Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ionizing Radiation Induces Structural and Functional Damage on the Molecules of Rat Brain Homogenate Membranes: A Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopic Study

Humans can be exposed to ionizing radiation, due to various reasons, whose structural effects on biological membranes are not well defined. The current study aims to understand the ionizing radiation-induced structural and functional alterations in biomolecules of brain membranes using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy using rat animal models. For this purpose, 1000 cGy of ionizing radiation was specifically directed to the head of Sprague Dawley rats. The rats were decapitated after 24 h. The results revealed that the lipid-to-protein ratio decreased and that irradiation caused lipid peroxidation and increases in the amounts of olefinic =CH, carbonyl, and methylene groups of lipids. In addition, ionizing radiation induced a decrease in membrane fluidity, disordering of membrane lipids, strengthening of the hydrogen bonding of the phosphate groups of lipid head-groups, and weakening in the hydrogen bonding of the interfacial carbonyl groups of lipids. Radiation further caused significant decrements in the α-helix and turns, and significant increments in the β-sheet and random coil contents in the protein structure. Hierarchical cluster analyses, performed in the whole region (3030–1000 cm–1), lipid (3030–2800 cm–1), and protein (1700–1600 cm–1) regions separately, successfully differentiated the control and irradiated groups of rat brain membranes and showed that proteins in the membranes are affected more than lipids from the damages induced with ionizing radiation. As a result, the current study showed that FT-IR spectroscopy can be used successfully as a novel method to monitor radiation-induced alterations on biological membranes.
Escherichia coli Variants in Periprosthetic Joint Infection: Diagnostic Challenges with Sessile Bacteria and Sonication

ABSTRACT The diagnostic yield of prosthetic joint-associated infection is hampered by the phenotypic change of bacteria into a sessile and resistant form, also called biofilm. With sonication, adherent bacteria can be dislodged from the prosthesis. Species identification may be difficult because of their variations in phenotypic appearance and biochemical reaction. We have studied the phenotypic, genotypic, and biochemical properties of Escherichia coli variants isolated from a periprosthetic joint infection. The strains were collected from synovial fluid, periprosthetic tissue, and fluid from the explanted and sonicated prosthesis. Isolates from synovial fluid revealed a normal phenotype, whereas a few variants from periprosthetic tissue and all isolates from sonication fluid showed different morphological features (including small-colony variants). All isolates from sonication fluid were beta-galactosidase negative and nonmotile; most were indole negative. Because of further variations in biochemical properties, species identification was false or not possible in 50% of the isolates included in this study. In contrast to normal phenotypes, variants were resistant to aminoglycosides. Typing of the isolates using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis yielded nonidentical banding patterns, but all strains were assigned to the same clonal origin when compared with 207 unrelated E. coli isolates. The bacteria were repeatedly passaged on culture media and reanalyzed. Thereafter, most variants reverted to normal phenotype and regained their motility and certain biochemical properties. In addition, some variants displayed aminoglycoside susceptibility after reversion. Sonication of an explanted prosthesis allows insight into the lifestyle of bacteria in biofilms. Since sonication fluid also reveals dislodged sessile forms, species identification of such variants may be misleading.
Relationships Among Child Training Practices

THE vital importance of early parentchild relationships in the etiology of behavior deviations has been widely accepted in clinical practice, and a number of systematic psychological studies have been focused on the general problem of the effects of early environment and parental treatment on the individual's later personality. ' These studies have been of two major types. One group of investigations has
A miniature surface tension-driven robot mimicking the water-surface locomotion of water strider

Aiming at mimicking water strider's water-surface locomotion, this study proposes a new miniature surface tension-driven robot. A key feature of this robot is that its actuating legs possess ellipse-like spatial trajectories like water strider by using a cam-link mechanism, and never pierces water surface when rowing. A set of simple models and equations are proposed to analyze the interaction forces between leg and water as well as the critical condition for a leg penetrating a water surface. The final fabricated robot weights about 3.9 g with a load capacity of 5.6 g. By controlling the motions of actuating legs, the robot can freely and stably walk on water with different gaits. The maximum forward and turning speeds of the robot are measured as 16 cm/s and 23 °/s, respectively. Moreover, a similarity analysis with Bond Number and Weber Number reveals that the locomotion of this robot is quite analogous to that of a water strider: surface tension force dominates the lifting force and plays a major role in the propulsion.
Asiaticoside‐induced elevation of antioxidant levels in healing wounds

Asiaticoside derived from the plant Centella asiatica is known to possess good wound healing activity. Enhanced healing activity has been attributed to increased collagen formation and angiogenesis. Since antioxidants have been reported to play a significant role in the wound healing process we studied the effect of asiaticoside on the levels of certain antioxidants in the wound so as to explore the possible involvement of such a mechanism in the asiaticoside induced wound healing. Asiaticoside application (0.2%, topical) twice daily for 7 days to excision‐type cutaneous wounds in rats led to increased enzymatic and non‐enzymatic antioxidants, namely superoxide dismutase (35%), catalase (67%), glutathione peroxidase (49%), vitamin E (77%) and ascorbic acid (36%) in newly formed tissues. It also resulted in a several fold decrease in lipid peroxide levels (69%) as measured in terms of thiobarbituric acid reactive substance. However, continued application for 14 days showed no significant difference in these antioxidants compared with their values in vehicle treated wound tissue. It appears from the present study that asiaticosides enhanced induction of antioxidant levels at an initial stage of healing which may be an important contributory factor in the healing properties of this substance. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An analytical model of memristors in plants

The memristor, a resistor with memory, was postulated by Chua in 1971 and the first solid-state memristor was built in 2008. Recently, we found memristors in vivo in plants. Here we propose a simple analytical model of 2 types of memristors that can be found within plants. The electrostimulation of plants by bipolar periodic waves induces electrical responses in the Aloe vera and Mimosa pudica with fingerprints of memristors. Memristive properties of the Aloe vera and Mimosa pudica are linked to the properties of voltage gated K+ ion channels. The potassium channel blocker TEACl transform plant memristors to conventional resistors. The analytical model of a memristor with a capacitor connected in parallel exhibits different characteristic behavior at low and high frequency of applied voltage, which is the same as experimental data obtained by cyclic voltammetry in vivo.
Antidepressant Use in the Elderly Is Associated With an Increased Risk of Dementia

A retrospective cohort study was conducted including 3688 patients age 60 years or older without dementia enrolled in a depression screening study in primary care clinics. Information on antidepressant use and incident dementia during follow-up was retrieved from electronic medical records. The Cox proportional hazard models were used to compare the risk for incident dementia among 5 participant groups: selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI) only, non-SSRI only (non-SSRI), mixed group of SSRI and non-SSRI, not on antidepressants but depressed, and not on antidepressants and not depressed. SSRI and non-SSRI users had significantly higher dementia risk than the nondepressed nonusers (hazard ratio [HR]=1.83, P=0.0025 for SSRI users and HR=1.50, P=0.004 for non-SSRI users). In addition, SSRIs users had significantly higher dementia risk than non-users with severe depression (HR=2.26, P=0.0005). Future research is needed to confirm our results in other populations and to explore potential mechanism underlying the observed association.
Encoder Rate Control for Pixel-Domain Distributed Video Coding without Feedback Channel

Distributed Video Coding (DVC) is a new video coding technique which has low encoder complexity and good error resilience. Rate control is one of the most important problems in DVC. In order to allocate an optimal number of parity bits for the current frame,most distributed video coders use a feedback channel(FC) to perform rate control at the decoder. However,using feedback channel can increase the decoding complexity and result in transmission delay. To solve these problems, we propose a novel encoder rate control (ERC) algorithm for pixel-domain distributed video (PDDV) coder without feedback channel at the cost of slightly increased encoder complexity. The experiment results show that the performance obtained using our ERC algorithm is comparable to that obtained using the decoder rate control (DRC)algorithm.
Are Verbal Fluency and Nonliteral Language Comprehension Deficits Related to Depressive Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease?

Depression in Parkinson's disease (PD) is frequently associated with executive deficits, which can influence nonliteral comprehension and lexical access. This study explores whether depressive symptoms in PD modulate verbal fluency and nonliteral language comprehension. Twelve individuals with PD without depressive symptoms, 13 with PD and depressive symptoms (PDDSs), and 13 healthy controls completed a semantic and phonemic verbal fluency task and an indirect speech acts comprehension task. All groups had the same performance in the phonemic fluency task while the PDDS group was impaired in the semantic task. For the indirect speech act comprehension task, no difference was observed between the groups. However, the PDDS group had difficulty answering direct speech act questions. As some language impairments in PD become apparent when depressive symptoms are associated with the disease, it would appear to be important to take the presence of depressive symptoms into account when evaluating language abilities in PD.
Modeling Web Site Design Across Cultures: Relationships to Trust, Satisfaction, and E-Loyalty

Despite rapidly increasing numbers of diverse online shoppers, the relationship of Web site design to trust, satisfaction, and loyalty has not previously been modeled across cultures. In the current investigation, three components of Web site design (information design, navigation design, and visual design) are considered for their impact on trust and satisfaction. In turn, relationships of trust and satisfaction to online loyalty are evaluated. Utilizing data collected from 571 participants in Canada, Germany, and China, various relationships in the research model are tested using partial least squares analysis for each country separately. In addition, the overall model is tested for all countries combined as a control and verification of earlier research findings, although this time with a mixed country sample. All paths in the overall model are confirmed. Differences are determined for separate country samples concerning whether navigation design, visual design, and information design result in trust, satisfaction, and ultimately loyalty-suggesting design characteristics should be a central consideration in Web site design across cultures.
Transfer of Visual Motion Information via Graded Synapses Operates Linearly in the Natural Activity Range

Synaptic transmission between a graded potential neuron and a spiking neuron was investigated in vivo using sensory stimulation instead of artificial excitation of the presynaptic neuron. During visual motion stimulation, individual presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons in the brain of the fly were electrophysiologically recorded together with concentration changes of presynaptic calcium (Δ[Ca2+]pre). Preferred-direction motion leads to depolarization of the presynaptic neuron. It also produces pronounced increases in [Ca2+]pre and the postsynaptic spike rate. Motion in the opposite direction was associated with hyperpolarization of the presynaptic cell but only a weak reduction in [Ca2+]pre and the postsynaptic spike rate. Apart from this rectification, the relationships between presynaptic depolarizations, Δ[Ca2+]pre, and postsynaptic spike rates are, on average, linear over the entire range of activity levels that can be elicited by sensory stimulation. Thus, the inevitably limited range in which the gain of overall synaptic signal transfer is constant appears to be adjusted to sensory input strengths.
Teratomas of the Head and Neck with Emphasis on Malignancy

The great majority of teratomas of the head and neck present in the neonate or infant and are biologically benign and yet with a high mortality because of their space-occupying and obstructive character. Teratomas in the adult neck and sinonasal tract are histologically and biologically malignant, with an often unpredictable response to therapy.
Poultry markets: on the underground economy of twitter followers

Since Twitter has emerged as one of the easiest ways of reaching people, companies started using it to advertise their products. However, creating a functional network of followers to whom to promote content is not a straightforward task. On the one side, collecting followers requires time. On the other side, companies need to establish a reputation to motivate users to follow them. A number of websites have emerged to help Twitter users create a large network of followers. These websites promise their subscribers to provide followers in exchange for a fee or limited services free of charge but in exchange for the user's Twitter account credentials. In addition, they offer to spread their clients' promotional messages in the network. In this paper, we study the phenomenon of these Twitter Account Markets, and we show how their services are often linked to abusive behavior and compromised Twitter profiles.
Orcokinin peptides in developing and adult crustacean stomatogastric nervous systems and pericardial organs

The orcokinins are a family of neuropeptides recently isolated from several crustacean species. We found orcokinin‐like immunoreactivity in the stomatogastric nervous systems and pericardial organs of three decapod crustacean species, Homarus americanus, Cancer borealis, and Panulirus interruptus. The neuropil of the stomatogastric ganglion was stained in adults of all three species as well as in embryonic and larval H. americanus. In H. americanus, the somata giving rise to this projection were found in the inferior ventricular nerve. Matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry mass profiling and sequencing with postsource decay led to the identification of six different orcokinin family peptides, including those previously described in other decapods and two novel shorter peptides. Application of exogenous [Ala13]orcokinin to the stomatogastric ganglion of H. americanus resulted in changes in the pyloric rhythm. Specifically, the number of lateral pyloric (LP) neuron spikes/burst decreased, and the phase of firing of the pyloric neurons was altered. Together, these data indicate that the orcokinins are likely to function as modulators of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion. J. Comp. Neurol. 444:227–244, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A comprehensive analysis on reusability of GP-evolved job shop dispatching rules

Genetic Programming (GP) has been extensively used to automatically design dispatching rules for job shop scheduling problems. However, the previous studies only focus on the performance on the training instances. So far, there is no systematic investigation of the reusability of the GP-evolved rules on unseen instances. In practice, it is desirable to train the rules on smaller job shop instances, and apply them to larger instances with more jobs and machines to save training time. In this case, the reusability of the GP-evolved rules under different numbers of jobs and machines is an important issue. In this paper, a comprehensive investigation is conducted to analyse how the variation in the numbers of jobs and machines from the training set to the test set affects the reusability of the GP-evolved rules. It is found that in terms of minimizing makespan, the reusability of the GP-evolved rules highly depends on variation in the numbers of jobs and machines. A better reusability can be achieved by choosing training instances whose numbers of jobs and machines (or at least the ratio between the numbers of jobs and machines) are closer to that of the test instances. Furthermore, the ratio between the numbers of jobs and machines is demonstrated to be an important factor to reflect the complexity of an instance for dispatching rules. This study is the first systematic investigation on the reusability of GP-evolved dispatching rules.
Phasic and Tonic Pain Differentially Impact the Interruptive Function of Pain

The interruptive effect of painful experimental stimulation on cognitive processes is a well-known phenomenon. This study investigated the influence of pain duration on the negative effects of pain on cognition. Thirty-four healthy volunteers performed a rapid serial visual presentation task (RSVP) in which subjects had to detect (visual detection task) and count the occurrence of a target letter (working memory task) in two separate sessions while being stimulated on the left volar forearm with either short (2 sec) or long (18 sec) painful heat stimuli of equal subjective intensity. The results show that subjects performed significantly worse in the long pain session as indexed by decreased detection and counting performance. Interestingly, this effect on performance was also observed during control trials of the long pain session in which participants did not receive any painful stimulation. Moreover, subjects expected long painful stimulation to have a greater impact on their performance and individual expectation correlated with working memory performance. These findings suggest that not only the length of painful stimulation but also its expected ability to impair cognitive functioning might influence the interruptive function of pain. The exact relevance of expectation for the detrimental effects of pain on cognitive processes needs to be explored in more detail in future studies.
Helmets in Sport: Fact and Fallacy

AbstractHead injuries and the prevention of both the short-term and long-term consequences have received heightened awareness in recent years. Education and legislative efforts have promoted both appropriate treatment of concussion and pushed the use of helmets for protection from head injuries. Current scientific data would suggest that helmets are effective at decreasing the risk of serious head injuries. However there is no evidence to suggest that helmets are protective against concussive injuries or the long-term impact of repetitive head trauma.
Morphological and molecular characterization of Bysmatrum subsalsum (Dinophyceae) from the western Mediterranean Sea reveals the existence of cryptic species

Bysmatrum subsalsum is a cosmopolitan dinoflagellate species that inhabits marine and transitional habitats. Despite its wide distribution, information on the morphological variability, phylogeny and ecology of B. subsalsum is scarce. In this study, we provide morphological and molecular data on B. subsalsum strains and wild cells from different locations in the Mediterranean Basin. The dynamics of cell abundances and the associated environmental conditions during a field bloom are also described. Genetic sequences of B. subsalsum obtained in this study showed large intraspecific differences, clustering in two well‐differentiated clades. Despite a certain degree of variation with respect to cell size, apical pore complex (APC) morphology and size, and cingulum displacement, cells from the two clades showed similar morphological traits. These findings indicated the occurrence of cryptic species. Comparisons of the morphology of our B. subsalsum specimens with the few descriptions available in the literature revealed larger than previously known intraspecific morphological variability. Phylogenetic trees inferred from the concatenated SSU, 5.8S‐ITS, and LSU rRNA and the individual 5.8S‐ITS regions suggested the inclusion of Bysmatrum in the Peridiniales and a close phylogenetic relationship with Peridinium sensu stricto. However, the low statistical support prevented the assignment of Bysmatrum to a particular family of Peridiniales. Ecological data obtained from a bloom in La Pletera salt marshes (Catalan Coast, Spain) suggested the species reaches high cell abundances at water temperatures >20°C and salinity levels >30. Our results add new information regarding the morphology, phylogeny, and ecology of B. subsalsum.
Crash graphs: An aggregated view of multiple crashes to improve crash triage

Crash reporting systems play an important role in the overall reliability and dependability of the system helping in identifying and debugging crashes in software systems deployed in the field. In Microsoft for example, the Windows Error Reporting (WER) system receives crash data from users, classifies them, and presents crash information for developers to fix crashes. However, most crash reporting systems deal with crashes individually; they compare crashes individually to classify them, which may cause misclassification. Developers need to download multiple crash data files for debugging, which requires non-trivial effort. In this paper, we propose an approach based on crash graphs, which are an aggregated view of multiple crashes. Our experience with crash graphs indicates that it reduces misclassification and helps identify fixable crashes in advance.
The diet of Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) on the eastern fringe of Gurban Tunggut Desert, China

The diet of the Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) as an endangered species in China, has been seldom studied. During the 2005 breeding season, we identified 212 prey items from among 342 pellets and 236 items of prey remains from 6 active nests of the Saker Falcon. Identified prey included 23 species: 3 mammals, 17 birds, 2 reptiles and 1 insect. In terms of frequency of occurrence, birds comprised 52.4% of the diet, mammals 21.7%, insect 17.5% and reptiles 8.4%. In term of biomass, birds comprised 44.4% of the diet, mammals 46.9%, reptiles 8.3% and insect 0.4%. Our results suggest that this falcon is an opportunistic hunter and feeds on a wide range of animals throughout its habitat.
Insider Trading With a Random Deadline

We consider a model of strategic trading with asymmetric information of an asset whose value follows a Brownian motion. An insider continuously observes a signal that tracks the evolution of the asset's fundamental value. The value of the asset is publicly revealed at a random time. The equilibrium has two regimes separated by an endogenously determined time T. In [0, T), the insider gradually transfers her information to the market. By time T, all her information has been transferred and the price agrees with the market value of the asset. In the interval [T, ∞), the insider trades large volumes and reveals her information immediately, so market prices track the market value perfectly. Despite this market efficiency, the insider is able to collect strictly positive rents after T. Copyright 2010 The Econometric Society.