Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global negative emissions capacity of ocean macronutrient fertilization

In order to meet the goal of limiting global average temperature increase to less than 2 °C, it is increasingly apparent that negative emissions technologies of up to 10 Pg C yr−1 will be needed before the end of the century. Recent research indicates that fertilization of the ocean with the macronutrients nitrogen and phosphorus where they limit primary production, may have sequestration advantages over fertilizing iron limited regions. Utilizing global datasets of oceanographic field measurements, and output from a high resolution global circulation model, the current study provides the first comprehensive assessment of the global potential for carbon sequestration from ocean macronutrient fertilization (OMF). Sufficient excess phosphate exists outside the iron limited surface ocean to support once-off sequestration of up to 3.6 Pg C by fertilization with nitrogen. Ongoing maximum capacity of nitrogen only fertilization is estimated at 0.7 ± 0.4 Pg C yr−1. Sequestration capacity is expected to decrease from the upper toward the lower bound over time under continued intense fertilization. If N and P were used in combination the capacity is ultimately limited by societies willingness to utilize phosphate resources. Doubling current phosphate production would allow an additional 0.9 Pg C yr−1 and consume 0.07% yr−1 of known global resources. Therefore offsetting up to around 15% (1.5 Pg C yr−1) of annual global CO2 emissions is assessed as being technically plausible. Environmental risks which to date have received little quantitative evaluation, could also limit the scale of implementation. These results reinforce the need to consider a multi-faceted approach to greenhouse gasses, including a reduction in emissions coupled with further research into negative emissions technologies.
Comparison of ofloxacin and norfloxacin concentration in prostatic tissues in patients undergoing transurethral resection of the prostate.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To compare the concentrations of two fluoroquinolones, ofloxacin (OFLX) and norfloxacin (NFLX), in the prostate glands of patients who underwent transurethral resection of the prostate (TUR-P) after oral ingestion of both drugs for surgical prophylaxis. METHODS Ten patients with clinical symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia undergoing TUR-P received 200 mg of both drugs per os simultaneously 2 hours before surgery. The concentrations of the drugs in the serum and prostate at the time of surgery were measured by high performance liquid chromatography. Patients' clinical characteristics were evaluated, including findings from transrectal ultrasonography of the prostate, prostate specific antigen concentration, renal function tests, and post-operative status. RESULTS Two hours after administration, the mean serum concentration of OFLX was 4.14 +/- 0.64 mg/L (range 0.27-6.37) and of NFLX was 1.10 +/- 0.22 mg/L (range 0.02-2.1). The concentration of ORLX in prostatic tissue was 4.10 +/- 0.79 micrograms/g (range 1.70-6.37) and of NFLX was 2.22 +/- 0.57 micrograms/g (range 0.63-4.35). The ratio of the prostatic tissue concentration (P) to the serum concentration (S) was 2.11 for OFLX and 5.71 for NFLX. The concentrations of both drugs exceeded the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for most gram-negative organisms, but NFLX may be unable to exceed the MIC90 of Enterobacter cloacae in some individuals. Leukocytosis and spiking fever developed after TUR-P in two of the 10 patients. CONCLUSIONS Concentrations of OFLX were higher in both serum and prostatic adenoma tissues than those of NFLX (p < 0.001), while NFLX had better penetration into the prostate (P/S ratio) (p < 0.001). The results of this study indicated that the concentrations of both of these drugs exceeded the MIC for most gram-negative organisms.
Event-Based and Emergent Timing: Dichotomy or Continuum? A Reply to Repp and Steinman (2010)

ABSTRACT B. H. Repp and S. R. Steiman (2010) suggested that event-based and emergent timing, usually conceived as mutually exclusive modes of timing, could in fact coexist in a single activity. According to this point of view, rhythmic activities could exploit mixtures of control modes, in which the relative importance of event-based and emergent components could depend on task characteristics. This point of view, in the opinion of the authors of the present article, corresponds to a fundamental misunderstanding of the theoretical basis of the event-based and emergent distinction, and is not supported by any experimental evidence. However, they present some new results that could support new lines of reasoning for the future developments of research in this domain.
Comparative Flight Activities and Pathogen Load of Two Stocks of Honey Bees Reared in Gamma-Irradiated Combs

Gamma irradiation is known to inactivate various pathogens that negatively affect honey bee health. Bee pathogens, such as Deformed wing virus (DWV) and Nosema spp. , have a deleterious impact on foraging activities and bee survival, and have been detected in combs. In this study, we assessed the effects of gamma irradiation on the flight activities, pathogen load, and survival of two honey bee stocks that were reared in irradiated and non-irradiated combs. Overall, bee genotype influenced the average number of daily flights, the total number of foraging flights, and total flight duration, in which the Russian honey bees outperformed the Italian honey bees. Exposing combs to gamma irradiation only affected the age at first flight, with worker bees that were reared in non-irradiated combs foraging prematurely compared to those reared in irradiated combs. Precocious foraging may be associated with the higher levels of DWV in bees reared in non-irradiated combs and also with the lower amount of pollen stores in colonies that used non-irradiated combs. These data suggest that gamma irradiation of combs can help minimize the negative impact of DWV in honey bees. Since colonies with irradiated combs stored more pollen than those with non-irradiated combs, crop pollination efficiency may be further improved when mite-resistant stocks are used, since they performed more flights and had longer flight durations.
Choice of Diversification Strategies in an Emerging Market: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing Industries

ABSTRACT The study seeks to measure the strategic choice of industries over different dynamic phases in the Indian economic environment. The total sample of 536 companies has been divided into 14 industries as per Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes. The paper also categorizes companies as per the cyclical changes in the economy, that is, growth, cyclical, and defensive industries. Evidence suggests that choice of diversification is industry specific and concurrently affected by the environmental conditions prevailing in the emerging economy. Food and beverages, plastic/rubber, and electrical equipment industries follow higher categories of diversification than other industries.
An iron- and fur-repressed Legionella pneumophila gene that promotes intracellular infection and encodes a protein with similarity to the Escherichia coli aerobactin synthetases

Legionella pneumophila, a parasite of alveolar macrophages, requires iron for intra- and extracellular growth. Although its mechanisms for iron assimilation are poorly understood, this bacterium produces Fur, a protein that can repress gene transcription in response to iron concentration. Because iron- and Fur-regulated genes are important for infection in other bacteria, the identification of similar genes in L. pneumophila was undertaken. A wild-type strain of L. pneumophila was randomly mutated with a mini-Tn10' lacZ transposon, and the resulting gene fusions were tested for iron regulation by assessing beta-galactosidase production in the presence and absence of iron chelators. Of the initial six mutants with iron-repressed lacZ fusions, two strains, NU229 and NU232, possessed fusions that were stably iron regulated. To assay for Fur regulation, the levels of beta-galactosidase were measured in strains no longer producing Fur. As in a number of pathogenic bacteria, L. pneumophila fur could not be insertionally inactivated, but spontaneous Fur- derivatives were generated by selecting for manganese resistance. Strain NU229 contained a Fur-repressed fusion based on derepression of lacZ expression in its manganese-resistant derivative. Extracellular growth of NU229 in bacteriological media was similar to that of wild-type strain 130b. To assess the role of an iron- and Fur-regulated (frgA) gene in intracellular infection, the ability of NU229 to grow within U937 cell monolayers was tested. Quantitative infection assays demonstrated that intracellular growth of NU229 was impaired as much as 80-fold. Reconstruction of the mutant by allelic exchange proved that the infectivity defect in NU229 was due to the inactivation of frgA and not to a second-site mutation. Subsequently, complementation of the interrupted gene by an intact plasmid-encoded gene demonstrated that the infectivity defect was due to the loss of frgA and not to a polar effect. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that the 63-kDa FrgA protein has homology with the aerobactin synthetases IucA and IucC of Escherichia coli, raising the possibility that L. pneumophila encodes a siderophore which is required for optimal intracellular replication. Southern hybridization analysis determined that frgA is specific to L. pneumophila.
Market Liquidity and Price Efficiency: A Field Experiment

We conduct two field experiments to see if market liquidity has a causal effect on price efficiency and, if so, why. We randomly provide liquidity in certain horse race betting markets, and not in others. We find that prices in treated markets are indeed more efficient than prices in control markets. We also find evidence of positive spillovers, as correlated markets outside our intervention benefit from greater price efficiency. Results from a second experiment suggest that the improvements in price efficiency are predominantly due to the price-cue embedded in our quotes, rather than the volume we provide to the market.
High-performance single-mode VCSELs in the 1310-nm waveband

High-performance vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) emitting in the 1310-nm waveband are fabricated by bonding AlGaAs-GaAs distributed Bragg reflectors on both sides of a InP-based cavity. A 2-in wafer bonding process is optimized to produce very good on-wafer device parameter uniformity. Carrier injection is implemented via double intracavity contact layers and a tunnel junction. A 1.2-mW single-mode output power is obtained in the temperature range of 20/spl deg/C-80/spl deg/C. Modulation capability at 3.2 Gb/s is demonstrated up to 70/spl deg/C. Overall VCSEL performance complies with the requirements of the 10 GBASE-LX4 IEEE.802. 3ae standard, which opens the way for novel applications of VCSELs emitting in the 1310-nm band.
Breastfeeding is natural but not always easy: intervention for common medical problems of breastfeeding mothers – a review of the scientific evidence

Abstract Natural processes do not always function perfectly. In breastfeeding, problems are encountered in up to 80% of mother-infant dyads. Altogether, in Western societies, the difficulties reduce the breastfeeding rate within the first months drastically. To deal with the problems of breastfeeding efficiently requires a profound understanding of its physiology, as well as of its psychological and social determinants. This review focuses on the current knowledge of breastfeeding physiology, only touching the psychosocial factors, which are included in the promotion strategies. Subsequently, it scrutinizes definitions, incidences, prevention, and treatment of breastfeeding problems faced most frequently by nursing mothers and their consultants. Not all measures used in counseling mothers and not all treatments for the most common medical problems withstand a careful evaluation on the basis of current scientific data. However, applying proven prevention strategies will significantly improve the well being of mothers and their infants, and may contribute to an affective attitude that increases the success, frequency, and duration of breastfeeding.
Dating the origins of the epidemiologic paradox among Mexican Americans.

This paper describes the history of the epidemiologic paradox the surprising finding that in many circumstances Mexican American infants children and adults have lower mortality than one would expect given their social economic and demographic situation. In particular they have mortality equal to or lower than comparable non-Hispanic whites and lower than that of comparable African Americans. In this paper we want to describe the history of the epidemiologic paradox and try to reveal when it began. This is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the 1997 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. (EXCERPT)
CZECH TEACHERS AND INCLUSIVE PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION

The paper is about the questions of the preparedness of the teacher for education of pupils with special educational needs in the context of Czech primary school system. The text deals with three research areas: orientation in the key context of the social environment, where the pupils come from, and real form of school pedagogical work with the pupils with special educational needs and the attitudinal constructs about the question of inclusion of pupils from target groups. The text presents some empirical findings from all over the republic research, in which 2005 teachers were involved. The research conclusions emphasize that readiness of teachers for their pedagogical work with pupils with special educational needs is inadequate. The text is one of the output of project Sociological monitoring of educational inputs and outputs of children and pupils, including children and pupils with special educational needs in the Czech Republic (CZ.1.07/1.2.00/47.0009).
Chlamydia pneumoniae Infection in Human Monocytes

ABSTRACT Chlamydia pneumoniae infection has been associated with cardiovascular diseases in seroepidemiological studies and by demonstration of the pathogen in atherosclerotic lesions. It has the capacity to infect several cell types, including monocyte-derived macrophages, which play an essential role in the development of atherosclerosis. However, the persistence of C. pneumoniaein mononuclear cells is poorly understood. To study the morphology and biological characteristics of the infection, human peripheral blood monocytes were infected with C. pneumoniae. Freshly isolated monocytes resisted the development of infectious progeny, and confocal and transmission electron microscopy showed that the morphology of the inclusions and chlamydial particles was abnormal. Addition of tryptophan or antibodies against gamma interferon did not diminish the inhibition of C. pneumoniae, suggesting that other factors are involved in the chlamydiostatic activity of the monocytes. Chlamydial mRNA was expressed at least 3 days after infection, however, and a capability for infected monocytes to induce a positive lymphocyte proliferative response was detected for up to 7 days, indicating that C. pneumoniae remains metabolically active in the monocytes in vitro. These results are in accordance with the hypothesis that C. pneumoniae may participate in the maintenance of local immunological response and inflammation via infected monocytes and thus enhance atherosclerosis.
Relationship Between Organizational Justice and Organizational Safety Climate: Do Fairness Perceptions Influence Employee Safety Behaviour?

Abstract This study investigated the relationships between organizational justice, organizational safety climate, job satisfaction, safety compliance and accident frequency. Ghanaian industrial workers participated in the study (N = 320). Safety climate and justice perceptions were assessed with Hayes, Parender, Smecko, et al. ‘s (1998) and Blader and Tyler’s (2003) scales respectively. A median split was performed to dichotomize participants into 2 categories: workers with positive and workers with negative justice perceptions. Confirmatory factors analysis confirmed the 5-factor structure of the safety scale. Regression analyses and t tests indicated that workers with positive fairness perceptions had constructive perspectives regarding workplace safety, expressed greater job satisfaction, were more compliant with safety policies and registered lower accident rates. These findings provide evidence that the perceived level of fairness in an organization is closely associated with workplace safety perception and other organizational factors which are important for safety. The implications for safety research are discussed.
A Tale of Two Tails: On the Coexistence of Overweighting and Underweighting of Rare Extreme Events

Almost all important decisions in people’s lives entail risky consequences. Some of these decisions involve events that materialize with a low probability but lead to extreme consequences such as loss of total wealth or accidental death. When facing such rare extreme events, people display considerable risk aversion in some situations whereas in others the opposite is the case. For example, the prospect of airplane and stock market crashes triggers high risk aversion but there is a low willingness to take out hazard or life insurance. We address this puzzle by arguing that the timing of the consequences and of uncertainty resolution are crucial for understanding these phenomena. We show that future uncertainty conjointly with people’s proneness to probability distortions generates a unifying framework for explaining the coexistence of over- and underweighting of rare extreme events.
Psychotherapy engagers versus non-engagers: Differences in alliance, therapist verbal response modes, and client attachment

Abstract For each of four therapists, we studied two clients who did not return after intake (non-engagers) and two clients who continued for at least eight sessions of psychodynamic psychotherapy (engagers), for a total of 16 cases yielding 3877 therapist verbal response units. Engagers and non-engagers did not differ in terms of working alliance measured after the intake session. In terms of therapist verbal response modes for non-engagers compared to engagers, therapists used more approval-reassurance in the beginning third of intake sessions, and more reflections of feeling but less information about the helping process in the last third of intake sessions. Non-engagers had higher pre-intake attachment anxiety than engagers. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
Bayesian Inference on Risk Differences: An Application to Multivariate Meta-Analysis of Adverse Events in Clinical Trials

Multivariate meta-analysis is useful in combining evidence from independent studies that involve several comparisons among groups based on a single outcome. For binary outcomes, the commonly used statistical models for multivariate meta-analysis are multivariate generalized linear mixed effects models which assume risks, after some transformation, follow a multivariate normal distribution with possible correlations. In this article, we consider an alternative model for multivariate meta-analysis where the risks are modeled by the multivariate beta distribution proposed by Sarmanov. This model has several attractive features compared to the conventional multivariate generalized linear mixed effects models, including simplicity of likelihood function, no need to specify a link function, and a closed-form expression of distribution functions for study-specific risk differences. We investigate the finite sample performance of this model through simulation studies and illustrate its use with an application to multivariate meta-analysis of adverse events of tricyclic antidepressant treatment in clinical trials.
Climate change could threaten blood supply by altering the distribution of vector-borne disease: an Australian case-study

Background: Climate change is expected to promote more intense and prolonged outbreaks of vector-borne disease, and alter the geographic boundaries of transmission. This has implications for the safety and supply of fresh blood products around the world. In Australia, a recent outbreak of dengue fever caused a prolonged regional shortage in the supply of fresh blood products. Objective: To highlight the potential for climate change to affect the safety and supply of blood globally through its impact on vector-borne disease, using the example of dengue in Australia as a case-study. Design: We modelled geographic regions in Australia suitable for dengue transmission over the coming century under four climate change scenarios, estimated changes to the population at risk and effect on blood supply. Results: Geographic regions with climates that are favourable to dengue transmission could expand to include large population centres in a number of currently dengue-free regions in Australia and reduce blood supply across several states. Conclusion: Unless there is strong intergovernmental action on greenhouse gas reduction, there could be an eight-fold increase in the number of people living in dengue prone regions in Australia by the end of the century. Similar impacts will be experienced elsewhere and for other vector-borne diseases, with regions currently on the margins of transmission zones most affected. Globally, climate change is likely to compound existing problems of blood safety and supply in already endemic areas and cause future shortages in fresh blood products through its impact on transmission of vector-borne disease.
Evidence for Multiple, Local Functions of Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor (CNTF) in Retinal Development: Expression of CNTF and Its Receptor and In Vitro Effects on Target Cells

Abstract: There is increasing, although largely indirect, evidence that neurotrophic factors not only function as target‐derived survival factors for projection neurons, but also act locally to regulate developmental processes. We studied the expression of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and the CNTF‐specific ligand‐binding α‐subunit of the CNTF receptor complex (CNTFRα) in the rat retina, a well‐defined CNS model system, and CNTF effects on cultured retinal neurons. Both CNTF and CNTFRα (mRNA and protein) are expressed during phases of retinal neurogenesis and differentiation. Retina‐specific Müller glia are immunocytochemically identified as the site of CNTF production and CNTFRα‐expressing, distinct neuronal cell types as potential CNTF targets. Biological effects on corresponding neurons in culture further support the conclusion that locally supplied CNTF plays a regulatory role in the development of various retinal cell types including ganglion cells and interneurons.