Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
INDUCTION OF ENDOTOXIN TOLERANCE ENHANCES BACTERIAL CLEARANCE AND SURVIVAL IN MURINE POLYMICROBIAL SEPSIS

The fundamental mechanisms that underlie endotoxin tolerance remain to be elucidated, and the clinical significance of endotoxin tolerance in the context of active systemic infection remains in question. We hypothesized that the endotoxin tolerance phenotype would result in decreased inflammation at the expense of altered bacterial clearance and, thus, higher mortality in a murine model of polymicrobial sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). Endotoxin tolerance was induced in C57Bl/6 mice with 5 mg/kg LPS or vehicle 18 h before subsequent CLP. Lung tissue, peritoneal fluid, and blood were collected at 1, 3, 6, and 18 h after surgery for subsequent analysis. Peritoneal macrophages were isolated for ex vivo phagocytosis assay. In separate experiments, mice were allowed to recover, and survival was monitored for 7 days. Endotoxin tolerance attenuated plasma TNF-&agr; and IL-6 at 6 h after CLP. Peritoneal fluid cytokines were significantly attenuated as well. Endotoxin tolerance significantly improved bacterial clearance in both blood and peritoneal fluid after CLP. Similarly, ex vivo phagocytosis by primary peritoneal macrophages and RAW264.7 murine peritoneal macrophages was significantly improved after induction of the endotoxin tolerance phenotype. Contrary to our original hypothesis, we conclude that endotoxin tolerance significantly attenuates the host inflammatory response, augments bacterial clearance, and improves survival in this murine model of polymicrobial sepsis.
Large-body impact and extinction in the Phanerozoic

The kill curve for Phanerozoic marine species is used to investigate large-body impact as a cause of species extinction. Current estimates of Phanerozoic impact rates are combined with the kill curve to produce an impact-kill curve, which predicts extinction levels from crater diameter, on the working assumption that impacts are responsible for all “pulsed” extinctions. By definition, pulsed extinction includes the approximately 60% of Phanerozoic extinctions that occurred in short-lived events having extinction rates greater than 5%. The resulting impact-kill curve is credible, thus justifying more thorough testing of the impact-extinction hypothesis. Such testing is possible but requires an exhaustive analysis of radiometric dating of Phanerozoic impact events.
High performing 8 A EOT HfO/sub 2//TaN low thermal-budget n-channel FETs with solid-phase epitaxially regrown (SPER) junctions

We demonstrate high-performing w-channel transistors with a HfO/sub 2//TaN gate stack and a low thermal budget process (570/spl deg/C anneal). The thinnest devices have an EOT of 8.3 A, a leakage current of 2.6 A/cm/sup 2/ at V/sub G/=1 V, and a drive-current of 815 /spl mu/A/um at an off-state current of 0.1 /spl mu/A//spl mu/m for VDD=1.2 V. We show that the performance improvement over identical gate-stacks processed with a 1000/spl deg/C spike anneal is related to a difference in V/sub T/.
Enterobacteriaceae and Aeromonas hydrophila in Minnesota frogs and tadpoles (Rana pipiens)

In 222 Rana pipiens frogs and 34 tadpoles captured in and near Minnesota, Aeromonas hydrophila and 29 species of Enterobacteriaceae, including yersinia enterocolitica and Salmonella arizonae, were isolated from intestines. The prevalence of members of the family Enterobacteriaceae was lowest in frogs captured in early spring and highest in frogs captured in late summer.
Carotid chemoreceptor modulation of blood flow during exercise in healthy humans

Non‐technical summary Exercise causes an increase in sympathetic activity which helps to redistribute blood flow while maintaining blood pressure. The exact mechanisms that regulate sympathetic activity and blood flow during exercise are not completely understood. By modulating the activity of a specific chemical receptor (the carotid chemoreceptor), we showed that this receptor contributes to the regulation of blood flow during exercise in healthy subjects. These findings demonstrate the importance of the carotid chemoreceptor in the regulation of blood flow during exercise in health.
Real‐time imaging of Rab3a and Rab5a reveals differential roles in presynaptic function

We investigated the roles of two Rab‐family proteins, Rab3a and Rab5a, in hippocampal synaptic transmission using real‐time fluorescence imaging. During synaptic activity, Rab3a dissociated from synaptic vesicles and dispersed into neighbouring axonal regions. Dispersion required calcium‐dependent exocytosis and was complete before the entire vesicle pool turned over. In contrast, even prolonged synaptic activity produced limited dispersion of Rab5a. A GTPase‐deficient mutant, Rab3a (Q81L), dispersed more slowly than wild‐type Rab3a, and decreased the rate of exocytosis and the size of the recycling pool of vesicles. While overexpression of Rab3a did not affect vesicle recycling, overexpression of Rab5a reduced the recycling pool size by 50%. We propose that while Rab3a preferentially associates with recycling synaptic vesicles and modulates their trafficking, Rab5a is largely excluded from recycling vesicles.
Phage SPP1 Reversible Adsorption to Bacillus subtilis Cell Wall Teichoic Acids Accelerates Virus Recognition of Membrane Receptor YueB

ABSTRACT Bacteriophage SPP1 targets the host cell membrane protein YueB to irreversibly adsorb and infect Bacillus subtilis. Interestingly, SPP1 still binds to the surface of yueB mutants, although in a completely reversible way. We evaluated here the relevance of a reversible step in SPP1 adsorption and identified the receptor(s) involved. We show that reversible adsorption is impaired in B. subtilis mutants defective in the glucosylation pathway of teichoic acids or displaying a modified chemical composition of these polymers. The results indicate that glucosylated poly(glycerolphosphate) cell wall teichoic acid is the major target for SPP1 reversible binding. Interaction with this polymer is characterized by a fast adsorption rate showing low-temperature dependence, followed by a rapid establishment of an equilibrium state between adsorbed and free phages. This equilibrium is basically determined by the rate of phage dissociation, which exhibits a strong dependence on temperature compatible with an Arrhenius law. This allowed us to determine an activation energy of 22.6 kcal/mol for phage release. Finally, we show that SPP1 reversible interaction strongly accelerates irreversible binding to YueB. Our results support a model in which fast SPP1 adsorption to and desorption from teichoic acids allows SPP1 to scan the bacterial surface for rapid YueB recognition.
Should patients be advised not to drive for 4 days after isoflurane anaesthesia?

The effect of general anaesthesia on psychomotor function and, therefore, ability to drive safely in the immediate postoperative period, has been well established [1–3]. The duration of this impairment is, however, the subject of much debate [4]. There has been a recent modification in the summary of product characteristics for isoflurane as manufactured by Abbvie (AbbVie Ltd, Maidenhead, UK). This revision in 2013 states ‘patients should be advised that performance of activities requiring mental alertness, such as operating a motor vehicle or hazardous machinery, may be impaired for 2–4 days after anaesthesia with isoflurane’ [5]. The reasons for this change are unclear, and yet the Royal College of Anaesthetists updated its advice to incorporate this modification, stating ‘it is not usually safe to drive or operate machinery until at least 24 h after a general anaesthetic, and this should be extended to 4 days if isoflurane has been used’ [6]. However, the College guidance has recently changed: “You should not drive for at least 24 hours after an anaesthetic. This may be longer if you have had certain anaesthetic drugs or are taking strong painkillers (check with your anaesthetist), as your judgement and reaction time might be impaired” [7]. Meanwhile, the advice from the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) remains unchanged, advising patients to refrain from driving for 24 h postoperatively [8]. Interestingly, this is same time-period recommended in the summary of product characteristics for isoflurane manufactured by Baxter [9]. We made contact with AbbVie to request a more in-depth explanation for the revised advice. The company responded with a letter (published in this issue of the journal) that included a literature search consisting of articles regarding the effects of isoflurane on cognition. Isoflurane is one of the older inhalational anaesthetic agents, with a relatively slow elimination phase [10], but is still used widely, due to its low cost [11]. This change in guidance is important, not only to patients, who may find it disruptive being unable to drive for 4 days, but also hospital staff, who may be at risk of litigation if the correct advice is not given. Driving is a complex task requiring cognitive, visual and motor skills [12]. There are numerous methods of assessing driving ability, including: on-road testing; driving simulation; and neuropsychological tests [13]. Although on-road testing is the gold standard, in practice it is rarely feasible [14]. Neuropsychological testing, however, is cheap, quick and has been shown to be an accurate assessment of driving competency [13]. Cognitive tests that correlate most closely with driving ability are those that assess visuospatial skills, attention [15] and motor skills [13]. On the other hand, neuropsychological tests that assess memory, language and executive function have been shown to poorly reflect driving ability [15].
Effect of a Casein/Calcium Phosphate-Containing Tooth Cream and Fluoride on Enamel Erosion in vitro

The aim of this study was to determine whether a tooth cream containing casein/calcium phosphate (CasCP) protects enamel against erosion. Sixty bovine enamel specimens were prepared for profilometry and distributed into five groups. Specimens were rinsed with artificial saliva interrupted by 1% citric acid (pH 2.3) for 30 s 6 times daily for 14 days. Group 1 (n = 12) was not treated (control); in group 2 (n = 12) CasCP was applied for 120 s twice daily; in group 3 (n = 12) 250 ppm fluoride as NaF was applied for 120 s twice daily; in group 4 (n = 12) CasCP was applied for 120 s, then 250 ppm fluoride for 120 s twice daily, and in group 5 (n = 12) amine fluoride (AmF) gel (12,500 ppm fluoride) was applied for 120 s twice daily. Differences between groups with respect to erosive enamel loss (profilometrically determined depth after 7 and 14 days) were tested by the Mann-Whitney test (α = 0.05). After 7/14 days’ erosive cycling, specimens treated with AmF gel showed significantly less enamel loss (18.5/35.5 µm; medians) than those treated with CasCP (25.5/46.9 µm), 250 ppm fluoride (25.0/ 40.9 µm), CasCP and 250 ppm fluoride (23.9/47.4 µm) or with no treatment (26.3/49.8 µm). It is concluded that highly fluoridated acidic AmF gel can protect enamel against erosion while CasCP, 250 ppm fluoride or a combination of CasCP and 250 ppm fluoride provide little protection.
Quadrant based intelligent energy controlled multicast algorithm for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET) are a peer-to-peer communication network that can be used to transmit data using a mobile or wireless link without the support of fixed infrastructure. A literature survey highlighted that the key characteristics of efficient MANET nodes are reputation value, residual battery level and energy consumption. Various MANET algorithms and routing techniques such as location aided routing, broadcasting, multicasting and energy efficient routing have been developed. MANET intelligent routing algorithm requirements include a range of characteristics. This paper proposes a new MANET routing algorithm that includes quadrant based opportunistic routing, an intelligent energy matrix and energy status request messages with packet receipt acknowledgement notification. In quadrant based routing packets are transmitted towards the quadrant that the destination resides within. The proposed algorithm uses an intelligent energy matrix that creates a look up table including the key characteristics: reputation value, residual battery level and energy consumption. The proposed algorithm balances the traffic uniformly across four intermediate nodes in any desired quadrant. The simulation results presented in this paper demonstrate that due to the inclusion of the energy matrix and quadrant based routing, the number of broadcast messages decreases, reducing data flooding, providing improved channel efficiency and improves bandwidth utilization. Load balancing also increases the lifetime of intermediate nodes which provides improved route stability. The proposed algorithm also includes packet receipt acknowledgement notification which guarantees end-to-end packet delivery and provides reliable MANET routing. Comparison with two other MANET broadcast algorithms identifies that a slower transmission speed is offset by the proposed routing algorithm providing higher energy efficiency, reliability and stability.
The convergence of modeling and programming: facilitating the representation of attributes and associations in the umple model-oriented programming language

This thesis investigates approaches to model-driven development (MDD) in which developers can keep using their familiar textual programming languages, but with additional model-oriented concepts. The added concepts include associations and attributes as found in the Unified Modeling Language (UML), as well as concepts from software patterns and other common programming abstractions. By keeping text at the forefront of development, we maintain all of the advantages of text, without having to sacrifice the benefits of diagrams. By allowing a model to be equally expressed in either diagrammatic or textual form, we enable what we have termed text-diagram duality, a duality that benefits programmers and modelers alike. We explore why software developers in some situations prefer diagrams, but tend to revert to textual means to write and maintain software systems. To explore the capabilities of modeling in code, we developed a model-oriented programming language called Umple. At its core, Umple is a family of object-oriented languages enhanced with additional abstractions. Umple supports both platform-independent models (PIM), as well as platform specific models (PSM). Umple currently integrates with Java, PHP and Ruby; referred to as base languages throughout this thesis. Our research focuses on investigating the opportunities and obstacles we discovered in the course of implementing and using UML-like associations and attributes in Umple. It is our hypothesis that current features available in object-oriented languages can be enhanced with a more model-oriented approach, providing a textual form for modeling concepts that have been primarily available diagrammatically. By providing modeling abstractions in a programming language, the complexity and size of the resulting systems, we argue, is reduced and more developers, particularly those who are used to writing code, will be more eager to adopt modeling practices. At the same time, our approach maintains the benefits of diagrammatic approaches to software development, since Umple can be rendered and edited as a UML-like diagram. Our primary contributions to the field of computer science are as follows: First, we provide an empirical investigation on the nature of modeling practices. Second, we present the design, implementation and analysis of a model-oriented language, Umple. The language is presented as enhancements to existing programming languages including Java, PHP and Ruby.
Suicide in the Multiethnic Elderly Population of Australia, 1979–1990

Australia is a multiethnic society with 25% of its elderly population born outside the country. Rates and methods, gender, and country of birth are given for all suicides aged 65 and over in Australia during the 12-year period of 1979–1990. There was a marked heterogeneity in rates and methods of suicide among the various migrant groups. The data also showed that the suicide rates of migrants were mostly higher than in their country of origin. Migrants born in countries with high suicide rates generally had high rates in Australia, and vice versa. Possible reasons for this finding are discussed. Factors influencing rates and methods of suicide in elderly migrants appeared to have much in common with factors operating in migrants of all age groups.
Multisource feedback in the ambulatory setting.

BACKGROUND The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has mandated multisource feedback (MSF) in the ambulatory setting for internal medicine residents. Few published reports demonstrate actual MSF results for a residency class, and fewer still include clinical quality measures and knowledge-based testing performance in the data set. METHODS Residents participating in a year-long group practice experience called the "long-block" received MSF that included self, peer, staff, attending physician, and patient evaluations, as well as concomitant clinical quality data and knowledge-based testing scores. Residents were given a rank for each data point compared with peers in the class, and these data were reviewed with the chief resident and program director over the course of the long-block. RESULTS Multisource feedback identified residents who performed well on most measures compared with their peers (10%), residents who performed poorly on most measures compared with their peers (10%), and residents who performed well on some measures and poorly on others (80%). Each high-, intermediate-, and low-performing resident had a least one aspect of the MSF that was significantly lower than the other, and this served as the basis of formative feedback during the long-block. CONCLUSION Use of multi-source feedback in the ambulatory setting can identify high-, intermediate-, and low-performing residents and suggest specific formative feedback for each. More research needs to be done on the effect of such feedback, as well as the relationships between each of the components in the MSF data set.
EPPM and Willingness to Respond: The Role of Risk and Efficacy Communication in Strengthening Public Health Emergency Response Systems

This study examines the attitudinal impact of an Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM)-based training curriculum on local public health department (LHD) workers’ willingness to respond to representative public health emergency scenarios. Data are from 71 U.S. LHDs in urban and rural settings across nine states. The study explores changes in response willingness and EPPM threat and efficacy appraisals between randomly assigned control versus intervention health departments, at baseline and 1 week post curriculum, through an EPPM-based survey/resurvey design. Levels of response willingness and emergency response-related attitudes/beliefs are measured. Analyses focus on two scenario categories that have appeared on a U.S. government list of scenarios of significant concern: a weather-related emergency and a radiological “dirty” bomb event (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2007). The greatest impact from the training intervention on response willingness was observed among LHD workers who had low levels of EPPM-related threat and efficacy perceptions at baseline. Self-efficacy and response efficacy and response willingness increased in intervention LHDs for both scenarios, with greater response willingness increases observed for the radiological “dirty” bomb terrorism scenario. Findings indicate the importance of building efficacy versus enhancing threat perceptions as a path toward greater response willingness, and suggest the potential applicability of such curricular interventions for boosting emergency response willingness among other cadres of health providers.
Interaction Effects in the Theory of Planned Behavior: The Interplay of Self‐Identity and Past Behavior

This research used a revised theory of planned behavior (TPB) model, which incorporated self-identity and past behavior-and the interaction between these constructs-in order to improve the model's predictive power in relation to consumer behavior (purchasing one's preferred beer). At Time 1, respondents (N = 108) completed measures of attitudes, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, self-identity, past behavior, and intentions. Behavior was assessed 1 week later. All predictors were positively related to intentions. Self-identity and past behavior interacted to influence intentions: Self-identity had a stronger influence on intentions at low, rather than high, levels of past behavior. Intentions and past behavior were predictive of Time 2 behavior. These findings emphasize the need to consider identity issues in the TPB.
Nanoscale polymer electrolytes: Fabrication and applications using nanowire transistors

We present a method to pattern the poly(ethylene oxide)/LiClO4 polymer electrolyte on the nm-scale by electron beam lithography. We use the patterned polymer electrolyte as a high capacitance gate dielectric for InAs nanowire transistors in a `wrap-gate' geometry. Patterning enabled multiple independently controllable gates on the same device, which exhibit stability and subthreshold characteristics comparable to conventional metal/oxide wrap-gates at room temperature. The strong tuning at room temperature combined with the `freeze-out' of Li+/ClO4- transport for T <; 220 K allows a wide range of charge environments to be set and held for quantum transport measurements. The simplicity of fabrication and excellent gate characteristics broadens the scope for polymer electrolyte gating in studies of nanowires and other nanoscale devices.
Design of effectively single-mode leakage channel fibers with large mode area and low bending loss

Novel design of large-mode-area leakage channel fibers (LCFs) with a single air-hole ring surrounding a multi-unit-cell solid core is investigated for realizing robust single-mode and low bending loss characteristics. We perform detailed numerical simulations using a finite element method, and we show that the proposed LCFs with a solid core formed by multiple missing neighboring air-holes can achieve much lower bending losses compared with the reported LCF with six large air-holes.
En1 is necessary for survival of neurons in the ventral nuclei of the lateral lemniscus

The ventral nuclei of the lateral lemniscus (VNLL) are part of the central auditory system thought to participate in temporal sound processing. While the timing and location of VNLL neurogenesis have been determined, the genetic factors that regulate VNLL neuron development are unknown. Here, we use genetic fate‐mapping techniques to demonstrate that all glycinergic and glycinergic/GABAergic VNLL neurons derive from a cellular lineage that expresses the homeobox transcription factor Engrailed 1 (En1). We also show that En1 deletion does not affect migration or adoption of a neuronal cell fate but does lead to VNLL neuron death during development. Furthermore, En1 deletion blocks expression of the transcription factor FoxP1 in a subset of VNLL neurons. Together, these data identify En1 as a gene important for VNLL neuron development and survival. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 76: 1266–1274, 2016