Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PRODUÇÃO DE MUDAS DE ALFACE EM RESPOSTA AO USO DE ÁGUA TRATADA MAGNETICAMENTE

Nos últimos anos tem sido crescente as pesquisas científicas de inovação e tecnologia agrícola a respeito da ação do campo magnético sob a germinação e desenvolvimento de plantas. Diante do exposto, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo avaliar o desenvolvimento inicial de mudas de alface (Lactuca Sativa L.) com uso de água tratada magneticamente e não tratada (controle). O experimento foi realizado em bandejas de 120 células, sendo a parcela constituída por 12 células com 10 repetições, onde foram testados os tratamentos água tratada magneticamente e não tratada. Foram realizadas medições semanais de comprimento da parte aérea e quando as mudas atingiram 24 dias após germinadas, retirou-as das bandejas e avaliou-se os seguintes parâmetros: comprimento da parte aérea, massa seca da parte aérea, comprimento da raiz e massa seca da raiz. Nas condições de tempo de exposição e força do magnetizador, o uso da água magnetizada é benéfica para o alface e provavelmente para outras culturas. Em particular, para a alface, os resultados revelam que a irrigação com água tratada magneticamente é eficiente para obter-se mudas de alface com maior volume de biomassa na parte aérea e raiz.
Circulating Angiogenic Mediators in Patients with Moderate and Severe von Willebrand Disease: A Multicentre Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract Inhibition of von Willebrand factor (VWF) expression in endothelial cells results in enhanced, possible dysfunctional angiogenesis, consistent with observations of severe gastrointestinal bleedings caused by vascular malformations in patients with von Willebrand disease (VWD). VWF is stored in endothelial Weibel–Palade bodies (WPB) with several other mediators of angiogenesis, like angiopoietin-2, osteoprotegerin and galectin-3. Increased release of angiopoietin-2 has been observed in medium of endothelial cells lacking VWF, but data on circulating levels of angiogenic factors in patients with VWD are lacking. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate plasma levels of angiogenic factors in patients with various types of VWD to obtain more insight into the pathogenesis of vascular malformations in these patients. We hypothesized that VWF deficiency leads to increased circulating levels of other WPB components. We therefore measured plasma levels of the WPB components angiopoietin-2, osteoprotegerin and galectin-3 as well as two other angiogenic factors (angiopoietin-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF]) that are not stored within WPB. We observed that various angiogenic mediators are significantly different between types of VWD patients. Type 2A VWD patients had higher angiopoietin-1 levels compared with type 2B patients. Patients who have increased VWF clearance had higher angiopoietin-2 levels, whereas patients who have impaired VWF synthesis had higher galectin-3 levels. VEGF levels were negatively associated with VWF levels as type 3 VWD patients had the highest VEGF levels. However, complete VWF deficiency did not lead to increased circulating levels of other WPB components.
Autoclaved Tumor Bone for Reconstruction: An Alternative in Developing Countries

The options for reconstruction after excision of skeletal tumors include reimplanting the autoclaved tumor-bearing bone. We asked whether such bone will survive and unite with normal bone and whether the local tumor recurrence rate increases after its use. We ascertained the functional outcome (Musculoskeletal Tumor Society score) and complications in 19 patients. After wide excision, the bony segment was autoclaved at 120° for 10 minutes and reimplanted at the original defect with intramedullary nails and compression plates. Twelve of our 19 patients were available for followup. The autoclaved segment united with the normal bone in 11 of the 12 patients. No patients had fracture or resorption of the autoclaved segment. Two patients had local tumor recurrence in nearby soft tissues, apparently unrelated to the autoclaved bone. The mean functional score was 70%. Complications included fatigue failure of the nail in one patient, superficial infection in three patients, and deep infection in two patients. Reconstruction with autoclaved tumor-bearing bone is a simple and effective tool in limb salvage. This technique is a cost-effective alternative for developing countries circumventing complications of prosthetic and allograft reconstruction.Level of Evidence: Therapeutic study, Level IV (case series). See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Myosin light chain phosphorylation in fibroblast shape change, detachment and patching.

The level of phosphorylation of myosin regulatory light chain in BALB/c 3T3 and certain other cultured substrate-attached fibroblasts has been shown to be altered by several agents which influence cell shape, attachment and/or surface receptors. This was investigated by metabolic labelling with [32P]orthophosphate, followed by exposure of the cells to the chosen conditions, rapid freezing to 'fix' phosphorylation levels, extraction and concentration in the presence of kinase and phosphatase inhibitors, and final analysis by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Gel patterns were interpreted by comparison with immunoprecipitates with antiserum to mouse nonmuscle myosin. Treatment of cells either with ethylene glycol-bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA) or dibutyryl-cAMP suppressed light chain phosphorylation as predicted from the control mechanisms proposed previously from in vitro studies for Ca++ calmodulin and cAMP-dependent protein kinase respectively. Other effects were less easily explained: in BALB/c 3T3 cells, contrasting with previously reported behaviour of CHO cells, the cAMP-induced decline was small and transitory; and in at least one cell line (16C) the EGTA-induced decline was preceded by a strong pulse of enhanced phosphorylation. A striking and unexpected result was that azide, almost certainly acting on mitochondrial function, caused myosin light chain phosphorylation to be maintained over a long period even in the presence of EGTA which would otherwise bring about an immediate drop. The cleavage (by trypsin) or binding (by con A) of surface receptors was also shown to trigger the biochemical modulation of cellular myosin. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
With increasing trends of prostate cancer in the Saudi Arabia and Arab World: Should we start screening programs?

Incidence rate for prostate cancer in the Arab World is significantly lower than United States and Europe, it ranges from 5.5% to 39.2%. However, the incidence and the number of deaths is expected to increase. In Saudi Arabia, the crude incidence rate and age standardized incidence rate of prostate cancer are reported to be steadily increasing in between 2001-2008. Only two screening trials were attempted in 2001 and 2009 which yielded an incidence rate of 1.17% and 2.5% respectively. Men in the Arab world are sharing a common characteristic of poor knowledge and poor attitude towards prostate cancer examination and screening practices. They are ill-informed about the PSA test’s strengths and drawbacks because the doctors are not talking to them about the importance of counselling. Men should be encouraged to do PSA testing before the age of 50 and till the age of 70 years. This could be achieved by enhancing their attitude and enriching the knowledge of the physicians towards PSA testing, harms and benefits, through shared decision making, which would increase men’s knowledge scores, reduced their decisional conflict and promote greater involvement in decision making.
Structural biochemistry of a type 2 RNase H: RNA primer recognition and removal during DNA replication.

DNA replication and cellular survival requires efficient removal of RNA primers during lagging strand DNA synthesis. In eukaryotes, RNA primer removal is initiated by type 2 RNase H, which specifically cleaves the RNA portion of an RNA-DNA/DNA hybrid duplex. This conserved type 2 RNase H family of replicative enzymes shares little sequence similarity with the well-characterized prokaryotic type 1 RNase H enzymes, yet both possess similar enzymatic properties. Crystal structures and structure-based mutational analysis of RNase HII from Archaeoglobus fulgidus, both with and without a bound metal ion, identify the active site for type 2 RNase H enzymes that provides the general nuclease activity necessary for catalysis. The two-domain architecture of type 2 RNase H creates a positively charged binding groove and links the unique C-terminal helix-loop-helix cap domain to the active site catalytic domain. This architectural arrangement apparently couples directional A-form duplex binding, by a hydrogen-bonding Arg-Lys phosphate ruler motif, to substrate-discrimination, by a tyrosine finger motif, thereby providing substrate-specific catalytic activity. Combined kinetic and mutational analyses of structurally implicated substrate binding residues validate this binding mode. These structural and mutational results together suggest a molecular mechanism for type 2 RNase H enzymes for the specific recognition and cleavage of RNA in the RNA-DNA junction within hybrid duplexes, which reconciles the broad substrate binding affinity with the catalytic specificity observed in biochemical assays. In combination with a recent independent structural analysis, these results furthermore identify testable molecular hypotheses for the activity and function of the type 2 RNase H family of enzymes, including structural complementarity, substrate-mediated conformational changes and coordination with subsequent FEN-1 activity.
An EMG-Based Control for an Upper-Limb Power-Assist Exoskeleton Robot

Many kinds of power-assist robots have been developed in order to assist self-rehabilitation and/or daily life motions of physically weak persons. Several kinds of control methods have been proposed to control the power-assist robots according to user's motion intention. In this paper, an electromyogram (EMG)-based impedance control method for an upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton robot is proposed to control the robot in accordance with the user's motion intention. The proposed method is simple, easy to design, humanlike, and adaptable to any user. A neurofuzzy matrix modifier is applied to make the controller adaptable to any users. Not only the characteristics of EMG signals but also the characteristics of human body are taken into account in the proposed method. The effectiveness of the proposed method was evaluated by the experiments.
Second-order performance analysis of Standard ESPRIT

This paper provides a second-order (SO) analytical performance analysis of the 1-D Standard ESPRIT algorithm. Existing performance analysis frameworks are based on first-order (FO) approximations of the parameter estimation error, which are asymptotic in the effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), i.e., they become exact for either high SNRs or a large sample size. However, these FO expressions do not capture the algorithmic behavior in the threshold region at low SNRs or for a small sample size. Yet, such conditions are often encountered in practice. Therefore, we present a closed-form expression for the parameter estimation error of 1-D Standard ESPRIT up to the SO that is valid in a wider effective SNR range. Moreover, we derive an analytical mean square error (MSE) expression, where we assume a zero-mean circularly symmetric complex Gaussian noise distribution. Finally, we use the existing FO MSE expression and the derived SO MSE expression to analytically compute the SNR breakdown threshold of the MSE threshold region. Empirical simulations verify the analytical expressions.
Age-Related Cognitive Slowing: The Role of Spontaneous Tempo and Processing Speed

This research studied the relationships between two types of slowing observed in aging—loss of general processing speed and slowing of spontaneous tempo—in an attempt to test the assumption that there is an internal timing mechanism responsible for cognitive age-related decrease. Processing speed has been evaluated as a mediator of the relationship between age and working memory, concurrently with spontaneous tempo measures. The authors compared the performance of young and older adults on tasks involving spontaneous motor tempo, processing speed, and working memory. The findings confirmed the agerelated slowing of spontaneous motor tempo but did not indicate superiority of tempo mediation in the decline in working memory. Processing speed appeared to be a major mediator of working memory, but also of spontaneous tempo slowing.
Thermodynamics of MgB2 described by the weak-coupling two-band BCS model

1Faculty of Physics, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” 5 James Bourchier Boulevard, BG-1164 Sofia, Bulgaria 2Laboratorium voor Vaste-Stoffysica en Magnetisme, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200 D, B-3001, Belgium 3Department of Physics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-4242, USA 4Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Chernogolovka, Moscow District 142432, Russia sReceived 22 July 2004; published 31 January 2005 d
Primary structure of cyanelle peptidoglycan of Cyanophora paradoxa: a prokaryotic cell wall as part of an organelle envelope

The peptidoglycan layer surrounding the photosynthetic organelles (cyanelles) of the protist Cyanophora paradoxa is thought to be a relic of their cyanobacterial ancestors. The separation of muropeptides by gel filtration and reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography revealed four different muropeptide monomers. A number of muropeptides were identical in retention behavior to muropeptides of Escherichia coli, while others had remarkably long retention times with respect to their sizes, as indicated by gel filtration. Molecular mass determination by plasma desorption and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry showed that these unusual muropeptides had molecular masses greater by 112 Da or a multiple thereof than those of ones common to both species. Fast atom bombardment-tandem mass spectrometry of these reduced muropeptide monomers allowed the localization of the modification to D-glutamic acid. High-resolution fast atom bombardment-mass spectrometry and amino acid analysis revealed N-acetylputrescine to be the substituent (E. Pittenauer, E. R. Schmid, G. Allmaier, B. Pfanzagl, W. Löffelhardt, C. Quintela, M. A. de Pedro, and W. Stanek, Biol. Mass Spectrom. 22:524-536, 1993). In addition to the 4 monomers already known, 8 dimers, 11 trimers, and 6 tetramers were characterized. An average glycan chain length of 51 disaccharide units was determined by the transfer of [U-14C]galactose to the terminal N-acetylglucosamine residues of cyanelle peptidoglycan. The muropeptide pattern is discussed with respect to peptidoglycan biosynthesis and processing.
The Dark Side of the Sublime: Distinguishing a Threat-Based Variant of Awe

Theoretical conceptualizations of awe suggest this emotion can be more positive or negative depending on specific appraisal processes. However, the emergent scientific study of awe rarely emphasizes its negative side, classifying it instead as a positive emotion. In the present research we tested whether there is a more negative variant of awe that arises in response to vast, complex stimuli that are threatening (e.g., tornadoes, terrorist attack, wrathful god). We discovered people do experience this type of awe with regularity (Studies 1 & 4) and that it differs from other variants of awe in terms of its underlying appraisals, subjective experience, physiological correlates, and consequences for well-being. Specifically, threat-based awe experiences were appraised as lower in self-control and certainty and higher in situational control than other awe experiences, and were characterized by greater feelings of fear (Studies 2a & 2b). Threat-based awe was associated with physiological indicators of increased sympathetic autonomic arousal, whereas positive awe was associated with indicators of increased parasympathetic arousal (Study 3). Positive awe experiences in daily life (Study 4) and in the lab (Study 5) led to greater momentary well-being (compared with no awe experience), whereas threat-based awe experiences did not. This effect was partially mediated by increased feelings of powerlessness during threat-based awe experiences. Together, these findings highlight a darker side of awe.
Structural and semantic selectivity in the electrophysiology of sentence comprehension

Title of Document: STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC SELECTIVITY IN THE ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY OF SENTENCE COMPREHENSION Clare Margaret Anne Stroud Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Directed By: Professor Colin Phillips Department of Linguistics This dissertation is concerned with whether the sentence processor can compute plausible relations among a cluster of neighboring open class words without taking into account the relationships between these words as dictated by the structure of the sentence. It has been widely assumed that compositional semantics is built on top of syntactic structures (Heim & Kratzer, 1998; Pollard & Sag, 1994). This view has been challenged by recent electrophysiological findings (Kim and Osterhout, 2005; Kuperberg, 2007; van Herten et al., 2005, 2006) that appear to show that semantic composition can proceed independently of syntactic structure. This dissertation investigates whether the evidence for independent semantic composition is as strong and widespread as has been previously claimed. Recent studies have shown that sentences containing a semantically anomalous interpretation but an unambiguous, grammatical structure (e.g., The meal was devouring.) elicit a P600 response, the component classically elicited by syntactic anomalies, rather than an N400, the component typically elicited by semantic anomalies (Kim and Osterhout, 2005). This has been interpreted as evidence that the processor analyzed meal as a good theme for devour, even though this interpretation is not supported by the sentential structure. This led to the claim that semantic composition can proceed independently of syntactic structure. Two event-related potentials (ERP) studies investigated whether the processor exploits prior structural biases and commitments to restrict semantic interpretations to those that are compatible with that expected structure. A further ERP study and a review of relevant studies reveal that in the majority of studies the P600 is not modulated by manipulations of thematic fit or semantic association between the open class words. We argue that a large number of studies that have been taken as evidence for an independent semantic processing stream can be explained as violations of the verb’s requirement that its subject be agentive. A small number of studies in verbfinal languages cannot be explained in this way, and may be evidence of independent semantic composition, although further experimental work is needed. We conclude that the evidence for independent semantic composition is not as extensive as was
Gender Differences in Electrophysiologic Effects of Mental Stress and Autonomic Tone Inhibition: A Study in Healthy Individuals

To the Editor: We read with interest the work of Sasano et al.,1 relating changes in atrial electrophysiologic parameters and effectiveness of antiarrhythmic drug therapy in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. The main finding in this study is the correlation of atrial effective refractory period prolongation with clinical efficacy, while intraatrial conduction intervals were not changed significantly by drugs. On the bases of our previous experience2 and that of others,3,4 I would like to suggest that perhaps the authors would have found a significant reduction in intraatrial conduction time with early extrastimuli in the patients responding to drugs, because extrastimuli produce marked intraatrial conduction delay in patients with atrial arrhythmias, the increase in intraatrial conduction time induced by extrastimuli is related to the induction of repetitive atrial firing,5 and this was reduced by drugs in Sasano’s study. Furthermore, we found that effective refractory period by an i.v. class I drug can be associated with a decrease of extrastimulus induced conduction delay.6 Since the authors undoubtedly have the data on conduction delay induced by early extrastimuli on hand, it would be nice to know if this parameter could help distinguish effective from ineffective drug treatment.
Pemphigoid diseases: Pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment

Pemphigoid diseases (including bullous pemphigoid, mucous membrane pemphigoid, pemphigoid gestationis, linear IgA dermatosis, lichen planus pemphigoides, and anti-p200 pemphigoid) are a subgroup of autoimmune bullous skin diseases characterized by an autoantibody response toward structural components of the hemidesmosome resulting in subepidermal blistering. By the use of different in vitro systems and experimental animal models, the pathogenic relevance of these autoantibodies has been demonstrated. Recent advances in the understanding of autoantibody responses have led to novel diagnostic tools and a more differentiated therapeutic approach for these disorders. This review covers the most recent understanding of the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of this group of autoimmune diseases.
Reevaluating the incidence of pervasive developmental disorders: Impact of elevated rates of detection through implementation of an integrated system of screening in Toyota, Japan

Aim: Although recent epidemiological studies on the pervasive development disorders (PDD) appear to be reporting higher rates of incidence than previously believed, great variation in the reported figures suggests a need for review of the methodology involved. As such, a survey on the incidence of PDD was conducted and compared with data from a previous survey to examine the effects of screening and diagnostic methodology on incidence.
Identification of novel MUNC13-4 mutations in familial haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis and functional analysis of MUNC13-4-deficient cytotoxic T lymphocytes

Background: Familial haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (FHL) has an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance and consists of at least three subtypes. FHL2 subtype with perforin (PRF1) mutation accounts for 30% of all FHL cases, while FHL with MUNC13-4 mutation was recently identified and designated as FHL3 subtype. Objective: To examine MUNC13-4 mutations and the cytotoxic function of MUNC13-4 deficient T lymphocytes in Japanese FHL patients Methods: Mutations of MUNC13-4 and the cytotoxicity of MUNC13-4-deficient cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) were analysed in 16 Japanese families with non-FHL2 subtype. Results: Five new mutations of the MUNC13-4 gene were identified in six families. The mutations were in the introns 4, 9, and 18, and exons 8 and 19. Two families had homozygous mutations, while the remaining four had compound heterozygous mutations. Cytotoxicity of MUNC13-4 deficient CTL was low compared with control CTL, but was still present. Clinically, the onset of disease tended to occur late; moreover, natural killer cell activity was not deficient in some FHL3 patients. Conclusions:MUNC13-4 mutations play a role in the development of FHL3 through a defective cytotoxic pathway.