Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Involvement of oxidative stress on corneal epithelial alterations in a blink-suppressed dry eye.

PURPOSE To investigate whether oxidative stress is involved in the etiology of the corneal disorder in blink-suppressed dry eye in a clinically relevant in vivo rat model. METHODS A series of treatments were performed under continuous exposure to low-humidity airflow. Rats were placed on a jogging board (JB) made of a plastic pipe for 7.5 h/d, and for 16.5 hours, they were placed in individual cages without a JB. This protocol was repeated for up to 30 days. Corneal surface alteration was evaluated by the score of punctate fluorescein staining. To assess oxidative stress status, the levels of damaged DNA, and the protein modification by reactive aldehydes in corneal epithelia were detected by immunohistochemistry, using 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine, 4-hydroxynonenal- and malondialdehyde-specific antibodies. RESULTS Significant increases in the fluorescein staining score were observed from days 1 to 30 compared with the initial value. The average score for the dry eye group was significantly increased compared with that for the nontreatment group at all time points throughout the experiment. Immunoreactivity of all oxidative stress markers increased in the dry eye treatment. Quantitative analysis of the positive-stained cells showed a significant increase in the number of positive cells after 10 and 30 days in the dry eye treatment group compared with the nontreatment group. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest a relationship between the accumulation of oxidative stress and the etiology of corneal epithelial alterations in blink-suppressed dry eye.
Determination of the Nitrous Oxide Emission Potential of Deammonification under Anoxic Conditions

Various studies have been performed to determine nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from conventional biological nitrogen removal processes in wastewater treatment like nitrification and denitrification in the main stream. However, with respect to the overall emissions of a wastewater treatment plant, part‐stream treatment for high‐strength wastewater (e.g., sludge liquor) is also expected to hold a significant emission potential because of high concentrations and extreme boundary conditions. This paper presents results from a laboratory‐scale study on nitrous oxide production by biomass from a deammonification process (nitritation + anammox) under anoxic conditions. It was discovered that N2O formation results from incomplete endogenous denitrification rather than anammox and is dependent on substrate availability. Based on direct measurements of the dissolved N2O concentrations in a sequencing batch reactor, the dynamic behavior of N2O production is characterized in more detail. The results show that, during anoxic conditions, the N2O emission potential of deammonification is significantly lower than from conventional denitrification.
Protocadherin 19 mutations in girls with infantile-onset epilepsy

Objective: To explore the causative role of PCDH19 gene (Xq22) in female patients with epilepsy. Methods: We studied a cohort of 117 female patients with febrile seizures (FS) and a wide spectrum of epilepsy phenotypes including focal and generalized forms with either sporadic or familial distribution. Results: PCDH19 screening showed point mutations in 13 probands (11%). Mean age at seizure onset was 8.5 months; 8 patients (62%) presented with FS, 4 (33%) with cluster of focal seizures, and 1 with de novo status epilepticus (SE). Subsequent seizure types included afebrile tonic-clonic, febrile, and afebrile SE, absences, myoclonic, and focal seizures. Seven patients (54%) had a clinical diagnosis consistent with Dravet syndrome (DS); 6 (46%) had focal epilepsy. In most patients, seizures were particularly frequent at onset, manifesting in clusters and becoming less frequent with age. Mental retardation was present in 11 patients, ranging from mild (7; 64%) to moderate (1; 9%) to severe (3; 27%). Five patients (38%) had autistic features in association to mental retardation. Mutations were missense (6), truncating (2), frameshift (3), and splicing (2). Eleven were new mutations. Mutations were inherited in 3 probands (25%): 2 from apparently unaffected fathers and 1 from a mother who had had generalized epilepsy. Conclusions: PCDH19 is emerging as a major gene for infantile-onset familial or sporadic epilepsy in female patients with or without mental retardation. In our cohort, epileptic encephalopathy with DS-like features and focal epilepsy of variable severity were the associated phenotypes and were equally represented.
Toward a new age of cellular pharmacokinetics in drug discovery

Pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, and toxicology are the major determinants of the success or failure of candidates during drug development. Because inappropriate pharmacokinetics often leads to inefficacy, even toxicity, pharmacokinetics studies have been regarded as crucial components in drug preclinical and clinical research. However, new data increasingly reveal that drug concentrations in plasma or tissues cannot totally explain the efficacy of drug on the target organ. For most drugs that interact with targets localized in cells, intracellular penetration, accumulation, distribution, and elimination are important parameters governing the efficacy in the target cells. So, there is a pressing need to clarify the cellular pharmacokinetics and thus evaluate the efficacy of drugs in the target cells. This review provides a general overview regarding current knowledge about cellular pharmacokinetics in some specific cells and also summarizes the factors that can influence cellular pharmacokinetics. It concludes by discussing potential strategies for optimizing cellular pharmacokinetics and advocating that global cellular pharmacokinetics studies be conducted in future research toward improving drug efficacy.
Stability of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) in Chlorine Solutions of Varying pH

Green fluorescent protein (GFP) is an excellent biosensor as a result of its ability to be easily monitored in a wide variety of applications. Enzymes and proteins have been used as biological indicators to evaluate the immediate efficacy of industrial procedures, such as blanching, pasteurization, and disinfection treatments, as well as to monitor the satisfactory preservation of a product subjected to disinfection or sterilization. The purpose of this work was to study GFP stability in chlorinated water for injection (WFI) and chlorinated buffered solutions at various pH ranges, with and without agitation, to evaluate the exposure time required for chlorine to decrease 90% of its fluorescence intensity (decimal reduction time, D‐value, min, 25 °C). Fluorescence intensity (Ex/Emmax = 394/509 nm) was measured immediately after the addition of GFP (8.0–9.0 μg/mL) into buffered or unbuffered chlorine solutions with or without constant stirring. With solutions constantly stirred, GFP fluorescence decreased abruptly on contact with chlorine in concentrations greater than 150 ppm, with D‐values between 1.3 min (147 ppm chlorine) and 1.7 min (183 ppm chlorine). In phosphate buffered chlorine solutions (pH = 7.15 ± 0.08), GFP retained its structure between 52 and 94 ppm, but protein stability decreased 10‐fold when exposed to 110 ppm chlorine. The recovery of GFP fluorescence intensity due to renaturation was observed between 30 and 100 ppm chlorine in WFI (final pH = 11.01 ± 0.23) without stirring. Stirring enhanced the contact between GFP and chlorine throughout the assay and provided a more accurate D‐value evaluation. GFP performed as a suitable fluorescent marker for monitoring disinfection effectiveness.
Microstrip antenna array integrated with 60 GHz band CMOS injection locked power amplifier

A microstrip antenna integration with a power amplifier is presented for the 60 GHz band. The antenna is a single layer 4×4 square patches array. The power amplifier is injection locked, designed in a 65 nm CMOS technology, with single-ended input and output signals. The integration is realized by means of bond wire connections. The antenna and the power amplifier are fabricated, characterized and measured separately. The integrated design is fabricated and measured, results are de-embedded to extract the power amplifier parameters and to compare with separate device measurements. At 56.5 GHz the integrated sample has about 12 dB gain increase with respect to the antenna sample without power amplifier. The presented design is targeting 60 GHz band wireless communication system applications.
Smoking Characteristics of a Homeless Population 1

When addressing tobacco control and smoking cessation measures, the homeless have been perceived as a difficult to reach population. The purpose of this study was to examine the smoking characteristics of a homeless population. Data were derived from a larger study that examined smoking among inner-city residents. Homeless smokers (n = 107) were compared to nonhomeless smokers (n = 491) on sociodemographics, smoking characteristics, motivation to quit, and smoking cessation experiences. Results showed that homeless smokers were more likely to be white, smoke more cigarettes per day, initiate smoking at a younger age, and have a longer smoking history. Knowledge about the risks of smoking and the benefits of quitting was equally high in both groups. Homeless smokers were less likely to be preparing to quit smoking compared to nonhomeless smokers. These factors place homeless smokers at increased risk of tobacco-related diseases. Programs are needed to design and test effective cessation interventions for homeless smokers.
Biocompatibility of polypyrrole particles: an in‐vivo study in mice

The objectives of this study were the chemical synthesis of polypyrrole particles, the investigation and estimation of the impact of polypyrrole particle concentration, and the evaluation of the effect of duration of treatment on immune‐related haematological parameters and peritoneum cells in mice. The results showed that chemically prepared polypyrrole particles did not have any detectable cytotoxic effect on mouse peritoneum cells. Polypyrrole particles did not induce any allergic response, nor did they affect spleen, kidney or liver indexes. Moreover, no effect of polypyrrole particles on immune‐related haematological parameters was observed. No inflammation was detected in the peritoneum of mice after a 6‐week period of treatment with polypyrrole particles. In conclusion, chemically synthesized polypyrrole particles showed good biocompatibility in mice and are attractive candidates for biomedical applications in‐vivo.
SOCIAL SUPPORT AS A MODERATOR OF ACCULTURATIVE STRESS AMONG REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS

N = 63 refugees and asylum seekers, 27 women and 36 men with a mean age of 33.08 years (SD = 10.3) from Chechnya and Afghanistan were granted sponsorships for six months and were randomized to an intervention and a waiting-list control group. Only participants with a history of traumatization benefited from the intervention. For the traumatized sub-sample, sponsorships led to a significant and stable decrease in anxiety, depression, and psychological problems as compared to the control group, with effect sizes comparable to those of psychotherapy. The effects being rather palliative than instrumental, however, sponsorships did not instigate improvements in acculturation, societal contact, or coping capability. Women benefited more from the intervention than men, and Afghans more than Chechen.
Persistence of Integration in the Face of Specialization : How Firms Navigated the Winds of Disintegration and Shaped the Architecture of the Semiconductor Industry

While the stylized model of industry evolution suggests that firms transform from vertical integration to specialization over time, many industries nonetheless exhibit a continued persistence of integrated firms. In exploring this puzzle, I draw on detailed firm-level data from the semiconductor industry to analyze how integrated incumbents, beyond shifting to the specialized mode, reconfigured in the face of industry’s vertical disintegration so as to co-exist with the specialized firms. I propose and find that the incumbents who persist with vertical integration increase their emphasis on systemic innovations, and transact with specialized firms in both upstream and intermediate markets. The value creating opportunities associated with integrated incumbents’ leveraging (a) their relative superiority in developing systemic innovations, and (b) markets to pursue a broader menu of transactional choices may offset their costs of staying integrated. These firm level factors also determine the pattern of industry’s vertical disintegration and the extent of co-existence between integrated and specialized firms.
Menstrual Hygiene: Knowledge and Practice among Adolescent School Girls of Saoner, Nagpur District

Background: Menstruation is generally considered as unclean in the Indian society. Isolation of the menstruating girls and restrictions being imposed on them in the family, have reinforced a negative attitude towards this phenomenon. There is a substantial lacuna in the knowledge about menstruation among adolescent girls. Good hygienic practices such as the use of sanitary pads and adequate washing of the genital area are essential during menstruation. Menstrual hygiene and management will directly contribute to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG)-2 on universal education and MDG -3 on gender equality and women empowerment. Aim and Objectives: To assess the knowledge and the practices of menstrual hygiene among rural and urban school going adolescent girls. Materials and Methods: A community based, cross sectional study was conducted in January- March, 2011 on 387 school going girls. The present study was undertaken among adolescent school going girls in the field practice area of the Rural Health Unit and Training Centre, Saoner, in the Nagpur district. Three hundred and eighty seven girls of the 8th and 9th standards were purposively selected for the study. A pre-designed, pretested and structured questionnaire was used in the study. The data collection technique was a personal interview of the study subjects. Results: Only 36.95% of the girls were aware of menstruation before menarche. The major source of information about menstruation for them was found to be their mothers. More than three fourth of the girls in the study were not aware of the cause and the source of the bleeding. A majority of them had knowledge about the use of sanitary pads. The mean age of menarche in the study subjects was 12.85 ± 0.867 years; sanitary pads were used by 49.35% of the selected girls. The practice of the use of old clothes was reported in 45.74% of the subjects. Satisfactory cleaning of the external genitalia was practised by 33.85% of the girls. Three fourth of the study girls practised various restrictions during menstruation. Some menstrual hygiene indices have shown a significant difference in the rural and urban girls. Conclusion: A variety of factors are known to affect menstrual behaviours, the most influential being economic status and residential status (urban and rural). Awareness regarding the need for information about healthy menstrual practices is very important. It is essential to design a mechanism to address and for the access of healthy menstrual knowledge.
Sources and Patterns of Wolverine Mortality in Western Montana

Abstract We instrumented 36 wolverines (Gulo gulo) on 2 study areas in western Montana and one study area on the Idaho–Montana (USA) border: 14 (9 M, 5 F) on the Pioneer study area, 19 (11 M, 8 F) on the Glacier study area, and 3 (2 M, 1 F) on the Clearwater study area. During 2002–2005, harvest from licensed trapping accounted for 9 (6 M, 3 F) of 14 mortalities, including individuals from all 3 study areas. Based on Akaike's Information Criterion adjusted for small sample sizes (AICc) rankings of 8 a priori models, a trapping model and a trapping-by-sex interaction model were equally supported (ΔAICc < 2) in explaining wolverine survival. Estimated annual survival was 0.80 when we did not consider harvest, whereas additive mortality from harvest reduced annual survival to 0.57. Glacier National Park in the Glacier study area provided some refuge as evidenced by an annual survival rate of 0.77 compared to 0.51 for the Pioneer Mountain study area. We incorporated these survival rates into a simple Lefkovitch stage-based model to examine rates of population change. The finite rate of population change (λ) for the Glacier study area was 1.1, indicating a stable to slightly increasing population, whereas λ for the Pioneer study area was 0.7, indicating a 30% annual population decrease during our study. Changes in λ for both study areas were most sensitive to adult survival. In 2004, we used a Lincoln Index to estimate that 12.8 ± 2.9 (95% CI) wolverines resided in the 4 mountain ranges comprising the Pioneer study area, suggesting that small, island ranges in western Montana supported few individuals. Our results suggest that if wolverines are harvested, they should be managed within individual mountain ranges or small groupings of mountain ranges to limit mortality to within biologically defined limits in recognition of the increased vulnerabilities owing to low fecundity and low population numbers in small mountain ranges. We found that refugia, such as Glacier National Park, were important by reducing trap mortality and providing immigrants to the surrounding population, but even large parks were inadequate to provide complete protection to wolverines from trapping as they ranged outside park borders.
Reliability and validity of the Turkish version of myastheniagravis-quality of life questionnaire-15 item.

BACKGROUND/AIM The myasthenia gravis-quality of life questionnaire 15 item (MG-QOL15) is a validated, short, and easy to use disease-specific quality of life (QOL) tool in myasthenia gravis. Other than Turkish, a lot of versions of the MG-QOL15 have been used in different languages in different cultures. Therefore, the aim of this study was to translate and construct a validated and adapted Turkish version of the MG-QOL15 [MG-QOL15(T)]. MATERIALS AND METHODS After translation, back-translation, and comparison of the 2 English versions of the MG-QOL15, it was tested by 22 monolingual healthy individuals and then 23 patients with clinically stable MG. Afterwards, 11 voluntary patients out of these 23 patients were interviewed for a second time. During the second interview, the MG-QOL15(T) and the 36-item short-form health survey (Turkish version) were administered simultaneously. RESULTS The MG-QOL15(T) was found to have high internal consistency (1st and 2nd evaluation Cronbach's alphas were 0.958 and 0.928, respectively), test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity. The MG-QOL15(T) was negatively correlated with physical functioning, general health, vitality, and social functioning domains and with the physical and mental composite scores of the SF-36. CONCLUSION The MG-QOL15(T) is accepted to be a valid, reliable, valuable tool for measuring disease-specific QOL in Turkish patients with MG.
Competencies for knowledge management: development and validation of a scale

Purpose – The purpose of the current paper is to develop and validate a scale for measuring and managing the acquisition of competences provided by higher education studies. Design/methodology/approach – A representative sample of Spanish graduates was obtained in the framework of the REFLEX project. In this questionnaire, a battery of 19 self-assessed items was used to measure the contribution of universities to the acquisition of generic competences. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed. Findings – The main competences acquired in higher education according to Spanish graduates can be grouped as follows: innovation, interpersonal, knowledge management, communication, organisational and professional development. Results indicated excellent fit indexes of this six-factor model to data. Research limitations/implications – This scale may be particularly useful to understand the process of transition of higher education systems according to Bologna principles. It also represents a sign.
Chemical composition and physico-chemical properties of meat from capons as affected by breed and age

The influence of the breed (Mos (Spanish indigenous breed), Sasso T-44 and X-44 (commercial strains)) and the age (5, 6, 7 and 8 months) of capons (castrated male cockerels) on some qualitative traits of breast and drumstick meat were studied. The chemical composition (dry matter, protein, lipid and ash contents), pH, water holding capacity, drip loss, cooking loss, colour and texture (compression test and shear force) were measured. In breast meat, the Mos capon showed lower water holding capacity, higher drip loss and was lighter than the other breeds. In drumstick meat, the Mos capon showed lower lipid content, lower water holding capacity and was lighter and less red than the other breeds. Chemical composition, pH, water holding capacity, drip loss, colour and texture of the meat were significantly influenced by the age of the capons. The meat of the youngest animals showed higher ash content, higher pH, lower water holding capacity, higher drip loss, higher lightness and lower shear test values, than that of the older ones. In conclusion, the capon meat quality is influenced by breed and age of the capons.
Optimal Fuzzy Aggregation of Networks

This paper is concerned with the problem of fuzzy aggregation of a network with nonnegative weights on its edges into a small number of clusters. Specifically, we want to optimally define a probability of affiliation of each of the n nodes of the network to each of $m\ll n$ clusters or aggregates. In contrast to statistics-based approaches to this problem, we take a purely dynamical perspective by analyzing the discrete-time Markov chain associated with the network and mapping it onto a Markov chain describing transitions between the clusters. We show that every such aggregated Markov chain and affiliation function can be lifted again onto the full network to define the so-called lifted transition matrix between the nodes of the network. The optimal aggregated Markov chain and affiliation function can then be determined by minimizing some appropriately defined distance between the lifted transition matrix and the transition matrix of the original chain. In general, the resulting constrained nonlinear mini.