Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential Telomere Shortening in Blood versus Arteries in an Animal Model of Type 2 Diabetes

Vascular dysfunction is an early feature of diabetic vascular disease, due to increased oxidative stress and reduced nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability. This can lead to endothelial cell senescence and clinical complications such as stroke. Cells can become senescent by shortened telomeres and oxidative stress is known to accelerate telomere attrition. Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) has been linked to vascular health by upregulating endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), suppressing oxidative stress, and attenuating telomere shortening. Accelerated leukocyte telomere attrition appears to be a feature of clinical type 2 diabetes (T2D) and therefore the telomere system may be a potential therapeutic target in preventing vascular complications of T2D. However the effect of T2D on vascular telomere length is currently unknown. We hypothesized that T2D gives rise to shortened leukocyte and vascular telomeres alongside reduced vascular SIRT1 expression and increased oxidative stress. Accelerated telomere attrition was observed in circulating leukocytes, but not arteries, in T2D compared to control rats. T2D rats had blunted arterial SIRT1 and eNOS protein expression levels which were associated with reduced antioxidant defense capacity. Our findings suggest that hyperglycemia and a deficit in vascular SIRT1 per se are not sufficient to prematurely shorten vascular telomeres.
Prevention of Canine Leishmaniosis in a Hyper-Endemic Area Using a Combination of 10% Imidacloprid/4.5% Flumethrin

Background Dogs are the main reservoir hosts of Leishmania infantum, the agent of human zoonotic visceral leishmaniosis. This study investigated the efficacy of a polymer matrix collar containing a combination of 10% imidacloprid and 4.5% flumethrin as a novel prophylactic measure to prevent L. infantum infections in young dogs from a hyper-endemic area of southern Italy, with a view towards enhancing current control strategies against both human and canine leishmaniosis. Methodology/Principal Findings The study was carried out on 124 young dogs, of which 63 were collared (Group A) while 61 were left untreated (Group B), from March-April 2011 until March 2012. Blood and skin samples were collected at baseline (April 2011) and at the first, second, third and fourth follow-up time points (July, September 2011 and November 2011, and March 2012, respectively). Bone marrow and conjunctiva were sampled at baseline and at the fourth follow-up. Serological, cytological and molecular tests were performed to detect the presence of L. infantum in the different tissues collected. At the end of the trial, no dog from Group A proved positive for L. infantum at any follow-up, whereas 22 dogs from Group B were infected (incidence density rate = 45.1%); therefore, the combination of 10% imidacloprid and 4.5% flumethrin was 100% efficacious for the prevention of L. infantum infection in young dogs prior to their first exposure to the parasite in a hyper-endemic area for CanL. Conclusions The use of collars containing 10% imidacloprid and 4.5% flumethrin conferred long-term protection against infection by L. infantum to dogs located in a hyper-endemic area, thus representing a reliable and sustainable strategy to decrease the frequency and spread of this disease among the canine population which will ultimately result in the reduction of associated risks to human health.
The progenitors of core-collapse supernovae

We present maps of the nature of single star progenitors of supernovae and their remnants in mass and metallicity space. We find our results are similar to others but we have gone further in varying the amount of mixing and using various mass-loss schemes to see how the maps change. We find that extra mixing, in the form of convective overshooting, moves boundaries such as the minimum mass for a supernova or Wolf-Rayet (WR) star to lower masses. We also find that the pre-WR mass loss determines the shape of our maps. We find that different mass-loss rates lead to quite different results. We find that the rise in luminosity at second dredge-up places quite tight constraints on the masses of some progenitors and in particular the progenitor of supernova 2003gd.
DETERMINING THE MOTIVATING FACTORS FOR THE GENERAL USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AMONGST TOURISTS TO SOUTH AFRICA

The remarkable growth in information technology has led businesses to appreciate the power and potential of online marketing, rather than merely focussing their promotional activities and goals on production and sales. Social media has proved to be one of the most effective forms of online marketing, seeing that it allows the business to respond to customer problems instantaneously, customers are amenable to marketing messages, and it assist businesses indirectly to find customers they did not know existed. There is a profound lack of research in the South African context with regard to identifying the motivating factors for the general use of social media. The purpose of this research article was two-fold: firstly to determine a demographic profile of social media users, and secondly to identify the main motivating factors for the general use of social media amongst tourists to South Africa. Research was conducted by means of distributing selfadministered questionnaires at the O.R Tambo International airport, as the main target group was tourists. The completed questionnaires were used for the statistical analysis, which included factor analysis. The results indicated six factors motivating the general use of social media: content sharing, accessing information, connecting and communicating, personal attainment, ease of accessibility, and cost. It is imperative for organisations to understand the factors motivating users to engage in social media, as this will assist organisations to develop social media marketing strategies that will ensure the effective reach of their target markets. By understanding the motivating factors and developing marketing strategies accordingly, the development of sound long-term relationships between the organisation and the users could be established.
Head and Neck Cancer Mutations Increases with Progression of p 53 The Incidence of Updated Version

To establish a genetic model of the progression of head and neck squamous carcinoma we have defined the incidence and timing of p53 mutations in this type of cancer. We sequenced the conserved regions of the p53 gene in 102 head and neck squamous carcinoma lesions. These included 65 primary invasive carcinomas and 37 noninvasive archival specimens consisting of 13 severe dysplasias and 24 carcinoma in situ lesions. The incidence of p53 mutations in noninvasive lesions was 19% (7/37) and increased to 43 % (28/65) in invasive carcinomas. These data suggest that p53 mutations can precede invasion in primary head and neck cancer. Furthermore, the spectrum of codon hotspots is similar to that seen in squamous carcinoma of the lung and 64% of mutations are at G nucleotides, implicating carcinogens from tobacco smoke in the etiology of head and neck squamous carcinoma.
Reliability and validity of the Humboldt food addiction questionnaire

ii Acknowledgements . iii List of Tables . vii List of Appendices . viii Chapter One: Introduction . 1 Chapter Two: Literature Review . 4 The Food Addiction/Dependency Hypothesis . 5 Criterion Measures Review and Critique . 7 Theoretically Related Constructs: Criterion, Convergent, or Both? 15 Chapter Three: Statement of the Problem . 19 Reliability . 20 Hypothesis 1a. 20 Hypothesis 1b. 20 Validity . 20 Hypothesis 2a. 20 Hypothesis 2b. 21 Hypothesis 2c. 21 Factor Analysis . 21 Research Question 3a. 21 Chapter Four: Methodology . 22 Participants . 22 v Instrumentation . 24 Procedure . 27 HSU students. 27 Online participants. 28 Data Analysis . 28 Hypotheses . 28 Hypothesis 1a statistical test. 28 Hypothesis 1b statistical test. 29 Hypothesis 2a statistical test. 29 Hypothesis 2b statistical test. 29 Hypothesis 2c statistical test. 29 Research Question 3a factor analysis. 29 Benefits, Potential Risks, and Management of Risk . 29 Chapter Five: Results . 30 Preliminary Analyses . 30 Reliability . 30 Hypothesis 1a analysis. 30 Hypothesis 1b analysis. 30 Validity . 33 Hypothesis 2a Analysis. 33 Hypothesis 2b Analysis. 33 Hypothesis 2c Analysis. 33 Research Question 3a Factor Analysis. 33
Pharmacologic attenuation of cross-modal sensory augmentation within the chronic pain insula

Abstract Pain can be elicited through all mammalian sensory pathways yet cross-modal sensory integration, and its relationship to clinical pain, is largely unexplored. Centralized chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia are often associated with symptoms of multisensory hypersensitivity. In this study, female patients with fibromyalgia demonstrated cross-modal hypersensitivity to visual and pressure stimuli compared with age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that insular activity evoked by an aversive level of visual stimulation was associated with the intensity of fibromyalgia pain. Moreover, attenuation of this insular activity by the analgesic pregabalin was accompanied by concomitant reductions in clinical pain. A multivariate classification method using support vector machines (SVM) applied to visual-evoked brain activity distinguished patients with fibromyalgia from healthy controls with 82% accuracy. A separate SVM classification of treatment effects on visual-evoked activity reliably identified when patients were administered pregabalin as compared with placebo. Both SVM analyses identified significant weights within the insular cortex during aversive visual stimulation. These data suggest that abnormal integration of multisensory and pain pathways within the insula may represent a pathophysiological mechanism in some chronic pain conditions and that insular response to aversive visual stimulation may have utility as a marker for analgesic drug development.
Parameter Design for Diffusion-Type Autonomous Decentralized Flow Control

We have previously proposed a diffusion-type flow control mechanism as a solution for severely time-sensitive flow control required for high-speed networks. In this mechanism, each node in a network manages its local traffic flow on the basis of only the local information directly available to it, by using predetermined rules. In addition, the implementation of decision-making at each node can lead to optimal performance for the whole network. Our previous studies show that our flow control mechanism with certain parameter settings works well in high-speed networks. However, to apply this mechanism to actual networks, it is necessary to clarify how to design a parameter in our control mechanism. In this paper, we investigate the range of the parameter and derive its optimal value enabling the diffusion-type flow control to work effectively.
Feature Extraction of EEG Signals and Classification Using FCM

EEG data were collected between two conditions, relax wakefulness (close-eyes) and non-relax (IQ test). Data segmentation and linear regression model is used to extract the EEG features and to obtain the slope and the mean relative power from 43 participants. All of the data were then normalized and classified using Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering. Results shown that there are different of activities exist in the EEG which proved that the feature extraction using linear regression model manage to discern between two different brain behaviors.
ACTIVITY OF DIAZEPAM AT THE NEUROMUSCULAR JUNCTION

Diazepam, in doses of 0.2-5 mg/kg i.v. , was without effect on the maximal twitch response of the flexor hallucis longus or soleus muscles of the cat. When injected 5 minutes prior to or at the time of greatest depth of block produced by gallamine oi tubocurarine, diazepam was without effect on the depth or the time course of the paralysis. The commercial solvent for diazepam (Valium, Roche), in volumes thai contained doses of 1-5 mg/kg of the drug, itself slightly enhanced the rate of recovery from block produced by tubocurarine or gallamine. Twitch augmentation following highfrequency tetanic stimulation of the soleus nerve is known to be prejunctional in origin, and provides a sensitive test for detecting drug activity on intramuscular nerve endings. It was unaltered by diazepam, indicating absence of prejunctional blocking activity. The unimpressive peripheral activity of diazepam in cats emphasizes the importance of spinal or supraspinal sites in its ability to produce muscle relaxation in man and animals
County-Level Environmental Crime Enforcement: A Case Study of Environmental/Green Crimes in Fulton County, Georgia, 1998–2014

ABSTRACT Much of what is known about the responses to and the sentencing of environmental or green offenders comes from a limited number of studies that primarily draw on federal data maintained by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Little, however, is known about how states respond to environmental/green offenses and offenders and even less in known about how counties treat environmental offenders. The present study uses data from Fulton County, Georgia, from 1998 to 2014 to explore the kinds of crimes and responses to those crimes at the county level. This study examines the distribution of environmental crimes in Fulton County across 14 enforced offense categories and the changes in the enforcement of environmental crimes in Fulton County over time. Analyses also explore the kinds of punishments environmental offenders receive in Fulton County, the prevalence of recidivism among offenders, and the kinds of environmental offenses state agencies in Fulton County commit. Because the results from Fulton County may not be representative of how other counties in Georgia or the US respond to environmental offending, additional studies are needed to further assess this issue because there are many local environmental crimes. As studies are absent at this level of analysis, a great deal of information about green crimes and their enforcement is missing from the literature.
Inhaled Formoterol Diminishes Insulin-Induced Hypoglycemia in Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE Hypoglycemia is one of the major factors limiting implementation of tight glycemic control in patients with type 1 diabetes and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality during intensive insulin treatment. β-2 Adrenergic receptor (AR) agonists have been reported to diminish nocturnal hypoglycemia; however, whether long-acting inhaled β-2 AR agonists could potentially be used to treat or prevent hypoglycemia has not been established. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Seven patients with type 1 diabetes and seven healthy control subjects received inhaled formoterol (48 μg), a highly specific β-2 AR agonist, or a placebo during a hyperinsulinemic-hypoglycemic clamp study to evaluate its capacity to antagonize the effect of insulin. In a second set of studies, five subjects with type 1 diabetes received inhaled formoterol to assess its effect as a preventive therapy for insulin-induced hypoglycemia. RESULTS During a hyperinsulinemic-hypoglycemic clamp, compared with placebo, inhaled formoterol decreased the glucose infusion rate required to maintain plasma glucose at a target level by 45–50% (P < 0.05). There was no significant effect on glucagon, epinephrine, cortisol, or growth hormone release (P = NS). Furthermore, in volunteers with type 1 diabetes 1 h after increasing basal insulin delivery twofold, glucose levels dropped to 58 ± 5 mg/dL, whereas hypoglycemia was prevented by inhaled formoterol (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Inhalation of the β-2 AR–specific agonist formoterol may be useful in the prevention or treatment of acute hypoglycemia and thus may help patients with type 1 diabetes achieve optimal glucose control more safely.
Facilitating enterprise software developer communication with CARES

Enterprise software developers must regularly communicate with one another to obtain information and coordinate changes to legacy code, but find it cumbersome and complicated to determine the most relevant and expedient person to contact. This becomes especially difficult when the relevant person has transferred teams or changed their personal contact information since contributing to the project. We conducted a year-long series of surveys and interviews to help us learn how, why, and how often software developers discover and communicate with one another. In response to what we saw, we designed, deployed, and evaluated a domain-specific, IDE-embedded, photo-oriented, communication tool. We overcame a significant challenge found in long-lived projects: uniquely identifying individuals years after their contributions to the project. After deploying our tool, iteratively refining it, and deploying it again on a company-wide scale, most users reported that it simplified the process of finding and reaching out to other developers and offered them a sense of community with their colleagues, even if those colleagues did not currently work on their team. The lessons learned from our study and tool development should apply to other large, multi-team, legacy software projects.
GATE-TO-GATE LIFE-CYCLE INVENTORY OF SOFTWOOD PLYWOOD PRODUCTION

A life-cycle inventory (LCI) study is conducted of softwood plywood manufacturing. This gate-to-gate study includes all materials, fuels, and electricity inputs to produce plywood, co-products and emissions. Data were collected through surveys of manufacturing facilities in the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast. SimaPro software, a program to conduct life-cycle inventory studies, is used to process the data and determine environmental impacts in terms of material use and emissions. The data are allocated on a mass basis to plywood based on their contribution to the mass sum of all product and co-products. All data are provided on a production unit basis of 1.0 m 3 and 1.0 MSF 3/8-inch basis, the U.S. industry standard. In addition to LCI data, carbon flow data are also given. The LCI data are publicly available through reports, this publication, and the U.S. LCI Database Project. The data are useful for generating cradle-to-gate product LCIs when combined with the LCIs to produce logs for the mills and material transportation impacts, and are useful as a benchmark for assessing process performance, for conducting life-cycle analysis of wall, floor, and roof assemblies consisting of plywood and other products, and of residential structures.
Individual differences in the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal predict the reward-related processing

Recent studies have shown that instructed cognitive reappraisal can regulate the neural processing of reward. However, it is still unclear whether the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal in everyday life is related to brain activity involved in reward processing. In the present study, participants’ neural responses to reward were measured using electroencephalography (EEG) recorded during a gambling task and their tendency to use cognitive reappraisal was assessed using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Event-related potential (ERP) results indicated that losses on the gambling task elicited greater negative reward-related feedback negativity (FN) than gains. The differential FN between losses and gains was significantly correlated with cognitive reappraisal scores across participants such that individuals with a higher tendency to use cognitive reappraisal showed stronger reward processing (i.e., amplified FN difference between losses and gains). This correlation remained significant after controlling for expressive suppression scores. However, expressive suppression per se was not correlated with FN differences. Taken together, these results suggest that the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal is associated with increased neural processing of reward.
Repair of injured plasma membrane by rapid Ca2+-dependent endocytosis

Ca2+ influx through plasma membrane lesions triggers a rapid repair process that was previously shown to require the exocytosis of lysosomal organelles (Reddy, A., E. Caler, and N. Andrews. 2001. Cell. 106:157–169). However, how exocytosis leads to membrane resealing has remained obscure, particularly for stable lesions caused by pore-forming proteins. In this study, we show that Ca2+-dependent resealing after permeabilization with the bacterial toxin streptolysin O (SLO) requires endocytosis via a novel pathway that removes SLO-containing pores from the plasma membrane. We also find that endocytosis is similarly required to repair lesions formed in mechanically wounded cells. Inhibition of lesion endocytosis (by sterol depletion) inhibits repair, whereas enhancement of endocytosis through disruption of the actin cytoskeleton facilitates resealing. Thus, endocytosis promotes wound resealing by removing lesions from the plasma membrane. These findings provide an important new insight into how cells protect themselves not only from mechanical injury but also from microbial toxins and pore-forming proteins produced by the immune system.
Mitochondrial DNA inference between European populations of Tanymastix stagnalis and their glacial survival in Scandinavia

The early observation from 1914 of Tanymastix stagnalis in Norway was not repeated recently, showing a rare and restricted distribution of this species. All four sampled localities were concentrated in the same area of the Trollheimen Mountains with altitudes of 900–1244 m above sea level. In March 2002, a new population of T. stagnalis was observed at about 50 km north of Madrid at an altitude of 1350 m. In general, all habitats with T. stagnalis were fishless shallow ponds and varied in size from 1 to about 300 m2. Natural variability of the global temperature is well accepted, but recent climate models have predicted increases in global average temperature. Based on the new biogeographical distribution, diurnal temperature variations, and biological evidence (inference with the analysis of mitochondria DNA), the immigration history of T. stagnalis was considered on the basis of two opposing immigration theories and in relation to the implications of global climate change. Two immigration theories, namely – the Tabula rasa and Nunatak, have prevailed in explaining the present distribution of plants and animals in Scandinavia. It was concluded that the rare occurrence of T. stagnalis in Norway fits into the Nunatak theory and that the species probably survived, at least, the last glaciation on Nunataks or coast refuges located in central northwestern Norway at Møre mountain and coast areas.
Molecular characterization of metastatic ovarian cancer by MALDI imaging mass spectrometry.

9 Declaration . 10 Acknowledgement of help . 11 Acknowledgements . 12 Publications . 13 Abbreviations . 14 Chapter 1 Manuscript Context . 17 Chapter 1 MALDI Imaging Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-IMS) ― Application of Spatial Proteomics for Ovarian Cancer Classification and Diagnosis . 19 Statement of authorship for chapter 1 . 20 1.1 Abstract . 23 1.2 Epidemiology of Ovarian Cancer . 23 1.3 Early Detection of Ovarian Cancer . 24 1.4 Molecular Classification of Ovarian Carcinomas . 25 1.5 Application of Proteomics to Ovarian Cancer . 27 1.6 Tissue Analysis by Mass Spectrometry . 28 1.7 Methods for in Situ MALDI-TOF Analysis of Ovarian Cancer Tissue . 32 1.8 Profiling Cancer Tissues Using MALDI-TOF MS . 35 1.9 Profiling vs. Imaging . 37 1.10 Software for Data Analysis . 38
Complete subvarieties of moduli spaces and the Prym map

We prove that in characteristic p>0 the locus of stable curves of p-rank at most f is pure of codimension g-f in the moduli space of stable curves. Then we consider the Prym map and analyze it using tautological classes. We study the locus of curves with an etale double cover of p-rank 0 in some detail. In particular, in genus 2 we obtain a formula for the number of such curves. We end with several examples illustrating our formula.