Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Astrocyte Mitochondria: A Substrate for Iron Deposition in the Aging Rat Substantia Nigra

Little is currently known concerning the cellular substrates for, and the mechanisms mediating the pathological deposition of, redox-active brain iron in Parkinson's disease. In various subcortical brain regions, populations of astroglia progressively accumulate peroxidase-positive cytoplasmic inclusions derived from effete, iron-laden mitochondria. In the present study, histochemical, ultrastructural, and elemental microanalytical techniques were used to demonstrate the existence of peroxidase-positive astroglia in the substantia nigra of adult rats. At 4 months of age and earlier, few GFAP-positive nigral astroglia contained small, electron-dense cytoplasmic inclusions which exhibited faint endogenous peroxidase activity (diaminobenzidine reaction product) and no detectable iron by microprobe analysis. In contrast, by 14-18 months of age, there was a significant, fourfold increase in numbers of peroxidase-positive astrocyte inclusions in the substantia nigra. The nigral gliosomes in the older animals were heterogeneously electron dense, immunoreactive for ubiquitin and a mitochondrial epitope, and often exhibited X-ray emission peaks for iron. Copper peaks were also detected in a minority of nigral gliosomes. Previous in vitro work indicated that the iron-mediated peroxidase activity in these cells promotes the bioactivation of dopamine and other catechols to neurotoxic free radical intermediates. Thus, mitochondrial sequestration of redox-active iron in aging nigral astroglia may be one factor predisposing the senescent nervous system to parkinsonism and other neurodegenerative disorders.
The middle‐aged generation is at high risk for suicide in Japan

The suicide rate in Japan was the highest in the world the 10 years after World War II. There were many suicides among young and aged people. Now, Japan has many suicides among middle‐aged people, and suicides among elderly people are still remarkable. These findings suggest that middle‐aged people in 1980s have a high risk of suicide and that suicide among elderly people will increase in 10–20 years.
Myopia prevalence in Scandinavia: A survey, with emphasis on factors of relevance for epidemiological refraction studies in general

Before proceeding to more specific issues of epidemiological myopia research (subdivision into risk groups according to morbidity risk and visual disablement; prophylactic measures; therapeutic approaches) myopia prevalence as such should be known. Obviously, only prevalence studies can outline the extent of the subject. Special importance is attached to the documentation of changes in refractive pattern. Thus, before incriminating altered lifestyle, fast food, and education, for instance, OI& must know if myopia frequency has indeed increased in the population under charge. Apparently, the answers should be ready through a mere search in library indexes. However, there is no unambiguous picture, as illustrated e.g. by the thorough chapter on epidemiology in Curtin’s monography (1985). In the Polynesia, as one extreme, a 1% myopia frequency in Vanuatu school-children (age 617) was reported by Garner et al. (1985). Another low score was the 4% among school-children on Tobago Island (age 618; Yamaji et al. 198 1). This forms a striking contrast to nearby Taiwan,
Hippocampal volumes predict risk of dementia with Lewy bodies in mild cognitive impairment

Objective: To predict the risk of probable dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) competing with Alzheimer disease (AD) dementia by hippocampal volume (HV) in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) with impairments in amnestic or nonamnestic cognitive domains. Methods: Patients with MCI (n = 160) from the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, who participated in an MRI study at baseline from 2005 to 2014, were followed with approximately annual clinical evaluations. HVs were analyzed from 3T MRIs using FreeSurfer (5.3). Hippocampal atrophy was determined from the most normal 10th percentile of the measurement distributions in a separate cohort of clinically diagnosed patients with AD dementia. The subdistribution hazard ratios for progression to probable DLB and AD dementia were estimated by taking into account the competing risks. Results: During a median (range) follow-up of 2.0 (0.7–8.1) years, 20 (13%) patients with MCI progressed to probable DLB, and 61 (38%) progressed to AD dementia. The estimated subdistribution hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) for normal HV relative to hippocampal atrophy for progression to AD dementia was 0.56 (0.34–0.91; p = 0.02) after taking into account the competing risks. The estimated hazard ratio for normal HV relative to hippocampal atrophy for progression to probable DLB was 4.22 (1.42–12.6; p = 0.01) after adjusting for age and after including the MCI subtype in the model. Conclusions: Preserved hippocampal volumes are associated with increased risk of probable DLB competing with AD dementia in patients with MCI. Preservation of HV may support prodromal DLB over AD, particularly in patients with MCI with nonamnestic features.
Disappearance of the Brugada‐Type Electrocardiogram After Surgical Castration:

We describe two cases of asymptomatic Brugada syndrome that displayed a persistent ECG manifestation, but in which the typical ECG pattern disappeared following surgical castration for prostate cancer. These facts suggest a possible association between manifestation of the Brugada‐type ECG pattern and testosterone. (PACE 2003; 26[Pt. I]:1551–1553)
Prescribing the Motion of a Set of Particles in a Three-Dimensional Perfect Fluid

We establish a result concerning the so-called Lagrangian controllability of the Euler equation for incompressible perfect fluids in dimension $3$. More precisely, we consider a connected bounded domain of $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ and two smooth contractible sets of fluid particles, surrounding the same volume. We prove that given any initial velocity field, one can find a boundary control and a time interval such that the corresponding solution of the Euler equation makes the first of the two sets approximately reach the second one.
Expression of pili from Bacteroides nodosus in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The pili of Bacteroides nodosus, the causative agent of ovine footrot, constitute the major host-protective immunogen against homologous serotypic challenge. The pilin gene from B. nodosus 198 has been cloned and morphologically expressed as extracellular pili in Pseudomonas aeruginosa by using a plasmid-borne, thermoregulated expression system. B. nodosus pilin could not be detected in cultures of P. aeruginosa grown at 32 degrees C, but after induction at 37 degrees C, B. nodosus pili were expressed on the cell surface of P. aeruginosa to the virtual exclusion of the host cell pili. Pili harvested from induced P. aeruginosa cultures were used to immunize sheep against footrot. The serum agglutinating antibody titers of vaccinated sheep were comparable to those of sheep receiving pili from B. nodosus. Subsequent challenge of the sheep with B. nodosus 198 indicated that the recombinant- DNA-derived pili vaccine and the B. nodosus pili vaccine provided similar levels of protection against footrot.
Candida Sepsis and Association With Retinopathy of Prematurity

Objective. To assess the association of Candida sepsis with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in extremely low birth weight infants. Methods. We prospectively identified 253 infants admitted to the Critical Care Nursery at Georgetown University Hospital with birth weights ≤1000 g born between January 1, 1994, and June 30, 1996. Of these 253 infants, 62 died and 55 were transferred to other institutions before ophthalmologic screening for ROP. Clinical data on 98% (133/136) infants were reviewed. Candida sepsis was defined as a positive blood culture for Candida species. Severity of ROP was staged by the International Classification for ROP. Data were analyzed using the χ2 test for nominal data, unpaired t test for continuous data, Mann-WhitneyU test for ordinal data, and logistic regression. Results. The mean birth weight (±SD) of the population studied was 777 g (±136 g), and the mean gestational age at birth was 26.0 weeks (±1.8 weeks). The overall incidence of ROP was 74%, and it correlated significantly with birth weight, gestational age, days on supplemental oxygen, and 5-minute Apgar scores. The incidence of ROP was significantly higher in the infants who hadCandida sepsis (21/22 [95%]) compared with those who did not (77/111 [69%]). Using logistic regression to control for the influence of birth weight, gestational age, days on supplemental oxygen, and 5-minute Apgar scores, Candida sepsis was an independent predictor of stage 3 or worse ROP. In addition, 9 (41%) of 22 infants with Candida sepsis required laser surgery compared with 10 (9%) of 111 infants without Candidasepsis. This difference was significant independent of birth weight, gestational age, days on supplemental oxygen, and 5-minute Apgar scores. Conclusions. Candida sepsis is independently associated with increased severity of ROP and the need for laser surgery in extremely low birth weight infants.
CSCdroid: Accurately Detect Android Malware via Contribution-Level-Based System Call Categorization

The detection of the malicious application or malware on Android platform is a very concerned issue. Many studies have demonstrated their effect from static property analysis and dynamic analysis. However, their accuracy and efficacy still cannot satisfy the demand. In this paper, we propose CSCdroid, an accurate malware detection approach for Android via contribution-level-based system call (SC) categorization. Different from existing works, which use all SCs to construct feature vectors so as to determine the security of applications, CSCdroid first introduces a concept named contribution to quantitatively evaluate SCs relevance for malware identification. Based on the contribution level, CSCdroid can categorize SCs into two types, determinate SCs and normal SCs. Eventually, CSCdroid builds a Markov chain by replacing all normal SCs with one specific SC in the SC sequence. Then it constructs the target feature vector from the probability matrix and use the Support Vector Machine (SVM) to detect Android malware. Such way can effectively reduce the state number of Markov chains, and cut down the dimension of the feature vectors into the SVM classifier. Our evaluation confirms our approach possesses the malware detection ability with a high accuracy rate.
Chemical characterization of indoor and outdoor particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10) in Doha, Qatar

Τhe extreme weather conditions in Middle East Area led to the construction of tightly sealed, air conditioned buildings, characterized by indoor air quality deterioration. This study presents the results of chemical characterization of outdoor and indoor PM2.5 and PM10 in Doha city, over a two-month period including normal days and dust events, aiming at identifying the factors affecting the indoor air of an office building. The WHO guideline values were exceeded in 100% of the outdoor measurements. 49% of the days of the sampling campaign were characterized as non-dusty (PM10 < 200 μg m), 49% as minor-dusty (200 < PM10 < 1000 μg m) while in one case (2%) there was a major-dusty day (PM10 > 1000 μg m). The contribution of both dust and anthropogenic emissions sources is depicted in particles’ mass and chemical composition. The elevated –especially outdoorlevels of carbonate carbon indicate the presence of crustal matter originating from the surrounding crustal material. OC/EC values reveal possible combined contribution from secondary organic aerosol, trafficrelated sources and re-suspended dust. The influence of anthropogenic emissions is implied by the predominance of nitrate and sulfate ions, which constitute a substantial percentage of the particle mass. The crustal origin of particles is also depicted in metals. However, the higher enrichment factor values which may imply anthropogenic activities of both the outdoor and indoor environment were determined sequentially for Cd, Pb, As, Cu and Zn, suggesting the role of infiltration. Concluding, the indoor to outdoor relationship is significantly influenced by particles infiltration and penetration into the building mainly through the ventilation system and to a lesser extent, through windows or cracks in the building envelope. Although the low indoor to outdoor ratio underlies the predominance of outdoor levels compared to the indoor ones, there is positive correlation between indoor and outdoor PM, during the days that the building was open to the public and employees.
A Secure and Efficient Data Aggregation Framework in Vehicular Sensing Networks

Vehicular ad hoc networks support a wide range of promising applications including vehicular sensing networks, which enable vehicles to cooperatively collect and transmit the aggregated traffic data for the purpose of traffic monitoring. The reported literatures mainly focus on how to achieve the data aggregation in dynamic vehicular environment, while the security issue especially on the authenticity and integrity of aggregation results receives less attention. In this study, we introduce a basic aggregation scheme which could aggregate the data and the message authentication codes by using syntactic aggregation and cryptographic aggregation. To tolerate duplicate messages and further improve the aggregation performance, we introduce a secure probabilistic data aggregation scheme based on Flajolet-Martin sketch and sketch proof technique. We also discuss the tradeoff between the bandwidth efficiency and the estimation accuracy. Extensive simulations and analysis demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Invasive Haemophilus influenzae in Manitoba, Canada, in the Postvaccination Era

ABSTRACT Fifty-two Haemophilus influenzae isolates from patients with invasive disease in the province of Manitoba, Canada, were examined for serotype, biotype, genotype, and antibiotic susceptibility. Half of the 52 isolates were found to be serotype a, and 38.5% (20 isolates) were found to be nonserotypeable (NST). There were only three serotype b strains and one each for serotypes c, d, and f. All 26 serotype a isolates belonged to biotype II and demonstrated identical or highly similar DNA fingerprints by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. An analysis of these isolates by multilocus sequence typing showed that they belong to the clonal complex ST-23. While 69% (18 of 26) of the serotype a cases were found in males, only 9 (45%) of the 20 patients with NST isolates were males. Twenty (77%) of the 26 serotype a isolates were from patients who were ≤24 months old. Twelve (63%) of the NST isolates were from adult or adolescent patients. In contrast to the clonal nature of serotype a isolates, the 20 NST isolates were found to belong to 18 different sequence types. Most of these 18 different sequence types were unrelated to each other, with the exception of 7 sequence types grouped into three clonal groups. Two (6.25%) out of 32 serotypeable isolates (1 serotype a and 1 serotype b) and 6 (30%) of 20 NST isolates were resistant to ampicillin due to β-lactamase production. These results suggest a change in the epidemiology of H. influenzae disease, with the majority of invasive H. influenzae isolates being associated with serotype a and NST strains.
Physical Function of Patients With Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators

Background:Patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) face problems in physical function, but little is known about how mastery predicts physical function over time. Purpose:The primary purpose of this study was to examine the influence of mastery (assessed at baseline) on physical function (observed distance walked and perceived function) over 12 months among ICD patients. Secondary purposes were to (1) examine the influence of aging, in interaction with mastery, on physical function and (2) determine predictors of 12-month physical function. Methods:The ICD patients (N = 122; 75% men; 88% white; mean age, 65 years) completed the baseline interviews; 100 patients completed the 12-month interviews. Repeated-measures 1-way analyses of variance were used to examine the influence of mastery and the interaction of mastery and aging on physical function over 12 months. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine predictors of 12-month physical function. Results:The ICD patients with higher mastery had better walk distances than those with lower mastery; and walk distances were improved over 12 months, but only in those with lower mastery (F = 5.40, P = .02). The ICD patients with higher mastery had better perceived physical function than those with lower mastery (F = 25.57, P < .0001), but those with both lower and higher mastery did not show significant improvement. Neither significant interaction of aging and mastery on physical function nor predictors of walk distances were found. Baseline depression significantly predicted 12-month perceived physical function (F = 8.94, P = .0042). Conclusions:The ICD patients with lower mastery had considerable impairments in physical function compared with those with higher mastery over time. Depression is more likely to predict perceived physical function. Further prospective studies are needed to validate these findings in a larger sample and develop interventions to improve physical impairment in ICD patients.
Environmental cost of energy consumption and biodiesel as a solution (case study: Iran)

ABSTRACT More than 8.5 million people live in Tehran, the capital of Iran, with 111 pollutant days during 2016. Based on Iranian 2016 energy balance sheet, more than 76% of SPM was emitted by gas oil combustion. To determine the main pollutant fuel-consuming sector, the amount of gas oil consumption and SPM production are investigated. Therefore, the transportation and power plant sectors are determined as the main gas oil users with 51.1% and 30.5% of its total consumption. Next, the reduced external cost of implementing biodiesel instead of gas oil for mobile and fixed sources is deliberated. Finally, by comparing the external cost of gas oil consumption and Iran's gross domestic production in 2016, it is revealed that by replacing gas oil with biofuels, 3.935 billion dollars (0.95% of gross domestic production of Iran in 2016) can be reduced.
1,3-Dimethyl-2-phenyl-1,3-diazaphospholidine-2-oxide as ligand for the preparation of luminescent lanthanide complexes

Abstract Europium(III) coordination compounds having general formula [Eu(β-dike)3L2] (β-dike = dibenzoylmethanate, tenoyltrifluoroacetonate; L = 1,3-dimethyl-2-phenyl-1,3-diazaphospholidine-2-oxide) were isolated and characterized. The complexes exhibited bright red emission associated to the 5D0→7FJ transitions of the metal center upon excitation with near-UV light, with intrinsic quantum yields around 51% and 65%, respectively, for the dibenzoylmethanate and tenoyltrifluoroacetonate derivatives. More information about the behavior of 1,3-dimethyl-2-phenyl-1,3-diazaphospholidine-2-oxide as an antenna-ligand towards trivalent lanthanide ions was obtained by its coordination to [Ln(NO3)3] (Ln = Eu, Gd, Tb) metal fragments. Graphical Abstract
Resource heterogeneity does not explain the diversity ! productivity relationship across a boreal island fertility gradient

Many studies at the regional scale have found either negative or hump-shaped relationships between productivity and diversity, and some theories propose that these occur because soil resource heterogeneity is either lower or less important in more productive environments. However, there have been few explicit tests of these theories in natural ecosystems. We evaluated the relationship between soil resource heterogeneity and plant richness within a well characterized system of 30 islands in northern Sweden across which soil fertility and productivity declines, and species richness increases, as a consequence of ecosystem retrogression. On each island we created a spatially explicit grid consisting of 49 sampling points in a 9.5 m quadrat, which we used to quantify spatial heterogeneity of five soil variables (NH4 " -N, amino N, PO4 # -P, microbial biomass, and decomposition), and plant community composition. Using a hierarchical Bayesian approach, we estimated mean semivariograms of each variable for each island size class to compare three components of spatial heterogeneity: total variability, spatial grain, and patchiness. This analysis showed that variability within islands was usually lowest on small islands, where species richness was highest and productivity lowest; however, NH4 " -N and amino N had greater patchiness and spatial grain on small islands. We did not detect any significant across-island correlations between whole-plot plant species richness and either whole-plot standard deviation or coefficient of variation of any soil variable. Using partial Mantel tests, we found that mean correlation coefficients between within-plot plant community composition and the soil variables were never significant for any island size class, and did not differ between island size classes. Our findings do not provide any evidence that soil resource heterogeneity controls the productivity! diversity relationship in this system, and suggests other mechanisms are primarily responsible.
The Impact of the Financial Flexibility on the Performance: An Empirical Study on a Sample of Jordanian Services Sector Firms in Period (2010-2017)

This study aims at investigating the impact of the financial flexibility on the performance on a sample of Jordanian services sector firms for the period 2010-2017. The researcher used the analytical descriptive method on a sample consisted of 18 Jordanian firms listed in Amman Stock Exchange. The Multiple Linear Regression Analysis was used to examine the hypotheses of the study. The study revealed that there was an effect of the financial flexibility on the performance of the Jordanian services sector firms. The study recommended paying an increasing attention to the indicators of the financial flexibility by linking it with the performance to achieve a competitive advantage that could be reflected in the existence, development and continuity of the firms.
Weak convergence to equilibrium of statistical ensembles in integrable Hamiltonian systems

This article explores the long-time behavior of the bounded orbits associated with an ensemble of initial conditions in a nondegenerate integrable Hamiltonian system. Such systems are inherently nonlinear and subject to highly regular phase space filamentation that can drive the ensemble of orbits toward a stationary state. Describing the statistical ensemble by a probability density on a neighborhood of a family of invariant tori, it is proved that the probability density describing the ensemble at time t converges weakly to an invariant density as t → ∞. More generally, we provide sufficient conditions for convergence to equilibrium of a multiphase system in action-angle form. These ideas are applied to an illustrative exactly soluble example. This work is relevant for understanding the statistical mechanics of integrable and near-integrable Hamiltonian systems.This article explores the long-time behavior of the bounded orbits associated with an ensemble of initial conditions in a nondegenerate integrable Hamiltonian system. Such systems are inherently nonlinear and subject to highly regular phase space filamentation that can drive the ensemble of orbits toward a stationary state. Describing the statistical ensemble by a probability density on a neighborhood of a family of invariant tori, it is proved that the probability density describing the ensemble at time t converges weakly to an invariant density as t → ∞. More generally, we provide sufficient conditions for convergence to equilibrium of a multiphase system in action-angle form. These ideas are applied to an illustrative exactly soluble example. This work is relevant for understanding the statistical mechanics of integrable and near-integrable Hamiltonian systems.