Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adipokinetic hormone (Pyrap-AKH) enhances the effect of a pyrethroid insecticide against the firebug Pyrrhocoris apterus.

BACKGROUND Adipokinetic hormones (AKHs) are insect neuropetides controlling stress situations including those elicited by insecticide treatment. The effect of Pyrap-AKH on the mortality of the firebug Pyrrhocoris apterus (L.) treated with the insecticide permethrin (Ambush 25 EC) was studied. RESULTS Coinjection of 50 ng permethrin with 80 pmol Pyrap-AKH induced a significant 2.3-fold increase in bug mortality compared with the insecticide alone. The results were confirmed by topical coapplication of both agents (400 ng and 80 pmol respectively). Injections of 50 and 100 ng permethrin elicited a significant increase in the AKH level in CNS and the haemolymph. The results indicate an involvement of AKH in stress response to permethrin. The enhanced effect of insecticide by AKH treatments probably results from the stimulatory role in bug metabolism: carbon dioxide production was increased 3.5- and 2.5-fold respectively 1 and 3 h after permethrin treatment, and 4.3- and 3.4-fold after the permethrin plus AKH cotreatment, compared with the control. CONCLUSION The elevation of metabolism could intensify the permethrin action by its faster penetration into tissues and by stimulation of biochemically active cells, and could be a reason for enhanced action of permethrin after its cotreatment with Pyrap-AKH.
Transformational Leadership and Burnout: The Role of Thriving and Followers’ Openness to Experience

Grounding our research in conservation of resources theory, we set out to shed light on the relationship between transformational leadership (TFL) and employee burnout. Specifically, we considered both thriving at work, a personal resource, and employees’ openness to experience (OTE), a key resource, to uncover whether all employees benefit equally from TFL (a contextual resource). In detail, we argued that the negative effect of TFL on employee burnout is mediated by employee thriving at work, and that employees’ OTE constitutes a boundary condition of this process. Our moderated mediation model was tested with 2 waves of data from 148 employees from a midsized German manufacturing company. The results supported our hypotheses and revealed that employees’ thriving at work mediated the link between TFL and reduced burnout. As predicted, these relationships were moderated by employees’ personality in such a way that TFL affected thriving and hence burnout of employees high on OTE, but not of employees low on OTE. Taken together, our findings suggest that TFL serves as a resource that protects employees from burning out, but also highlights the need to consider employees’ personality in perceptions of and reactions to leadership.
Pancreatic duct abnormalities and pancreatic function in patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease.

BACKGROUND We performed a cross-sectional study to estimate the prevalence of duct abnormalities and exocrine pancreatic dysfunction in an unselected group of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and to correlated the findings with clinical, endoscopic, and histologic variables. METHODS A total of 237 IBD patients were screened for pancreatic enzymes and with a PABA test. Seventy-one (30%) patients with values more than twice the upper normal limit in biochemical tests or with a PABA test < 40% were further evaluated. The pancreatic evaluation included endoscopic retrograde pancreatography, ultrasonography, and a secretin test. The endoscopic and histologic findings were systematically evaluated. RESULTS The secretin test was completed in 54 patients, and in 10 (19%) it showed a decreased maximal bicarbonate concentration, corresponding to 4% of the whole study group. The pancreatograms of 59 patients were studied. In 20 (34%) patients unequivocal duct abnormalities were found. The prevalence of pancreatic duct abnormalities in IBD was 8.4%. CONCLUSION Our results show the presence of pancreatic duct abnormalities and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in some patients with IBD.
World History Of Radon Research And Measurement From The Early 1900's To Today

In 1900, Dorn discovered the emanation in the uranium series that eventually became the well-known gas {sup 222}Rn. From 1900 through 1908, it was demonstrated that {sup 222}Rn is a radioactive gas found in tap water, highly condensable at low temperatures with a half-life of approximately 3.7 days and can be collected on charcoal by adsorption. Although, radon was discovered in 1900, the effects of prolonged exposure had been suspected and noted 300 years earlier among underground miners who developed lung cancer. During the period from 1924-1932, it was suggested that radon was the cause of high lung cancer incidence. In 1951, researchers at the university of Rochester N.Y. pointed out that the lung cancer health hazard was from the alpha radiation dose delivered by the radon decay products that deposited in the respiratory tract. The findings of the BEIR Committee Report VI, which was based on epidemiological studies in different groups of mines in the 1950's and 1960's and on laboratory studies, showed that from 60,000 miners over 2,600 developed lung cancer where only 750 were expected.Since 1998, the epidemiological study conducted in Iowa US, showed beyond any reasonable doubt that radon decay products cause lung cancer among womenmore » who lived at least twenty years in their homes. This paper will cover early radon measurements in soil, building material, ground water and in different air environments such as in the atmosphere, caves spas, underground mines and in residential indoor air environment. Radon measurements were conducted in many areas for diagnostic purposes. Radon was used as natural tracer to study air masses, vertical diffusion, and atmospheric studies, in earthquake prediction, and as a geological indicator for radium and uranium. In the early radon measurements, electroscopes, electrometers and primitive ionization chambers were used for many years. In the 1940's fast pulse ionization chambers replaced total ionization chambers. From the mid 1950's onwards a variety of radon measuring instruments were developed to assess the radon and radon decay product exposure to underground miners, workers at contaminated sites with uranium and radium tailings and to the general public in residential buildings. In the last twenty years, new instruments and methods were developed to measure radon by using grab, integrating and continuous modes of sampling. The most common are scintillation cell monitors, activated carbon collectors, electret ionization chambers, alpha track detectors, pulse and current ionization chambers and solid-state alpha detectors. « less
Effects of Aspect Ratio in Moulded Packaging Considering Fluid/Structure Interaction: A CFD Modelling Approach

The fluid/structure interaction (FSI) investigations of stacked chip in encapsulation process of moulded underfill packaging using the two-way Coupling method with ANSYS Fluent and ANSYS Structural solvers are presented. The FSI study is executed with different aspect ratio of stacked chip on the mould filling during the encapsulation process. The simulation results in the FSI study is well validated with experimental setup. The epoxy moulding compound (EMC) and structure (chip) interaction is analyzed for better understanding the FSI phenomenon.Von Mises stresses experienced by the chip also be monitored for risk of chip cracking. The proposed analysis is anticipated to be a recommendation in the chip design and improvement of 3D integration packages.
General expression for pdf of a sum of independent exponential random variables

In order to evaluate exactly the performance of some diversity schemes, the probability density function (pdf) of a sum of independent exponential random variables (r.v.'s) must be known. This paper proposes a simple method to find it by using characteristic function. , The resultant pdf is successfully applied to formulate the closed-form BER expression of 2 Tx-J Rx transmit diversity as well as the outage probability of repetition coding.
Design and Implementation of an Adaptive Algorithm for Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

Transmission efficiency is an interesting topic for data link layer developers. The overhead of protocols and coding should be reduced to a minimum. This maximizes a link throughput. This is especially important for high-speed networks, where a small degradation of efficiency will degrade the throughput by several Gbps. We describe a redundancy balancing algorithm for an adaptive hybrid automatic repeat request with Reed-Solomon coding. We introduce a testing environment, most important technical issues, and results generated on a field programmable gate array. The hybrid automatic repeat request and Reed-Solomon algorithms are explained. We provide a mathematical description, and a block diagram of the adaptation algorithm. All necessary algorithm simplifications are explained in details. The algorithm can be represented by basic operations in hardware. In most cases, it finds the optimal coding for a predefined bit error rate.
Some aspects on hybrid wideband transceiver design for mmWave communication systems

—In this paper, the problem of designing a multicar-rier transceiver for single-link mmWave transmission is considered. Assuming hybrid beamforming with multiple data streams, it is shown how the common wideband analog beamformer can be optimized together with digital multiple-input, multiple-output precoders and receive equalizers which operate on per-subcarrier basis. For this purpose, two approaches originally constructed for narrowband systems are extended to wideband, and several simpliﬁcations for solving the optimization problems are made. Their evaluation is performed on a proposed statistical mmWave channel model and by utilizing measured channels.
Abrogation by subsequent feeding of antibody response including IgE, in parenterally immunized mice

We have investigated the possibility of oral administration of ovalbumin (OVA) to prevent a secondary antibody response and interrupt reaginic antibody production. Repeated feeding seems necessary for both. Quality of results was dependent on the number of ingestions. Differences in abrogation of antibody response between mice strains were observed. Best results were obtained with AKR mice, good suppression was seen in C3H strain, and inconsistent results were obtained with DBA/2. 10 OVA oral doses were necessary to prevent a secondary antibody response in parenterally immunized mice, but 4 doses interrupted reaginic production in sensitized AKR mice. These results demonstrate that antigen feeding can prevent a secondary antibody response and interrupt reaginic antibody production.
Reciprocal Connections of the Motor Neocortical Area with the Contralateral Thalamus in the Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) Brain

Horseradish peroxidase unilateral injections in various neocortical areas (prefrontal, somatosensory, auditory, visual) of the hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) brain resulted in labelling of nuclei in the ipsilateral thalamus known from studies in other species and in the hedgehog to project to these areas. However, injections in the motor area resulted in retrograde and anterograde labelling of nuclei in both the ipsilateral and contralateral thalamus. These nuclei included the ventral lateral nucleus (VL), the intralaminar nuclei (ILN), the mediodorsal nucleus (MD) and midline nuclei. Large unilateral injections located mainly laterally in the thalamus labelled cells, contralaterally, in the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus, the intergeniculate leaflet and the reticular nucleus of the thalamus but never in VL, ILN and MD. The present results confirm previously described bilateral thalamocortical projections from the VL to the somatosensorimotor area in this species (Regidor and Divac, Brain Behav. Evol., 39, 265–269, 1992) and in addition demonstrate that (i) bilateral thalamocortical projections are established preferentially with the motor area, (ii) several nuclei are involved in such connections, (iii) these connections are reciprocal and topographically organized, and (iv) labelling in the contralateral thalamus observed in the present study is not a result of transneuronal transport of the tracer through thalamothalamic connections. This organization is unique among mammals and supports previous anatomical and electrophysiological findings, on the basis of which it has been suggested that the hedgehog retains a primitive character in neocortical and thalamic evolution.
Serial study of neuropsychological performance and gadolinium‐enhanced MRI in MS

Many multiple sclerosis patients show cognitive decline, although no definite correlation between brain demyelination at MRI and neuropsychological performance has been found so far. We submitted a group of nine relapsing‐remitting, mildly disabled patients to both serial gadolinium‐DTPA enhanced MRI and neuropsychological evaluation in a follow up period of three months. Despite the great variability in acute lesions’ load, no overall decline in test, performance was found. Furthermore, in selected cases whose test scores declined at follow up, no concordance with the new lesion load was found.
IUDs and the biochemical responses of the uterus to estrogen in ovariectomized rats.

To investigate the effect of the intrauterine device (IUD) on uterine responsiveness to estrogen as a possible explanation for the IUDs antifertility affect IUDs were inserted into 1 uterine horn of 104 rats 1/2 of whom received a subcutanious injection of . 2 mcg extradiol-m-beta 35-90 days after IUD insertion. 6 hours after estrogen injection the animals uterine horns were removed and studied for weight water retention histamine and glycogen concentrations and trypan blue permeability. The presence of the IUD caused an increase in all of the parameters in the ovariectomized control rats. Estradiol administration caused increases in the weight water glycogen and trypan blue parameters and a decrease in histamine concentration. The IUD significatly affected (p less than .01) horn weight glycogen concentration and total histamine but water retention histamine concentration and trypan blue permeability were not significatly affected by the IUD. When the treatments were combined they complemented each others increases in weight and glycogen concentration but caused decreases in water retention and trypan blue permeability. The similarity of the actions of the IUD and estrogen on the uterine parameters studied is striking yet estrogen is necessary for implantation and the IUD prevents it. Therefore the IUDS mechanism apparently does not rely on a general alteration of uterine responsiveness to estrogen.
Different sources of energy harvesting: A survey

21st Century has seen a paradigm shift in use of technology and the thoughts of using the natural sources for energy has led to thinking of using the energy wasted around us, in technical term, we can say harvesting of the energy. The paper aims at covering various techniques used in harvesting energy with focus on cantilever based energy harvesting. Interestingly the vibrations can be captured and converted into electricity. Up until now researchers have been able to produce upto 66 μ-w electricity using cantilevers with different materials in fans and bridges. Sources for energy harvesting and techniques have been covered in the paper.
High-dose vancomycin therapy for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections: efficacy and toxicity.

BACKGROUND Vancomycin hydrochloride treatment failure for infections caused by susceptible methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains with high minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) has prompted recent guidelines to recommend a higher vancomycin target trough of 15 to 20 microg/mL. METHODS A prospective cohort study of adult patients infected with MRSA was performed to determine the distribution of vancomycin MIC and treatment outcomes with vancomycin doses targeting an unbound trough of at least 4 times the MIC. The microbiology laboratory computer records were used to identify all patients from whom MRSA was isolated from August 1, 2004, through June 30, 2005. Primary outcome measures were clinical response, mortality, and nephrotoxicity. Patients were placed into subgroups based on target trough attainment and high vs low vancomycin MIC (>/=2 vs <2 microg/mL) for efficacy and high vs low trough (>/=15 vs <15 microg/mL) for nephrotoxicity analyses. RESULTS Of the 95 patients in the study, 51 (54%) were infected with high-MIC strains and had pneumonia (77%) and/or bacteremia. An initial response rate of 74% was achieved if the target trough was attained irrespective of MIC. However, despite achieving the target trough, the high-MIC group had lower end-of-treatment responses (24/39 [62%] vs 34/40 [85%]; P = .02) and higher infection-related mortality (11/51 [24%] vs 4/44 [10%]; P=.16) compared with the low-MIC group. High MIC (P = .03) and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score (P = .009) were independent predictors of poor response in multivariate analysis. Nephrotoxicity occurred only in the high-trough group (11/63 [12%]), significantly predicted by concomitant therapy with other nephrotoxic agents. CONCLUSIONS High prevalence of clinical MRSA strains with elevated vancomycin MIC (2 microg/mL) requires aggressive empirical vancomycin dosing to achieve a trough greater than 15 microg/mL. Combination or alternative therapy should be considered for invasive infections caused by these strains.
Risk factors for emergence of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia in cystic fibrosis

The number of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) whose sputum culture has yielded Stenotrophomonas maltophilia has increased in the last 5 years at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. We conducted a case‐control study to determine risk factors for recovery of S. maltophilia in respiratory secretions from patients with CF. We reviewed the outpatient and inpatient records of patients colonized with S. maltophilia between 1993 and 1997, and of age‐matched (at time of initial recovery of S. maltophilia) control patients with CF who had never had a positive sputum culture for S. maltophilia. Variables included age at time of CF diagnosis, gender, severity of CF (based on Shwachman‐Kulczycki (S‐K) scores and spirometry), frequency of hospitalizations, use of oral, intravenous, or inhaled antibiotics, and use of oral or inhaled corticosteroids in the 2 years prior to the first isolation of S. maltophilia from respiratory secretions. Statistical methods included stepwise logistic regression to determine risk factors for acquisition of S. maltophilia.
Glucosylceramide Transferase Activity Is Critical for Encystation and Viable Cyst Production by an Intestinal Protozoan, Giardia lamblia*

Background: The production of viable cysts by Giardia is essential for transmitting the infection via contaminated food and water. Results: Overexpression and knockdown of glucosylceramide transferase activity affect encystation, cyst viability, and overall lipid balance in Giardia. Conclusion: Regulated expression of glucosylceramide transferase is linked to encystation and cyst production. Significance: Glucosylceramide synthesis could be targeted for developing novel anti-giardial therapy. The production of viable cysts by Giardia is essential for its survival in the environment and for spreading the infection via contaminated food and water. The hallmark of cyst production (also known as encystation) is the biogenesis of encystation-specific vesicles (ESVs) that transport cyst wall proteins to the plasma membrane of the trophozoite before laying down the protective cyst wall. However, the molecules that regulate ESV biogenesis and maintain cyst viability have never before been identified. Here, we report that giardial glucosylceramide transferase-1 (gGlcT1), an enzyme of sphingolipid biosynthesis, plays a key role in ESV biogenesis and maintaining cyst viability. We find that overexpression of this enzyme induced the formation of aggregated/enlarged ESVs and generated clustered cysts with reduced viability. The silencing of gGlcT1 synthesis by antisense morpholino oligonucleotide abolished ESV production and generated mostly nonviable cysts. Interestingly, when gGlcT1-overexpressed Giardia was transfected with anti-gGlcT1 morpholino, the enzyme activity, vesicle biogenesis, and cyst viability returned to normal, suggesting that the regulated expression of gGlcT1 is important for encystation and viable cyst production. Furthermore, the overexpression of gGlcT1 increased the influx of membrane lipids and fatty acids without altering the fluidity of plasma membranes, indicating that the expression of gGlcT1 activity is linked to lipid internalization and maintaining the overall lipid balance in this parasite. Taken together, our results suggest that gGlcT1 is a key player of ESV biogenesis and cyst viability and therefore could be targeted for developing new anti-giardial therapies.
Primary cutaneous diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma presenting as chronic non‐healing ulcer

Primary cutaneous diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma is an uncommon and aggressive lymphoproliferative disorder with a rapid growth rate and dismal prognosis. We present the case of a 91‐year‐old female with an unusual manifestation of primary cutaneous diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma, mimicking other more prevalent diseases like chronic non‐healing venous ulceration. Dermatopathologic evaluation rendered the correct diagnosis. A discussion of this rare presentation is important for clinician consideration to prevent misdiagnosis and prolongation of proper management in patients with chronic non‐healing leg ulcers.
Nitrous oxide uptake and elimination.

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