Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chelating, film‐forming, and coagulating ability of the chitosan–glucan complex from Aspergillus niger industrial wastes

Waste mycelia of Aspergillus niger from a citric acid production plant are simply treated with boiling 30–40% NaOH aqueous solutions for 4–6 hr to obtain the insoluble chitosan‐glucan complex whose infrared, ESR, and x‐ray diffraction spectra are reported. A number of transition‐ and post‐transition‐metal are chelated and collected by chitosan‐glucan with higher yields than by animal chitosan. Immediate flocculation occur upon mixing chitosan‐glucan dispersions with alginate and polymolybdate solutions. Membranes are also obtained from chitosan–glucan dispersions in acetic acid or in chloral and dimethyl formamide mixtures.
An efficient least-squares design of IIR all-pass filter

Least-squares design of digital filters is generally achieved by solving a system of linear equations. The matrices involved in the set of linear equations can be formulated as a Toeplitz-plus-Hankel form such that a matrix inversion is avoided with effectiveness. In this paper, some trigonometric properties are further exploited to obtain the closed-form expressions required for the system associated matrices in the least-squares design of IIR all-pass filters. Simulation results confirm that the proposed method achieves efficiency and good performance.
Evaluation of candidate genes for DYX1 and DYX2 in families with dyslexia

Dyslexia is a common heterogeneous disorder with a significant genetic component. Multiple studies have replicated the evidence for linkage between variously defined phenotypes of dyslexia and chromosomal regions on 15q21 (DYX1) and 6p22.2 (DYX2). Based on association studies and the possibility for functional significance of several polymorphisms, candidate genes responsible for the observed linkage signal have been proposed—DYX1C1 for 15q21, and KIAA0319 and DCDC2 for 6p22.2. We investigated the evidence for contribution of these candidate genes to dyslexia in our sample of multigenerational families. Our previous quantitative linkage analyses in this dataset provided supportive evidence for linkage of dyslexia to the locus on chromosome 15, but not to the locus on chromosome 6. In the current study, we used probands from 191 families for a case control analysis, and proband‐parent trios for family‐based TDT analyses. The observation of weak evidence for transmission disequilibrium for one of the two studied polymorphisms in DYX1C1 suggests involvement of this gene in dyslexia in our dataset. We did not find evidence for the association of KIAA0319 or DCDC2 alleles to dyslexia in our sample. We observed a slight tendency for an intronic deletion in DCDC2 to be associated with worse performance on some quantitative measures of dyslexia in the probands in our sample, but not in their parents. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Acute Kidney Injury After Pediatric Cardiac Surgery: A Secondary Analysis of the Safe Pediatric Euglycemia After Cardiac Surgery Trial*

Objectives: To understand the effect of tight glycemic control on cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury. Design: Secondary analysis of data from the Safe Pediatric Euglycemia after Cardiac Surgery trial of tight glycemic control versus standard care. Setting: Pediatric cardiac ICUs at University of Michigan, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, and Boston Children’s Hospital. Patients: Children 0–36 months old undergoing congenital cardiac surgery. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: Cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury was assigned using the Acute Kidney Injury Network criteria with the modification that a greater than 0.1 mg/dL increase in serum creatinine was required to assign cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury. We explored associations between cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury and tight glycemic control and clinical outcomes. Of 799 patients studied, cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury occurred in 289 patients (36%), most of whom had stage II or III disease (72%). Cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury rates were similar between treatment groups (36% vs 36%; p = 0.99). Multivariable modeling showed that patients with cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury were younger (p = 0.002), underwent more complex surgery (p = 0.005), and had longer cardiopulmonary bypass times (p = 0.002). Cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury was associated with longer mechanical ventilation and ICU and hospital stays and increased mortality. Patients at University of Michigan had higher rates of cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury compared with Boston Children’s Hospital patients (66% vs 15%; p < 0.001), but University of Michigan patients with cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury had shorter time to extubation and ICU and hospital stays compared with Boston Children’s Hospital patients. Conclusions: Tight glycemic control did not reduce the cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury rate in this trial cohort. We observed significant differences in cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury rates between the two study sites, and there was a differential effect of cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury on clinical outcomes by site. These findings warrant further investigation to identify causal variation in perioperative practices that affect cardiac surgery–associated acute kidney injury epidemiology.
ISOTOPIC STUDIES OF PORPHYRIN AND HEMEMETABOLISM: BONANZAS AND PITFALLS *

The purpose of the present report is to consider potential advances in the quantitative interpretations of heme metabolisq through in vivo isotope studies. First, several formulas have been proposed 1 to test the validity of new concepts of isotope incorporation from glycine and S aminolevulinic acid (ALA) into porphyrins, their precursors, and their heme and other pigment derivatives. The theoretical and practical applications of these formulas will be clarified and expanded. Second, formulas for converting atom % excess data from stable isotopes (i.e. 16N) to equivalent “dpm per pmole” values will be derived for use in the proposed formulas. Third, results of hemoglobin and urobilin labeling following simultaneous administration of [I6N] glycine and [14C] ALA to three patients with hematologic or hepatic disease will be documented. Finally, we will consider the implications of differential labeling from ALA of coproporphyrin I -and I11 isomers in five volunteers, including four normal subjects. An earlier report’ has discussed the general rationale and some of the formulas proposed, with special reference to their application to data obtained following injection of [3H] ALA and [“C] glycine into a patient with erythropoietic porphyria. The present data confirm the general predictions made from this earlier single study. Because the basic calculations made are SO different from those used traditionally and because the derivation of formulas and their hematological and other implications have not been described in sufficiently clear detail, all essential information will be brought together in this report. Current collaborative studies (S. Schwartz, P. Berk, and colleagues) are evaluating triple isotope incorporation from ALA, glycine, and bilirubin. More than 20 subjects, including several normal volunteers, have been investigated. Only some of the coproporphyrin isomer data from this study are included in the present report.
Wireless single contact power delivery

We expand on our recently developed single contact transmission method and apply it toward short-range wireless power delivery. The connection between a conductive surface and a receiver, which was directly connected in our initial system, can be made capacitive by extending the receiver a short distance off the surface. This allows the system to function in a purely wireless mode. We demonstrate the wireless transmission of power to a 25 W load at varying distances from an aluminum foil sheet. The transfer efficiency is given with respect to receding distance from the sheet with an average efficiency of 80% over a 3 cm separation for the experimental system.
Deepening of lid sulcus from topical bimatoprost therapy.

PURPOSE To report a new adverse effect related to treatment with bimatoprost. CASE REPORTS Serial clinical examination of three patients was performed. In each of the three reported patients, alteration of eyelid appearance with deepening of the lid sulcus was evident as the result of topical bimatoprost therapy. DISCUSSION A comprehensive literature search of Medline using WebMd and MDConsult, was conducted to cross reference known side effects of topical prostaglandin analog treatment. The keywords utilized were prostaglandin analogs, prostaglandins, prostamide, glaucoma, ocular hypertension, intraocular pressure, side effects, adverse effects, bimatoprost, latanoprost, lumigan, and xalatan. This appears to be the first such report in the literature. Clinicians and patients should be made aware of this possible complication of topical bimatoprost therapy.
Child murder by mothers: a critical analysis of the current state of knowledge and a research agenda.

OBJECTIVE Maternal filicide, or child murder by mothers, occurs more frequently in the United States than in other developed nations. However, little is known about factors that confer risk to children. The authors review the literature to identify predictors of maternal filicide and identify gaps in knowledge about maternal filicide. METHOD Databases were systematically searched for studies of maternal filicide and neonaticide (murder in the first day of life) that were conducted in industrialized countries and were published in peer-reviewed, English-language publications after 1980. RESULTS Women who committed filicide varied greatly by the type of sample studied. Neonaticide was often committed by young, poor, unmarried women with little or no prenatal care. CONCLUSIONS The results of the review suggest that little is known about the predictors of maternal filicide and that a systematic, focused program of research on reliable markers for maternal filicide is needed to better prevent these events.
Maker-Taker Fee, Liquidity Competition, and High Frequency Trading

This paper analyzes how a maker-taker fee reduction affects market competition, liquidity, and high frequency trading. The purposes are threefold: 1) whether reducing the exchange maker-taker fee attracts liquidity from off-exchange venues; 2) holding the net exchange fee relatively constant, whether the components of the maker-taker fee change matter; and 3) how HFT responds to the rebate/fee change. By using the Nasdaq maker-taker fee experiment and difference-in-differences methodology, we find that the unilateral maker-taker fee reduction in one lit exchange did not gain market share from off-exchange trading venues; instead, a redistribution of market share among existing lit exchanges occurred. Overall, market share shifted from Nasdaq to other lit exchanges with the highest rebate payment. The experiment demonstrates that in addition to the net fee, the components of the maker-taker fee change matter in competitive fragmented markets. The reduced maker rebate lowers quote quality and the percentage of incoming orders routed to Nasdaq. However, in an offsetting manner, it improves the fill rate and speed of fill because of the reduced taker fee. Further, market efficiency declines. Thanks to the improved relative position of a market in routing tables, adverse selection costs thus decline. This raises standard measures of market liquidity, while liquidity supplier profits decrease. As the fee and rebate reduce, high frequency traders tend to switch from adding to removing liquidity.
Subblocking Concentrations of Local Anesthetics: Effects on Impulse Generation and Conduction in Single Myelinated Sciatic Nerve Axons in Frog

Phenomena seen in axons exposed to subblocking doses serve as the basis for interpreting clinical and behavioral observations during onset and recovery of peripheral nerve block. To delineate the changes in excitability and in impulse conduction caused by subblocking concentrations of local anesthetics (LAs) in myelinated peripheral nerve fibers, LAs were applied to excised frog sciatic nerves while impulse conduction was monitored in single axons. For concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 1.2 times the LA concentration needed to block impulse conduction, three measures of susceptibility to LA were made to quantify the action of the drugs on “resting” fibers (firing rates ≤0.5 Hz): the increase in the threshold for electrical activation of impulses, the increase in conduction latency reflecting the slowing of impulse conduction in the region exposed to LA, and the “critical blocking concentration” of LA just sufficient to prevent impulse conduction in the recorded fiber. Wide interfiber variation in these variables was observed (e.g., for lidocaine, latency increases at block ranged from 66% to 257% of control, blocking concentrations ranged from 0.29 to 1.40 mM), which was not correlated with fiber diameter (as indicated by lesting conduction velocity). Mathematical modeling of impulse conduction in fibers exposed to LA demonstrated that the interfiber variation in susceptibility to LA block could result from interfiber differences in the density of sodium and potassium channels. The effects of LA were also studied in active fibers (firing rates >0.5 Hz). Local anesthetics reversibly inhibited two normally occurring afteroscillations in membrane threshold related to afterpotentials following an impulse. These were “superexcitability,” a transient lowering of threshold lasting as long as 1 s, and “depression,” a phase of raised threshold peaking within 2–4 s after an impulse and recovering slowly over several minutes. Impulse activity also transiently increased the apparent potency of LAs. Such “use-dependent” increases in threshold and decreases in conduction velocity showed kinetics that were agent specific, lasting 1 s after a burst of impulses for lidocaine and lasting >10 s for bupivacaine. At low concentrations, within the range of nontoxic plasma concentrations after systemic administration, the predominant actions of LAs on conducting fibers were transient decreases in excitability and conduction velocity in combination with a reduction of intrinsic oscillatory aftereffects of impulse discharge. These effects may degrade decoding of information in discharge patterns without actually blocking conduction of infrequent impulses, suggesting how functional blockade of coordinated movement and perception may occur ven without complete blockade of impulse conduction.
A comparison of cerebral glucose metabolism in Parkinson's disease, Parkinson's disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies

Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) share many similar aspects, and making a clinical diagnosis of one disorder over the other relies heavily on an arbitrary criterion, so‐called 1‐year rule. This study was designed to search for any difference of metabolic patterns in these two disorders using F‐18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) images.
Pharmacokinetics of macrolactin A and 7-O-succinyl macrolactin A in mice

Abstract 1. As promising anti-macular degeneration and/or anti-tumour agents, a better understanding of the pharmacokinetics of macrolactin A (MA) and 7-O-succinyl macrolactin A (SMA) is essential. Thus, we evaluated the pharmacokinetics of MA and SMA after intravenous, oral, or intraperitoneal administration of each drug to mice. 2. Both hepatic and extra-hepatic extractions of MA were expected based on the rapid total body clearance (CL) of MA. MA also showed a large steady-state volume of distribution (Vss) in mice. A relatively slower CL (by 54.1%) and smaller Vss (by 85.8%) were observed for SMA than for MA. In accordance with the larger Vss values of MA than of SMA, the mouse tissues studied had good affinity to MA but less affinity to SMA. 3. Both MA and SMA had an extremely low oral extent of absolute bioavailability (F). This could have been a result of the instability of MA and SMA in the gastrointestinal tract, supported by their unstable property in acidic buffer. Gastrointestinal and/or hepatic first-pass extraction of MA and SMA may be other reasons. 4. The pharmacokinetic profiles of both MA and SMA were much improved (greater AUC and F values) following intraperitoneal administration than following oral administration due to avoidance of acidic degradation and/or gastrointestinal first-pass extraction.
Single-Dose Intraperitoneal Magainins Improve Survival in a Gram-Negative-Pathogen Septic Shock Rat Model

ABSTRACT The therapeutic efficacies of three polycationic peptides selected among the class of the magainins (magainin I, magainin II, and magainin II amide), alone and combined with piperacillin, were investigated in a rat model of septic shock. Rats were given an intraperitoneal injection of 2 × 1010 CFU of Escherichia coli and randomized to receive intraperitoneally isotonic sodium chloride solution, 60 mg of piperacillin per kg of body weight, and 1 mg of each magainin per kg alone and combined with 60 mg of piperacillin per kg. The main outcome measures were bacterial growth in abdominal exudate and plasma, endotoxin and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) concentrations in plasma, and lethality. Treatments with the magainins achieved significant reductions of bacterial growth and plasma endotoxin and TNF-α concentrations. In general, treatments with the combinations of magainins and piperacillin demonstrated the highest efficacies.
Asymmetric dimethyl-arginine and coronary artery calcification in young adults entering middle age: the CARDIA Study

Background Normal endothelial function depends on nitric oxide (NO) release by endothelial cells. Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), by competing with l-arginine, inhibits NO production and may lead to endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerotic development. Our aim was to ascertain the association between ADMA and coronary artery calcification (CAC), a marker of atherosclerotic coronary disease burden. Design A nested case–control study within the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) cohort, an observational study among young adults residing in four US cities. Methods Participants were 263 white and black male and female cases with the presence of CAC and 263 sex and race-matched controls without evidence of CAC by computed tomography, 33–47 years old in 2000–2001. Results The median level (range) of ADMA was significantly higher in cases (0.55; 0.20–2.22 μmol/l) than in controls (0.53; 0.32–1.30 μmol/l; P=0.03). In conditional logistic regression adjusting for age, field center, educational attainment, smoking status, alcohol consumption, body mass index, waist circumference, hypertension, diabetes, low-density lipoprotein and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, triglycerides, renal function and C-reactive protein, the highest tertile of ADMA, compared with the lowest tertile, was associated with 1.80 (95% confidence interval 1.03–3.15) increased odds of the presence of any CAC. By linear regression, a significant independent relationship was also found between ADMA and the degree of CAC. Conclusion These results support a role for ADMA as a biochemical marker of CAC.
Does heart-type fatty acid-binding protein predict clinical outcomes after pediatric cardiac surgery?

Introduction: The early identification of vulnerable pediatric cardiac surgery patients can help clinicians provide them with timely support. Heart-type fatty acid-binding protein. (H-FABP) is an early biomarker of myocardial injury in acute myocardial infarction in adults. In this study, we evaluated the correlations between postoperative H-FABP, creatine kinase-myocardial band (CK-MB), troponin-I, total bypass time, and clinical outcomes. Methods: In 32 pediatric patients that underwent ventricular septal defect. closure we measured H-FABP, troponin-I and CK-MB preoperatively and 1, 3, and 6 h after aortic declamping. Spearman's Rho correlations were calculated between laboratory and clinical parameters including inotropic support duration, aortic cross-clamp time, total bypass time, ventilation.weaning. time, and total Intensive Care Unit stay. Results: H-FABP, CK-MB, troponin-I, and total bypass time have a similarly weak to moderate correlation with clinical outcome measures. Conclusions: The predictive value of H-FABP for clinical outcome is not stronger than that of CK-MB, Troponin-I, or bypass times.
Updated NICE guideline: management of atrial fibrillation (2014)

There is significant progress made in the field of atrial fibrillation, especially regarding stroke stratification, novel pharmacological agents and interventions for improving symptom control. The Updated NICE Guideline for management of 2014 reflects that and provided an up-to-date appraisal regarding atrial fibrillation treatment, management with consideration to overall healthcare cost economics. It emphasizes the need for individualized, patient-centered package of care, and an robust stroke and bleeding risk before decision regarding choice of oral anticoagulation to be made.
Sir2p exists in two nucleosome‐binding complexes with distinct deacetylase activities

The absolute requirement for the histone deacetylase activity of Sir2p in silencing coupled with the conservation of Sir2p‐like proteins in larger eukaryotes suggests that this molecule plays an important role in gene regulation in all organisms. Here we report the purification and characterization of two Sir2p‐containing protein complexes; one of which contains Sir4p and the other Net1p. The Sir4p‐containing complex has an NAD‐dependent histone deacetylase activity, while the Net1p‐containing complex possesses deacetylase activity but only weak NAD‐dependent histone deacetylase activity. Finally, we demonstrate that the Sir2p‐containing complexes bind nucleosomes efficiently and partially restrict accessibility of the linker DNA to enzymatic probes.
Personality disorders in New Zealand hospitals

A survey was carried out of all patients admitted to New Zealand psychiatric hospitals over a 7‐year period with a primary diagnosis of personality disorder. Despite a decrease in the total number of admissions, the relative totals for each personality disorder remained consistent. The personality categories differed significantly in terms of age, sex, marital status and committal status. These variables conformed closely to traditional clinical descriptions of the personality disorders, indicating that the reliability and utility of classical categorical systems may be greater than has been assumed in the literature. The DSM‐III‐R prototypical categories, which may possibly be a more natural representation of personality disorder syndromes, may be less useful than the traditional categories in clinical and research applications.