Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The fragment R collision: W. M. Keck telescope observations of SL9

The W. M. Keck telescope was used to observe the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9) fragment R at a wavelength of 2.3 micrometers on 21 July 1994. The data showed three outbursts. The first flash lasted about 40 seconds and was followed 1 minute after its peak by a second flash that lasted about 3 minutes. A third, longer lasting flare began 6 minutes after the first flash and lasted for 10 minutes. At its maximum brightness, the flare outshone Jupiter. The two short flashes are probably associated with the initial meteor trail and the subsequent fireball, respectively. The bright flare occurred when the impact site rotated into view. These data show that the explosion ejected material at least 1300 kilometers above the visible cloud tops. The luminosity of the impact site during the long bright flare was probably maintained by the release of gravitational potential energy, as this material fell back onto the lower atmosphere.
Melanosome‐autonomous regulation of size and number: the OA1 receptor sustains PMEL expression

Little is known as to how cells ensure that organelle size and number are coordinated to correctly couple organelle biogenesis to the demands of proliferation or differentiation. OA1 is a melanosome‐associated G‐protein‐coupled receptor involved in melanosome biogenesis during melanocyte differentiation. Cells lacking OA1 contain fewer, but larger, mature melanosomes. Here, we show that OA1 loss of function reduces both the basal expression and the α‐melanocyte‐stimulating hormone/cAMP‐dependent induction of the microphthalmia‐associated transcription factor (MITF), the master regulator of melanocyte differentiation. In turn, this leads to a significant reduction in expression of PMEL, a major melanosomal structural protein, but does not affect tyrosinase and melanin levels. In line with its pivotal role in sensing melanosome maturation, OA1 expression rescues melanosome biogenesis, activates MITF expression and thereby coordinates melanosome size and number, providing a quality control mechanism for the organelle in which resides. Thus, resident sensor receptors can activate a transcriptional cascade to specifically promote organelle biogenesis.
Survival Options, Processes of Change and Structural Transformation : Livelihood diversification among smallholder households in rural Sub-Saharan Africa

The overall objective of this thesis is to understand the role of diversification at household level, its patterns, determinants and effects on rural smallholder farmers in SSA, as well as its implications for the process of structural transformation in SSA. In the thesis, I use a mixed methodology and combine different types of data on rural smallholders in SSA to answer the objectives a review of previous literature, empirical data from quantitative surveys and qualitative fieldwork. The findings are presented in three articles: In the first article, I undertake a comprehensive review of the literature on the nature and evolution of rural livelihood diversification in SSA among smallholder farmers. It reveals mixed findings about the causes and consequences of livelihood diversification on the rural smallholders adopting this strategy. It shows that because of asset constraints increase in incomes and wealth based on livelihood diversification has not yet benefitted the large majority of smallholders in SSA. On the other hand, there are a lot of evidence from the literature suggesting that it is relatively better-off smallholders with sufficient assets, who achieve successful livelihood diversification, mainly by exploiting opportunities and synergies between farm and nonfarm activities. In the second article, I investigate the spatial and geographical patterns and determinants of income diversification using cross-sectional data on rural farm households from six regions in Senegal and Kenya. In addition, I supplement the analysis of the quantitative data with information from qualitative fieldwork. The findings show that the specific patterns and determinants of diversification differ significantly between regions, with push and pull factors sometimes acting concurrently. Although geographical location matters for income diversification, the context of the region seems to matter even more, as it influences the type of diversification households may engage in. In the third article, I use panel data to explore the geographical and gender dimensions of livelihood diversification and its determinants in two agricultural regions of rural Kenya (Kakamega and Nyeri). I complement the panel data with data from my own qualitative fieldwork. The empirical investigation into the dynamics and motivations for livelihood diversification shows that household asset wealth, the initial level of diversification, demographic factors such as age, gender (being a female headed household) and level of education of the household head (in Kakamega), and increased use of hired labour were significantly positive determinants of change in livelihood diversification. Whereas, increased access to farm-related assets such as agricultural input credit, and having more secure land rights through formal titling, promoted specialisation in farming rather than diversification out of farming. Finally, food security was important for increasing livelihood diversification, especially in Kakamega. (Less)
The dynamic role of bone morphogenetic proteins in neural stem cell fate and maturation

The bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are a group of powerful morphogens that are critical for development of the nervous system. The effects of BMP signaling on neural stem cells are myriad and dynamic, changing with each stage of development. During early development inhibition of BMP signaling differentiates neuroectoderm from ectoderm, and BMP signaling helps to specify neural crest. Thus modulation of BMP signaling underlies formation of both the central and peripheral nervous systems. BMPs secreted from dorsal structures then form a gradient which helps pattern the dorsal–ventral axis of the developing spinal cord and brain. During forebrain development BMPs sequentially induce neurogenesis and then astrogliogenesis and participate in neurite outgrowth from immature neurons. BMP signaling also plays a critical role in maintaining adult neural stem cell niches in the subventricular zone (SVZ) and subgranular zone (SGZ). BMPs are able to exert such diverse effects through closely regulated temporospatial expression and interaction with other signaling pathways. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 72: 1068–1084, 2012
Short-Term Mesh Exposure after Robotic Sacrocolpopexy With and Without Concomitant Hysterectomy

Objectives The primary objective of this study was to compare the short-term rate of mesh exposure after a robotic sacrocolpopexy (RSCP) compared with those after RSCP with a concomitant hysterectomy. Secondary objectives included a comparison of mesh exposure from total hysterectomies (TH) versus supracervical hysterectomies (SCH) and determination of risk factors for mesh exposure. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study of women who underwent RSCP between January 2009 and December 2011 at one academic center. The primary outcome was mesh exposure at 6 weeks postoperation. Subjects were divided into two groups: those with concomitant hysterectomy and those with RSCP alone. The hysterectomy group was subdivided into TH versus SCH. Mesh exposures and mesh revision procedures were identified using International Classification of Diseases-9 and CPT codes, respectively, and confirmed by chart review. Results There were 230 eligible women who underwent RSCP during the study period and were followed up at a 6-week postoperative visit; 118 (51.7%) had RSCP only and 112 (48.7%) had a concomitant hysterectomy. Of those who underwent hysterectomy, 79 patients (70.5%) had TH and 33 (29.5%) had SCH. There were nine (3.9%) mesh exposures attributed to RSCP. The difference between the RSCP + hysterectomy group and the RSCP-only group was 2.7% versus 5.1% (P = 0.50). The 2.7% of mesh exposures in the hysterectomy group were associated with TH and none with SCH, but this difference was not significant (P = 0.55). Conclusions Although mesh exposure with RSCP is low, serious morbidity can be associated with mesh use and appropriate preoperative counseling is critical.
The Effects of Capital Taxation Using Dynamic Macro-Econometric Model of the Japanese Economy ―Simulation Analysis Including Households without Financial Assets―

In order to maximize social welfare, it is important to ensure stable economic growth by revitalizing private-sector. From this viewpoint, it is necessary to design capital taxation such that it avoids undue distortions in the corporate sector as much as possible. On the other hand, as the government’s fiscal situation is deteriorating, reform on tax system must also be consistent with fiscal sustainability. With these perspectives in mind, we developed a dynamic macro-econometric model (dynamic CGE model) that contributes to the analysis of capital taxation, in reference to Radulescu (2007) and Radulescu and Stimmelmayr (2010), while including households without financial assets. In this paper, we report the results of various numerical simulation analyses, maintaining neutrality of tax revenues.
Season of birth and early childhood mortality: a review of the debate and a case study for the Netherlands, 1812-1912

Historically, all components of demography – migration, fertility, nuptial- ity and mortality – were strongly affected by the seasons of the year. Re- ligious prescriptions, weather conditions, the production cycle in agriculture and other sectors of the economy, the availability of food, all had an effect on the propensity of people to marry, to reproduce, to leave their place of living, and to die. Long-term changes in these active forces may have altered this seasonal patterning, but seasonality is still clearly visible in most demographic indicators. An enormous number of mostly local studies have become available on marriage, birth, and death season- ality. What has been lacking until now is a study in which these different demographic processes are analyzed within a common framework. Theo Engelen’s new project ‘The Rhythm of Life’ is intended to do just that. Theo has, in his long career, worked on a variety of demographic developments and has shown a great sensitivity for the role that economic and cultural forces play in determining the outcome of these developments. He is therefore the right person to offer us a comprehensive framework for the study of the relationship between the passing of the seasons and demo- graphic processes. The four seasons of the year are often used as an alle- gory of the human life course and we hope for a long harvesting season for Theo.
Service quality and attitudinal loyalty: the mediating effect of delight on retail banking relationships

This study explores the mediating effect of customer delight on the relationship between service quality and attitudinal loyalty in the South African retail banking context. Using a quantitative research design, a sample of 400 retail banking customers were collected. Structural equation modelling and specifically the partial least squared (PLS) method were applied on the data. The results confirm that customer delight plays a partial mediating role on the relationship between service quality and attitudinal loyalty. This suggests that banks need to proactively pursue strategies that delight their customers, rather than merely satisfying them. This, however, is a major challenge for banks given the constant need to over-deliver on promises made to customers. In a competitive South African retail banking market driven by sales volumes and the growth in market share, this challenge is amplified further.
HfO2-based memristors for neuromorphic applications

In recent years, biologically inspired systems, which emulate the nervous system of living beings, are becoming more and more requested due to their ability to solve ill-posed problems such as pattern recognition or interaction with the external environment. By virtue of their nanoscaled size and their tunable conductance, memristors are key elements to emulate high-density networks of biological synapses that regulate the communication efficacy among neurons and implement learning capability. We propose a TiN/ HfO2/Ti/TiN memristor as artificial synapse for neuromorphic architectures. The device can gradually change its conductance upon application of proper electrical stimuli. More specifically, it features gradual potentiation and depression when stimulated by trains of identical potentiating or depressing spikes, which are easy to be implemented on-chip. Moreover, we demonstrate that the memristor conductance can be regulated according to the delay time between two spikes incoming to the device terminals. This regulation of memristor conductance implements the typical biological learning process named Spike-Time-Dependent-Plasticity (STDP). Finally, collected STDP data were used to simulate a simple fully connected Spiking Neural Network (SNN) for pattern recognition.
Power and policy-making in the DR Congo: the politics of human resource management and payroll reform

Over the past fifteen years, the DRC has been engaged in a vast process of state reconstruction and reform, with significant support provided by donors. Partly due to an inimical political context, though, until 2012 donor-sponsored attempts at civil service reform and retirement remained limited and proved largely inconclusive. Since then, a series of encouraging steps have been taken with regards to administrative reform: the launching of the key reform of bancarisation in 2011, a revised civil service reform strategy supported by the World Bank in 2013. This paper provides an overview of the politics of HR management and payroll reform in the DRC, in order to situate the dynamics behind current civil service and payroll reform initiatives. The political economy of wage payment has already been substantially altered by bancarisation, and payroll and HR management can be considered as the administrative and technical ‘infrastructure’ on which payment of remunerations rest. While bancarisation has been presented as a resounding success, HR and payroll management is mired in considerable opacity and malpractice. Why do certain policies in the DR Congo work, and others fail? What are the wider political dynamics, but also the sectoral specificities, which drive such reforms? And what impact do donors have on these policies? The paper should be read as an introductory literature review on these aspects, providing a tentative sketch of how political settlement analysis and organisational ethnography can be used to make sense of these questions.
Differences in binding to the ILK complex determines kindlin isoform adhesion localization and integrin activation

ABSTRACT Kindlins are essential FERM-domain-containing focal adhesion (FA) proteins required for proper integrin activation and signaling. Despite the widely accepted importance of each of the three mammalian kindlins in cell adhesion, the molecular basis for their function has yet to be fully elucidated, and the functional differences between isoforms have generally not been examined. Here, we report functional differences between kindlin-2 and -3 (also known as FERMT2 and FERMT3, respectively); GFP-tagged kindlin-2 localizes to FAs whereas kindlin-3 does not, and kindlin-2, but not kindlin-3, can rescue &agr;5&bgr;1 integrin activation defects in kindlin-2-knockdown fibroblasts. Using chimeric kindlins, we show that the relatively uncharacterized kindlin-2 F2 subdomain drives FA targeting and integrin activation. We find that the integrin-linked kinase (ILK)–PINCH–parvin complex binds strongly to the kindlin-2 F2 subdomain but poorly to that of kindlin-3. Using a point-mutated kindlin-2, we establish that efficient kindlin-2-mediated integrin activation and FA targeting require binding to the ILK complex. Thus, ILK-complex binding is crucial for normal kindlin-2 function and differential ILK binding contributes to kindlin isoform specificity.
Effects of a combined extract of Ginkgo biloba and Bacopa monniera on cognitive function in healthy humans

Extracts of Ginkgo biloba and Bacopa monniera have been shown to produce positive effects on cognitive function in healthy subjects. While the exact mechanisms are not known, it has been suggested that antioxidant properties and cholinergic modulation may play a role. In the current study the sub‐chronic (2 weeks) and chronic (4 weeks) effects of an extract containing Ginkgo biloba (120 mg) and Bacopa monniera (300 mg) (Blackmores Ginkgo Brahmi) on cognitive function were examined. The study was a randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, independent group design in which 85 healthy subjects were allocated to one of two treatment conditions (placebo or combined Ginkgo biloba and Bacopa monniera extract). Testing was conducted at baseline and 2 and 4 weeks post treatment. The results showed that the combined extract relative to placebo did not demonstrate any significant effects on tests investigating a range of cognitive processes including attention, short‐term and working memory, verbal learning, memory consolidation, executive processes, planning and problem solving, information processing speed, motor responsiveness and decision making. These findings suggest that at least within the current treatment duration and doses, an extract containing Ginkgo biloba and Bacopa monniera had no cognitive enhancing effects in healthy subjects. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Water ingestion improves performance compared with mouth rinse in dehydrated subjects.

UNLABELLED It has been suggested that mouth rinse and/or ingestion of fluids during exercise may have a beneficial effect on performance. However, the existing results are controversial. PURPOSE We hypothesized that pharyngeal receptor activation through ingestion of a small amount of water could enhance performance better than mouth rinse in dehydrated subjects. METHODS Ten healthy trained male cyclists (weight = 78.2 ± 2.2 kg, age = 25.9 ± 1.0 yr, body fat = 15.6% ± 1.6%, VO2max = 53.8 ± 4.8 mL · kg(-1) · min(-1)) completed three time-to-exhaustion cycling tests at 75% of their maximum power output after being dehydrated by 2% of their total body weight. Dehydration was induced by a 2-h moderate-intensity exercise (70% of maximum HR), which included 30-min intervals alternating between jogging and cycling in the heat (31 °C). All subjects repeated the protocol in random order on three separate occasions: a) mouth rinse with 25 mL of plain water before and every 5 min of the trial (MR), b) ingestion of 25 mL of plain water before and every 5 min (DR), and c) control (CON), where no fluids were provided. Blood and urine samples were collected at the beginning of the dehydration phase, before the performance test, and at the end of the experimental protocol. RESULTS A significantly greater time to exhaustion was recorded in the DR trial compared with MR and CON trials (21.9 ± 1.2 vs 18.7 ± 1.3 and 17.7 ± 1.1 min, respectively, P < 0.05). There were no differences in mean HR, maximum lactate concentration, or RPE between the three trials (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrated that ingestion of even a small amount of water increased exercise time in dehydrated subjects possibly through activation of pharyngeal receptors.
Correlation Between Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels and Severity of Atopic Dermatitis in Children

DG Peroni, GL Piacentini, E Cametti, I Chinellato, AL Boner. Br J Dermatol. 2011;164(5):1078–1082 To determine if low levels of vitamin D correlate with the severity of atopic dermatitis (AD). Thirty-seven children (20 boys and 17 girls) with AD, between the ages of 8 months and 12 years, were evaluated in an outpatient clinic in Verona, Italy. The Severity Scoring of Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) index was used to determine the severity of AD in these children. Serum …
Vancomycin-resistant enterococci colonization in patients with hematological malignancies: screening and its cost-effectiveness.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE We evaluated the rates of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) colonization and VRE-related bacteremia in patients with hematological malignancies in terms of routine screening culture and its cost-effectiveness. MATERIALS AND METHODS All patients of the hematology department who were older than 14 years of age and who developed at least one febrile neutropenia episode during chemotherapy for hematological cancers between November 2010 and November 2012 were evaluated retrospectively. RESULTS We retrospectively analyzed 282 febrile episodes in 126 neutropenic patients during a two-year study period. The study included 65 cases in the first study-year and 78 cases in the second study-year. The numbers of colonization days and colonized patient were748 days of colonization in 29 patients (44%) in the first study-year and 547 colonization days in 21 patients (26%) in the second study-year, respectively. Routine screening culture for VRE cost $4516,4 (427 cultures) in the first study-year, $5082,7 (504 cultures) in the second study-year depending on the number of patients and their length of stay. CONCLUSION In line with our study results, routine screening of hematological patients for VRE colonization is not costeffective. Routine surveillance culture for VRE should be considered with respect to the conditions of health care setting.
Inhibition of inducible nitric oxide synthase ameliorates endotoxin-induced gut mucosal barrier dysfunction in rats.

BACKGROUND & AIMS The permeability of intestinal epithelial monolayers increases after exposure to nitric oxide. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of excessive NO production on intestinal barrier function in rats injected with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). METHODS Rats were injected with saline or LPS (5 mg/ kg). Bacterial translocation to mesenteric lymph nodes, liver, and spleen was assessed 24 hours after LPS injection. Mucosal permeability was determined by loading fluorescein-labeled dextran (mol wt, 4000 daltons) into an intestinal segment and measuring its appearance in plasma. Intestinal mucosal mitochondrial respiration was assessed using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide. RESULTS Intestinal tissue from LPS-challenged rats showed upregulation of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) messenger RNA expression and subsequent up-regulation of iNOS enzymatic activity. Plasma concentrations of nitrite plus nitrate (NO2-/NO3-) were increased for at least 24 hours after injection of LPS. Treatment with the selective iNOS inhibitor, aminoguanidine, inhibited iNOS enzymatic activity and overproduction of NO2-/NO3-. LPS-induced bacterial translocation was reduced by aminoguanidine. LPS-induced intestinal hyperpermeability was ameliorated by both aminoguanidine and another selective iNOS inhibitor, S-methylisothiourea. LPS depressed intestinal mucosal mitochondrial function, and this effect was ameliorated by aminoguanidine. CONCLUSIONS Overproduction of NO may contribute to intestinal barrier dysfunction in LPS challenged rats, possibly by interfering with mitochondrial oxidative metabolism.