Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Hyaluronic Acid Added to Suture Material and its Relationship with Bacterial Colonization: An In vitro Study

Aims and Objectives: The aims of this study were to evaluate the presence of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, in polyglycolic acid (PGA) 4-0 and silk sutures, with or without hyaluronic acid (HA) treatment. Materials and Methods: This in vitro study measured S. aureus and E. coli growth on PGA and silk sutures, through incubation in agar media for 24 h. The suture length was 10 cm and divided into three parts: A (8 h), B (16 h), and C (24 h), which were observed every 8 h, followed by suspension on a microscopic slide. This was repeated thrice. The number of S. aureus and E. coli cells was recorded and compared between the suture types. Results: The mean S. aureus colony forming units (CFUs) differed at each time point between non-HA and HA-PGA sutures (P = 0.0016), with a greater number of CFUs on non-HA-PGA. The mean S. aureus CFUs were significantly higher on non-HA silk than on HA-silk sutures (P = 0.008). There was a significant increase in E. coli CFUs on non-HA silk than on HA-silk sutures (P = 0.008). E. coli CFUs were higher on non-HA-PGA than on HA-PGA sutures (P = 0.006). We performed repeated measures two-way ANOVA (SPSS version 13.0) for comparison between group factors and time points and Posthoc analysis using independent samples t-test. Conclusions: HA reduced wicking in both PGA and silk sutures.
Quantitative Analysis of the Adapted Physical Education Employment Market in Higher Education.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the employment market of adapted physical education (APE) careers in higher education since 1975 to see if the increase of this market has continued since 1998. Based on the data collected from the Chronicle of Higher Education, a total of 887 APE job openings have been posted since 1975, including about 45% of the openings that were APE first priority (i.e., APE as a major responsibility) and 55% were listed as APE second priority (i.e., APE as a minor responsibility). The yearly frequencies of APE job openings, the yearly proportions of APE first priority, and the yearly proportions of APE second priority over the years were analyzed by regression analysis and descriptive statistics. The results revealed that the employment market of APE professionals is a growing one in higher education; however, the proportion of APE first priority contribution to the market has been decreasing over the years, while the proportion of APE second priority contribution to the market has been increasing over the years. This growing employment market is therefore primarily attributed to APE second priority openings.
The Treg/Th17 Axis: A Dynamic Balance Regulated by the Gut Microbiome

T-helper 17 (Th17) and T-regulatory (Treg) cells are frequently found at barrier surfaces, particularly within the intestinal mucosa, where they function to protect the host from pathogenic microorganisms and to restrain excessive effector T-cell responses, respectively. Despite their differing functional properties, Th17 cells and Tregs share similar developmental requirements. In fact, the fate of antigen-naïve T-cells to either Th17 or Treg lineages is finely regulated by key mediators, including TGFβ, IL-6, and all-trans retinoic acid. Importantly, the intestinal microbiome also provides immunostimulatory signals, which can activate innate and downstream adaptive immune responses. Specific components of the gut microbiome have been implicated in the production of proinflammatory cytokines by innate immune cells, such as IL-6, IL-23, IL-1β, and the subsequent generation and expansion of Th17 cells. Similarly, commensal bacteria and their metabolites can also promote the generation of intestinal Tregs that can actively induce mucosal tolerance. As such, dysbiosis of the gut microbiome may not solely represent a consequence of gut inflammation, but rather shape the Treg/Th17 commitment and influence susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease. In this review, we discuss Treg and Th17 cell plasticity, its dynamic regulation by the microbiome, and highlight its impact on intestinal homeostasis and disease.
Evaluation of Changes in Tumor Shadows and Microcalcifications on Mammography Following KORTUC II, a New Radiosensitization Treatment without any Surgical Procedure for Elderly Patients with Stage I and II Breast Cancer

We introduced non-surgical therapy with a novel enzyme-targeting radiosensitization treatment, Kochi Oxydol-Radiation Therapy for Unresectable Carcinomas, Type II (KORTUC II) into early stages breast cancer treatment. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in tumor shadows and microcalcifications on mammography (MMG) following KORTUC II for elderly patients with breast cancer. We also sought to determine whether MMG was useful in evaluating the therapeutic effect of KORTUC II. In addition to MMG, positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) was performed to detect both metastasis and local recurrence. In all 10 patients, tumor shadows on MMG completely disappeared in several months following the KORTUC II treatment. The concomitant microcalcifications also disappeared or markedly decreased in number. Disappearance of the tumors was also confirmed by the profile curve of tumor density on MMG following KORTUC II treatment; density fell and eventually approached that of the peripheral mammary tissue. These 10 patients have so far have also shown neither local recurrence nor distant metastasis on PET-CT with a mean follow-up period of approximately 27 months at the end of September, 2010. We conclude that breast-conservation treatment using KORTUC II, followed by aromatase inhibitor, is a promising therapeutic method for elderly patients with breast cancer, in terms of avoiding any surgical procedure. Moreover, MMG is considered to be useful for evaluating the efficacy of KORTUC II.
Focusing of Maximum Vertex Degrees in Random Faulty Scaled Sector Graphs

In this paper we study the behavior of maximum out/in-degree of binomial/Poisson random scaled sector graphs in the presence of random vertex and edge faults. We prove that the probability distribution of maximum degrees for random faulty scaled sector graphs with $n$ vertices, where each vertex spans a sector of $\alpha$ radians, with radius $r_n\ll \sqrt{\ln n/n}$, become concentrated on two consecutive integers, under some natural assumptions of faulty probabilities.
Light-Dependent Translocation of Arrestin in the Absence of Rhodopsin Phosphorylation and Transducin Signaling

Visual arrestin plays a crucial role in the termination of the light response in vertebrate photoreceptors by binding selectively to light-activated, phosphorylated rhodopsin. Arrestin localizes predominantly to the inner segments and perinuclear region of dark-adapted rod photoreceptors, whereas light induces redistribution of arrestin to the rod outer segments. The mechanism by which arrestin redistributes in response to light is not known, but it is thought to be associated with the ability of arrestin to bind photolyzed, phosphorylated rhodopsin in the outer segment. In this study, we show that light-driven translocation of arrestin is unaffected in two different mouse models in which rhodopsin phosphorylation is lacking. We further show that arrestin movement is initiated by rhodopsin but does not require transducin signaling. These results exclude passive diffusion and point toward active transport as the mechanism for light-dependent arrestin movement in rod photoreceptor cells.
Accreting Matter around Clusters of Galaxies: One-Dimensional Considerations

During the formation of the large scale structure of the Universe, matter accretes onto high density peaks. Accreting collisionless dark matter (DM) forms caustics around them, while accreting collisional baryonic matter (BM) forms accretion shocks. The properties of the accreting matter depend upon the power spectrum of the initial perturbations on a given scale as well as the background expansion in a given cosmological model. In this paper, we have calculated the accretion of DM particles in one-dimensional spherical geometry under various cosmological models including the Einstein-de Sitter universe, the open universe with o < 1, and the flat universe with � = 1 o. A density parameter in the range 0.1 � o � 1 has been considered. The initial perturbation characterized by a point mass at the origin has been considered. Since the accretion shock of BM is expected to form close to the first caustic of DM, the properties of the accreting BM are common with those of the DM. Hence, the accretion calculations with DM particles have been used to find the position and velocity of the accretion shock and the cluster mass inside it. The average temperature of BM has been estimated by adopting simplifying assumptions. The velocity of the accreting BM around clusters of a given temperature is smaller in a universe with smaller o, but only by up to � 24% in the models with 0.1 � o � 1. Thus, it would be difficult to use that quantity to discriminate among the cosmological models. However, the accretion velocity around clusters of a given mass or a given radius depends more sensitively on the cosmological models. It is smaller in a universe with smaller o by up to � 41% and � 65%, respectively. So, it can provide a better signature of the background expansion for different cosmological models. Although the existence of the caustics and the accretion shocks may not be confirmed by direct x-ray observations, the infalling warm gas of 10 4 10 5 K upstream of the shocks may be observed as the absorption systems of quasar emission lines. According to this study, the suggestion made by Kang, Ryu, & Jones (1996) that the large scale accretion shocks around clusters of galaxies can serve as possible acceleration sites of ultra high energy cosmic rays above 10 18 eV remains plausible in all viable cosmological models.
Parsing fear: A reassessment of the evidence for fear deficits in psychopathy.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by interpersonal manipulation and callousness, and reckless and impulsive antisocial behavior. It is often seen as a disorder in which profound emotional disturbances lead to antisocial behavior. A lack of fear in particular has been proposed as an etiologically salient factor. In this review, we employ a conceptual model in which fear is parsed into separate subcomponents. Important historical conceptualizations of psychopathy, the neuroscientific and empirical evidence for fear deficits in psychopathy are compared against this model. The empirical evidence is also subjected to a meta-analysis. We conclude that most studies have used the term "fear" generically, amassing different methods and levels of measurement under the umbrella term "fear. " Unlike earlier claims that psychopathy is related to general fearlessness, we show there is evidence that psychopathic individuals have deficits in threat detection and responsivity, but that the evidence for reduced subjective experience of fear in psychopathy is far less compelling. (PsycINFO Database Record
Dihydromyricetin promotes autophagy and apoptosis through ROS-STAT3 signaling in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Chemotherapy is an effective weapon in the battle against cancer, but numerous cancer patients are either not sensitive to chemotherapy or develop drug resistance to current chemotherapy regimens. Therefore, an effective chemotherapy mechanism that enhances tumor sensitivity to chemotherapeutics is urgently needed. The aim of the present study was to determine the antitumor activity of dihydromyricetin (DHM) on head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and its underlying mechanisms. We demonstrated that DHM can markedly induce apoptotic cell death and autophagy in HNSCC cells. Meanwhile, increased autophagy inhibited apoptosis. Pharmacological or genetic inhibition of autophagy further sensitized the HNSCC cells to DHM-induced apoptosis. Mechanistic analysis showed that the antitumor of DHM may be due to the activation phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (p-STAT3), which contributed to autophagy. Importantly, DHM triggered reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in the HNSCC cells and the levels of ROS decreased with N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), a ROS scavenger. Moreover, NAC abrogated the effects of DHM on STAT3-dependent autophagy. Overall, the following critical issues were observed: first, DHM increased the p-STAT3-dependent autophagy by generating ROS-signaling pathways in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Second, inhibiting autophagy could enhance DHM-induced apoptosis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
DRAM power-aware rank scheduling

Modern DRAMs provide multiple low-power states to save their energy consumption during idle times. The use of low-power states, however, can cause performance degradation because state transitions from low-power states to an active state incur time penalty. To effectively utilize the low-power states, we propose DRAM power-aware rank scheduling schemes applied to the last-level cache and the memory controller. Our scheme utilizing the last-level cache reduces write requests to DRAM and the state transitions by replacing cache blocks based on their dirty states and DRAM rank power states. Our scheme utilizing the memory controller decreases the state transitions with rank power state-aware batch writes. With the second scheme, the states transitions are reduced by 21.2%, on average. Consequently DRAM energy consumption is reduced by 11.2%, on average, with no performance loss.
The Grid2003 production grid: principles and practice

The Grid2003 Project has deployed a multivirtual organization, application-driven grid laboratory ("Grid3") that has sustained for several months the production-level services required by physics experiments of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (ATLAS and CMS), the Sloan Digital Sky Survey project, the gravitational wave search experiment LIGO, the BTeV experiment at Fermilab, as well as applications in molecular structure analysis and genome analysis, and computer science research projects in such areas as job and data scheduling. The deployed infrastructure has been operating since November 2003 with 27 sites, a peak of 2800 processors, work loads from 10 different applications exceeding 1300 simultaneous jobs, and data transfers among sites of greater than 2 TB/day. We describe the principles that have guided the development of this unique infrastructure and the practical experiences that have resulted from its creation and use. We discuss application requirements for grid services deployment and configuration, monitoring infrastructure, application performance, metrics, and operational experiences. We also summarize lessons learned.
Modelling Variable Fire Severity in Boreal Forests: Effects of Fire Intensity and Stand Structure

It is becoming clear that fires in boreal forests are not uniformly stand-replacing. On the contrary, marked variation in fire severity, measured as tree mortality, has been found both within and among individual fires. It is important to understand the conditions under which this variation can arise. We integrated forest sample plot data, tree allometries and historical forest fire records within a diameter class-structured model of 1.0 ha patches of mono-specific black spruce and jack pine stands in northern Québec, Canada. The model accounts for crown fire initiation and vertical spread into the canopy. It uses empirical relations between fire intensity, scorch height, the percent of crown scorched and tree mortality to simulate fire severity, specifically the percent reduction in patch basal area due to fire-caused mortality. A random forest and a regression tree analysis of a large random sample of simulated fires were used to test for an effect of fireline intensity, stand structure, species composition and pyrogeographic regions on resultant severity. Severity increased with intensity and was lower for jack pine stands. The proportion of simulated fires that burned at high severity (e.g. >75% reduction in patch basal area) was 0.80 for black spruce and 0.11 for jack pine. We identified thresholds in intensity below which there was a marked sensitivity of simulated fire severity to stand structure, and to interactions between intensity and structure. We found no evidence for a residual effect of pyrogeographic region on simulated severity, after the effects of stand structure and species composition were accounted for. The model presented here was able to produce variation in fire severity under a range of fire intensity conditions. This suggests that variation in stand structure is one of the factors causing the observed variation in boreal fire severity.
Improving the Student's Performance Using Educational Data Mining

----------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT ----------------------------------------------------------- The main goal of educational data mining is to improve the student performance. The usage of data mining techniques which achieves the goal in an efficient manner. The discovery of knowledge that extract from the end semester [1] is one of the method for improving the quality of higher education. In the higher education, the analysis on enrolment of student’s performance in a particular course, the student talent, confidence, studies and ethic helps to get more knowledge. In this research, the data classification and decision tree [1] which helps to improve the student’s performance in a better way. But with the inclusion of extracurricular activities with the above data mining techniques makes quality of education in an easiest way. This type of approach gives high confidence to students in their studies. This method helps to identify the students who need special advising or counseling by the teacher which gives high quality of education.
REGULATORY REFORM IN RETAIL DISTRIBUTION

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse cross-country differences in the regulation of the retail distribution industry in the OECD area, focusing on the situation in 1998. Regulatory differences are cast against changes in the industry environment to highlight the potential interactions between regulation and market forces. A number of countries have extensively liberalised market access and price and service regulations. In some countries there is currently a tendency to introduce access restrictions for large outlets. In other countries market access has been traditionally hindered by restrictive regulations and administrative burdens. The available empirical evidence suggests that regulations that restrict shop opening hours and hinder access by imposing special requirements for outlet registration, siting and/or size thresholds curb the dynamism of the industry (e.g. lowering entry and exit rates, and preventing restructuring and modernisation) and competitive pressures, leading to lower employment growth and higher consumer prices.
Dimensions of Teacher Empowerment: Identifying New Roles for Classroom Teachers in Restructuring Schools.

Teacher empowerment was one of eight criteria required by the Ohio Department of Education for funding as part of its Venture Capital Schools in Ohio program. This report, part of a larger study, identifies and summarizes dimensional definitions of teacher empowerment in school restructuring literature in order to enlarge the vision of Venture Capital School Planning teams and to suggest roles for classroom teachers that might otherwise have been overlooked. In the literature, the conceptual continuum of teacher empowerment ranged from power handed down to classroom teachers through the school's hierarchical structure (usually from the principal) to self-empowerment through professional growth and knowledge. A number of strategies for empowering teachers are examined, along with the results of several studies. The most frequently identified dimension of empowerment was decision making; others mentioned frequently were collegiality/collaboration, professional knowledge, self-efficacy, autonomy, and status of classroom teachers. Less frequently mentioned were authority, curriculum planning/design, impact/causal importance, leadership, mentoring, responsibility, and self esteem. Study findings suggest that to participate in school restructuring, teachers must pursue knowledge beyond that of subject content and pedagogy. Their professional knowledge must include a thorough grounding in both the philosophy and processes of the change model adopted by their school. (Contains 34 references.) (ND) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Dimensions of Teacher Empowerment: Identifying New Roles for Classroom Teachers in Restructuring Schools Beverly Klecker Eastern Kentucky University William E. Loadman The Ohio State University Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association
A Novel Method for Real-Time, Continuous, Fluorescence-Based Analysis of Anti-DNA Abzyme Activity in Systemic Lupus

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by the production of antibodies against a variety of self-antigens including nucleic acids. These antibodies are cytotoxic, catalytic (hydrolyzing DNA, RNA, and protein), and nephritogenic. Current methods for investigating catalytic activities of natural abzymes produced by individuals suffering from autoimmunity are mostly discontinuous and often employ hazardous reagents. Here we demonstrate the utility of dual-labeled, fluorogenic DNA hydrolysis probes in highly specific, sensitive, continuous, fluorescence-based measurement of DNA hydrolytic activity of anti-ssDNA abzymes purified from the serum of patients suffering from SLE. An assay for the presence and levels of antibodies exhibiting hydrolytic activity could facilitate disease diagnosis, prediction of flares, monitoring of disease state, and response to therapy. The assay may allow indirect identification of additional targets of anti-DNA antibodies and the discovery of molecules that inhibit their activity. Combined, these approaches may provide new insights into molecular mechanisms of lupus pathogenesis.
Non-Linearity in the Finance-Growth Nexus: Evidence from Indonesia

This paper investigates the finance-growth nexus where bank credit is decomposed into investment, consumption, and working capital credit. From a panel dataset of provinces in Indonesia, it documents that higher financial development measured by financial deepening and financial intermediation exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with economic growth. This non-linear effect of financial deepening is driven by both investment credit and consumption credit. These results suggest that too much investment credit and, to a lesser extent, consumption credit are detrimental to economic growth. Ultimately, only financial intermediation associated with working capital credit has a positive and monotonic impact on economic growth.