiguing stimulation. The stimulation‐induced increase in mitochondrial [Ca2+] was reduced when mitochondria were depolarised by application of carbonyl cyanide 4‐(trifluoromethoxy)phenylhydrazone, whereas it was increased by application of an inhibitor of the mitochondrial Na+/Ca2+ exchange (CGP‐37157). In conclusion, isolated slow‐twitch muscle fibres show only modest changes in tetanic force and [Ca2+]i during repeated contractions. The increase in mitochondrial Ca2+ does not appear to be essential for activation of mitochondrial ATP production, nor does it cause muscle damage.
Simultaneous Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Multiple Chemical Constituents in YiQiFuMai Injection by Ultra-Fast Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Ion Trap Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

YiQiFuMai injection (YQFM) is a modern lyophilized powder preparation derived from the traditional Chinese medicine Sheng-mai san (SMS) used for treating cardiovascular diseases, such as chronic heart failure. However, its chemical composition has not been fully elucidated, particularly for the preparation derived from Ophiopogon japonicus. This study aimed to establish a systematic and reliable method to quickly and simultaneously analyze the chemical constituents in YQFM by ultra-fast liquid chromatography coupled with ion trap time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UFLC-IT-TOF/MS). Sixty-five compounds in YQFM were tentatively identified by comparison with reference substances or literature data. Furthermore, twenty-one compounds, including three ophiopogonins, fifteen ginsenosides and three lignans were quantified by UFLC-IT-TOF/MS. Notably, this is the first determination of steroidal saponins from O. japonicus in YQFM. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of intra- and inter-day precision, reproducibility and stability were <4.9% and all analytes showed good linearity (R2 ≥ 0.9952) and acceptable recovery of 91.8%–104.2% (RSD ≤ 5.4%), indicating that the methods were reliable. These methods were successfully applied to quantitative analysis of ten batches of YQFM. The developed approach can provide useful and comprehensive information for quality control, further mechanistic studies in vivo and clinical application of YQFM.
Top Ten Lists of Software Project Risks : Evidence from the Literature Survey

—Software project risk management is crucial for the software development projects. It is used for project planning and control purposes during the project execution. Risk management will help reduce project failure. To mange software project risks, the first step is to identify a list of risks for checklist. Researchers have tried to investigate common risk factors and proposed the top ten lists of software risks. However, a number of top ten lists were suggested in the literature. This article compiled a list of top ten software risk lists reviewed in the literature. The results from the analysis reveal that planning and control is the dimension of risks which mentioned most and misunderstanding of the requirement lack of management commitment and support are the most frequent mentioned software risks. However, project managers may benefit from applying these results but have to aware of the factors affecting these results
Interaction of penicillin with the bacterial cell: penicillin-binding proteins and penicillin-sensitive enzymes.

INTRODUCTION . 291 General . 291 Cell Waill Structure and Synthesis . 292 Identification of the Target of Penicillin Action . 293 PENICILLIN-BINDING COMPONENTS . 296 What Is Actually Bound? 298 How Much Penicillin Do Cells Bind? 298 Is the Penicillin Bound Covalently? 299 To What Group Does PenicillinBind? 299 Under What Conditions Can Penicillin Be Released from the PBCs? 300 What Is the Physical Nature ofthe PBCs? 300 Are PBCs Located in Peripheral Membranes, Mesosomes, or Both? 301 Do Organisms Have One or Multiple Proteins Which Bind Penicillin? 301 Isolation ofPBCs by Covalent Affinity Chromatography . 303 What Is the Relationship of the PBCs to the Killing Site? 304 Biochemical Evidence for the Involvement ofPBCs in Peptidoglycan Synthesis . 305 PENICILLIN-SENSITIVE ENZYMES . 306 Transpeptidase. 306 Transpeptidase assayed with natural acceptor in a coupled system . 306 Transpeptidase assayed with unnatural acceptor in a coupled system . 307 Transpeptidase assayed in a simple, uncoupled system . 307 D-Alanine Carboxypeptidase . 308 E. coli carboxypeptidase . 309 Carboxypeptidases from Bacillus . 309 Streptomyces carboxypeptidases . 309 Endopeptidase. 313 Other Activities . 314 Number of Enzymes Corresponding to the Different Penicillin-Sensitive Enzymatic Activities . 314 Relationship ofthe Penicillin-Sensitive Enzymes to the PBCs . 316 Physiological Functions ofthe Penicillin-Sensitive Enzymes . 316 Physiological Evidence for the Existence of Multiple Transpeptidases . 318 Kinetics of Penicillin Inhibition . 319 Models for the Interaction ofPenicillin with Its Target . 321 MECHANISM OF KILLING BY PENICILLINS . 324 Mutant Analysis. 324 Evidence That Penicillin Kills by Inhibiting Cross-Linking . 324 Killing by Amidino Penicillin . 325 Transfer of Penicillin Side Chain . 325 CONTROL OF CELL WALL SYNTHESIS . 326 SUMMARY . 327 LITERATURE CITED . 327
Maternal Nutrient Restriction Alters Ca2+ Handling Properties and Contractile Function of Isolated Left Ventricle Bundles in Male But Not Female Juvenile Rats

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), defined as a birth weight below the 10th centile, may be caused by maternal undernutrition, with evidence that IUGR offspring have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adulthood. Calcium ions (Ca2+) are an integral messenger for several steps associated with excitation-contraction coupling (ECC); the cascade of events from the initiation of an action potential at the surface membrane, to contraction of the cardiomyocyte. Any changes in Ca2+ storage and release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), or sensitivity of the contractile apparatus to Ca2+ may underlie the mechanism linking IUGR to an increased risk of CVD. This study aimed to explore the effects of maternal nutrient restriction on cardiac function, including Ca2+ handling by the SR and force development by the contractile apparatus. Juvenile Long Evans hooded rats born to Control (C) and nutrient restricted (NR) dams were anaesthetized for collection of the heart at 10–12 weeks of age. Left ventricular bundles from male NR offspring displayed increased maximum Ca2+-activated force, and decreased protein content of troponin I (cTnI) compared to C males. Furthermore, male NR offspring showed a reduction in rate of rise of the caffeine-induced Ca2+ force response and a decrease in the protein content of ryanodine receptor (RYR2). These physiological and biochemical findings observed in males were not evident in female offspring. These findings illustrate a sex-specific effect of maternal NR on cardiac development, and also highlight a possible mechanism for the development of hypertension and hypertrophy in male NR offspring.
A Photogrammetric Workflow for the Creation of a Forest Canopy Height Model from Small Unmanned Aerial System Imagery

The recent development of operational small unmanned aerial systems (UASs) opens the door for their extensive use in forest mapping, as both the spatial and temporal resolution of UAS imagery better suit local-scale investigation than traditional remote sensing tools. This article focuses on the use of combined photogrammetry and “Structure from Motion” approaches in order to model the forest canopy surface from low-altitude aerial images. An original workflow, using the open source and free photogrammetric toolbox, MICMAC (acronym for Multi Image Matches for Auto Correlation Methods), was set up to create a digital canopy surface model of deciduous stands. In combination with a co-registered light detection and ranging (LiDAR) digital terrain model, the elevation of vegetation was determined, and the resulting hybrid photo/LiDAR canopy height model was compared to data from a LiDAR canopy height model and from forest inventory data. Linear regressions predicting dominant height and individual height from plot metrics and crown metrics showed that the photogrammetric canopy height model was of good quality for deciduous stands. Although photogrammetric reconstruction significantly smooths the canopy surface, the use of this workflow has the potential to take full advantage of the flexible revisit period of drones in order to refresh the LiDAR canopy height model and to collect dense multitemporal canopy height series.
Inferring social network structure in ecological systems from spatio-temporal data streams

We propose a methodology for extracting social network structure from spatio-temporal datasets that describe timestamped occurrences of individuals. Our approach identifies temporal regions of dense agent activity and links are drawn between individuals based on their co-occurrences across these ‘gathering events’. The statistical significance of these connections is then tested against an appropriate null model. Such a framework allows us to exploit the wealth of analytical and computational tools of network analysis in settings where the underlying connectivity pattern between interacting agents (commonly termed the adjacency matrix) is not given a priori. We perform experiments on two large-scale datasets (greater than 106 points) of great tit Parus major wild bird foraging records and illustrate the use of this approach by examining the temporal dynamics of pairing behaviour, a process that was previously very hard to observe. We show that established pair bonds are maintained continuously, whereas new pair bonds form at variable times before breeding, but are characterized by a rapid development of network proximity. The method proposed here is general, and can be applied to any system with information about the temporal co-occurrence of interacting agents.
Keyword Extraction from Arabic Documents using Term Equivalence Classes

The rapid growth of the Internet and other computing facilities in recent years has resulted in the creation of a large amount of text in electronic form, which has increased the interest in and importance of different automatic text processing applications, including keyword extraction and term indexing. Although keywords are very useful for many applications, most documents available online are not provided with keywords. We describe a method for extracting keywords from Arabic documents. This method identifies the keywords by combining linguistics and statistical analysis of the text without using prior knowledge from its domain or information from any related corpus. The text is preprocessed to extract the main linguistic information, such as the roots and morphological patterns of derivative words. A cleaning phase is then applied to eliminate the meaningless words from the text. The most frequent terms are clustered into equivalence classes in which the derivative words generated from the same root and the non-derivative words generated from the same stem are placed together, and their count is accumulated. A vector space model is then used to capture the most frequent N-gram in the text. Experiments carried out using a real-world dataset show that the proposed method achieves good results with an average precision of 31% and average recall of 53% when tested against manually assigned keywords.
Educative Research, Voice, and School Change

In this article Andrew David Gitlin argues that the politics of research is not adequately addressed in current educational research. This, he says, is because methodological discourse often focuses on traditional definitions of reliability, validity, and compatibility, which ignore how method structures a particular type of relationship between the researcher and those studied. Most traditional methods, Gitlin writes, establish an alienating relationship which silences those studied, disregards their personal knowledge, and strengthens the assumption that researchers are the producers of knowledge.To alter this relationship, Gitlin proposes the use of "educative research," a dialogical approach that attempts to develop voice as a form of political protest. He then outlines the theoretical assumptions of educative research, and describes his experience using this method with twenty public school teachers. Drawing on the teachers' writings in his research, Gitlin describes how the use of personal and schoo.
Firing features and potassium channel content of murine spiral ganglion neurons vary with cochlear location

Neurons from varied regions of the central nervous system can show widely divergent responses to electrical stimuli that are determined by cell‐specific differences in ion channel composition. The well‐ordered and highly characterized peripheral auditory system allows one to explore the significance of this diversity during the final stages of postnatal development. We examined the electrophysiological features of murine spiral ganglion neurons in vitro at a time when recordings could be made from the cell bodies before myelination. These cells carry information about sound stimuli from hair cell receptors in the basilar membrane and are arranged tonotopically. Spiral ganglion neuron responses to depolarizing current injection were assessed with whole‐cell current clamp recordings from cells that were isolated separately from the apical and basal thirds of the mouse cochlea. These cells displayed systematic variation in their firing. Apex neurons (low frequency coding) showed longer latency, slowly adapting responses, whereas base neurons (high frequency coding) showed short latency, rapidly adapting responses to the same stimuli. This physiological diversity was mirrored by regional differences in ion channel content assessed immunohistochemically. Apex neurons had a preponderance of Kv4.2 subunits, whereas base neurons possessed greater levels of KCa, Kv1.1, and Kv3.1 subunits. Taken together, these results indicate that the distribution of a set of voltage‐gated potassium channels may relate specifically to a particular range of coding frequencies. These studies also suggest that intrinsic properties of spiral ganglion neurons can contribute to the characteristic responses of the peripheral auditory system. Their potential role in development and adult function is discussed. J. Comp. Neurol. 447:331–350, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Relating adaptive genetic traits to climate for Sandberg bluegrass from the intermountain western United States

Genetic variation for potentially adaptive traits of the key restoration species Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda J. Presl) was assessed over the intermountain western United States in relation to source population climate. Common gardens were established at two intermountain west sites with progeny from two maternal parents from each of 130 wild populations. Data were collected over 2 years at each site on fifteen plant traits associated with production, phenology, and morphology. Analyses of variance revealed strong population differences for all plant traits (P < 0.0001), indicating genetic variation. Both the canonical correlation and linear correlation established associations between source populations and climate variability. Populations from warmer, more arid climates had generally lower dry weight, earlier phenology, and smaller, narrower leaves than those from cooler, moister climates. The first three canonical variates were regressed with climate variables resulting in significant models (P < 0.0001) used to map 12 seed zones. Of the 700 981 km2 mapped, four seed zones represented 92% of the area in typically semi‐arid and arid regions. The association of genetic variation with source climates in the intermountain west suggested climate driven natural selection and evolution. We recommend seed transfer zones and population movement guidelines to enhance adaptation and diversity for large‐scale restoration projects.
The relations between Technologies for Human Learning and Agents

In this position paper we review the historical emergence of Agents and the current developments around our integrated Web and Agent platform. The focus of the paper is to show that research results in Intelligent Tutoring and Learning Environments are strongly related to most of current hot issues in Agents and Agent Communication Languages, and vice- versa: that realistic dialogues for Human Learning will be generated by advances in models and tools for Agent Communication.
Near and mid infrared observations of ultracompact HII regions

This review discusses near- and mid- infrared observations of Ultracompact (UC) HII regions. The importance of ISO mid-IR fine-structure nebular lines is emphasised, since only a small fraction of UCHII regions are observed directly in the near-IR. The reliability of contemporary atmospheric models for such indirect diagnostics is discussed, whilst a revised spectral type-temperature calibration is presented for Galactic O3 to B3 dwarfs. In particular, fine-structure line derived properties of G29.96–0.02 differ from the direct near-IR spectroscopic result and represents a serious discrepancy which needs to be addressed. Mid-IR MSX and Spitzer imaging permits the identification of those UCHII regions for which far-IR IRAS fluxes are reliable, relevant to the single versus cluster nature of individual sources. High spatial resolution imaging with ground-based 8m telescopes allows more direct tests, as recently applied to G70.29+1.60. Finally, recent Spitzer mid-IR observations of Giant HII regions are briefly discussed.
Provisional chapter Porous Nanocarbons : Molecular Filtration and Electronics

Graphene is an atomically thick monolayer formed by hexagonally arranged carbon atoms with sp2 planar covalent bonds [1]. It has unique mechanical [2], electronic [3], optical [4], and transport properties [5], leading to many potential applications [6]. Its low-energy electron excitations are 2D massless chiral Dirac fermions [3], moving 300 times slower than light [7]. These fermions have nearly ballistic transport and high mobility at room temperature [3, 5, 7–9]. In magnetic fields, their motion is associated with several quantum Hall effects, observable at room temperature [10, 11]. Many methods have been proposed to fabricate large-area semiconducting graphene materials, such as chemical [12–14], sonochemical [15], and lithographic [16, 17] methods. Graphene is a great candidate for electronic applications [6], especially upon further functionalization [18–20]. Graphene was modified by wrapping [21–24], oxidation [25–27], etching [12, 28, 29], covalent [20, 30–34], noncovalent [20, 35], and biological [36] functionalization.
Astrocyte process growth induction by actin breakdown

cAMP analogues such as dibutyryl cAMP (dBcAMP) have been shown to induce the formation of processes in cultured primary astrocytes. We observe that the processes form by elongation as well as the previously reported retraction of cytoplasm around cytoskeletal elements. The most prominent cytoskeletal change that occurs in response to dBcAMP is a rearrangement of actin filaments characterized by a loss of cortical F- actin staining and the appearance of actin filament staining at the tips of the processes. If cortical actin filaments are disrupted with dihydrocytochalasin B, processes form that are similar to those induced by dBcAMP suggesting that the disruption of the cortical actin network is the pivotal step in process formation. Reorganization of the actin filament network in response to cAMP is accompanied by a decrease in phosphate incorporation into the regulatory light chain of myosin (MLC). Two selective inhibitors of MLC kinase (MLCK), ML-9 and KT5926, as well as a calmodulin antagonist (W7), which would also inhibit MLCK activation, all induce astrocytic process growth implicating MLCK as a control point in process initiation. We also found that dBcAMP and ML-9 both cause a decrease in the phosphate content of actin depolymerizing factor, suggesting that this protein and myosin light chain are the effectors of actin cytoskeleton reorganization and process growth.
Modulation of postjunctional α‐adrenergic vasoconstriction during exercise and exogenous ATP infusions in ageing humans

Non‐technical summary When muscles contract, a variety of signals interact and ultimately increase blood flow and oxygen delivery to the active muscle. However, when there is simultaneous activation of the sympathetic nervous system, noradrenaline (norepinephrine) is released which tries to cause vasoconstriction in the same blood vessels that are trying to relax (vasodilate). In young adults, we have shown that there is a unique ability of the contracting muscle to limit this vasoconstriction, and also that a circulating factor called ATP mimics the exercise response. In the present study, we demonstrate that older healthy adults have an impaired ability to limit the sympathetic vasoconstrictor signal during exercise; however, this ability is preserved when we administer ATP. Thus, if this impairment in the ability of contracting muscle to limit sympathetic vasoconstriction in older adults is related to ATP, we speculate that circulating levels of ATP may be impaired during exercise.
Secondary Prevention of Ischemic Stroke in Urban China

Background and Purpose— We aimed to describe the uptake of proven secondary prevention strategies for ischemic stroke in urban China. Methods— In a prospective, multicenter, hospital-based registry of 4782 cases of acute ischemic stroke in China during 2006, the use of secondary prevention regimens was evaluated before hospital discharge and 3 and 12 months after stroke. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine associations between various baseline variables and in-hospital use of antihypertensive, antiplatelet, and lipid-lowering therapies, and to identify variables associated with their continuation at 12 months. Results— In-hospital initiation of antihypertensive (63%), antiplatelet (81%), and lipid-lowering (31%) therapies was influenced favorably by previous use and comorbid cardiovascular risk factors and unfavorably by stroke severity. Antihypertensive use was well-maintained during follow-up, whereas use of antiplatelet and lipid-lowering therapy decreased (66% and 17%, respectively; P<0.001) by 12 months after stroke, with discontinuation related to patient and physician factors. Interpretation— There was a high level of uptake of secondary prevention for ischemic stroke in this nationwide sample of hospitalized patients in urban China. However, use of antiplatelet and lipid-lowering therapy declined substantially after discharge, apparently related to misperceptions of subsequent disease risk by both doctors and patients.