Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Larval production, dispersal, and growth in a fjord: a case study on larvae of the sand dollar Dendraster excentricus

In a small shallow fjord with predominantly wind-driven circulation, larvae of the sand dollar Dendraster excentricus (Eschscholtz) do not persist for longer than 2 wk after a local population in the fjord spawns. Changes in distnbuhon and abundance of larval cohorts indicate that larvae are advected out of the fiord and thus contribute to a regional larval pool. A series of plankton samples at the start of 2 reproductive seasons showed that cohorts of larvae are produced during spring tides that expose the intertidal adult population to air. Growth rates of 1 to 3 wk old larvae of D. excentricus and Strongylocentrotus franciscanus in the fjord are comparable to those reared in the laboratory. Later in the season, advanced-stage larvae of D. excentricus are found in surface waters in the fjord; this may enhance their chances of locating suitable habitat for settlement. Many of these advanced-stage larvae have shortened larval arms that may indicate delayed metamorphosis.
Préparation et culture de protoplastes de Cichorium intybus L. Var. Witloof : amélioration des rendements

Nous avons precise l'importance d'un certain nombre de facteurs tels que le conditionnement des plantes donatrices ; la nature des enzymes, la composition des milieux de culture et les conditions d'environnement. C'est a partir de plantules âgees de 15 jours, issues d'akenes noirs (genotype a x b) et cultivees sur un milieu de Heller sous une photoperiode de 16:8 (environ 4000 lux) que l'on obtient le plus grand nombre de protoplastes vivants. Parmi les preparations enzymatiques essayees, c'est le melange caylase-345 et caylas-m2 qui s'est revele le plus efficace
Effects of target location, stature and hand grip type on in-vehicle reach discomfort

In order to improve car interior design, data of perceived discomfort and reach posture were collected for 75 different target locations. Altogether, 24 males and females of different statures participated in the experiment. In addition to three-finger grip, index fingertip reach and five finger grip were also compared. The effects of target location, stature and hand grip on reach discomfort were analysed. Predictive regression equations were provided. In addition to the confirmation of target location effects, the results showed that seat back and steering wheel affected discomfort. Their effects differed according to the subject's anthropometry. A detailed analysis of possible interference between the car interior and reach movement showed that short females were more likely impeded by the seat back when a target was close to the body. A significant difference between three hand grip types could be explained by the change of hand reach distance when changing hand grip type. Statement of Relevance: The present study analysed the effects of target location, stature and hand grip type on reach discomfort, based on the statistical analysis of subjective ratings when reaching a target in a vehicle. The results would help to optimise the location of automotive controls for improving car interior design.
Facultative stem cells in liver and pancreas: Fact and fancy

Tissue turnover is a regular feature of higher eukaryotes, either as part of normal wear and tear (homeostasis) or in response to injury (regeneration). Cell replacement is achieved either through replication of existing cells or differentiation from a self‐renewing pool of stem cells. The major distinction regards cellular potential, because stem cells by definition have a capacity to differentiate, while replication implies that cells adopt a single fate under physiologic conditions. A hybrid model, the facultative stem cell (FSC) model, posits that tissues contain cells that normally exhibit unipotency but have the capacity to function as stem cells upon injury. The FSC paradigm is well established in urodele amphibians, but the nature and role of FSCs in mammals is less defined. Here, we review the evidence for FSCs in two mammalian organs, the liver and the pancreas, and discuss alternative models that could account for regeneration in these organs. Developmental Dynamics 240:521–529, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Increased Sensitivity to Endothelial Nitric Oxide (NO) Contributes to Arterial Normotension in Mice with Vascular Smooth Muscle-selective Deletion of the Atrial Natriuretic Peptide (ANP) Receptor*

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) plays a key regulatory role in arterial blood pressure homeostasis. We recently generated mice with selective deletion of the ANP receptor, guanylyl cyclase-A (GC-A), in vascular smooth muscle (SMC GC-A knockout (KO) mice) and reported that resting arterial blood pressure was completely normal in spite of clear abolition of the direct vasodilating effects of ANP (Holtwick, R., Gotthardt, M., Skryabin, B., Steinmetz, M., Potthast, R., Zetsche, B., Hammer, R. E., Herz, J., and Kuhn M. (2002) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 99, 7142–7147). The purpose of this study was to clarify mechanisms compensating for the missing vasodilator responses to ANP. In particular, we analyzed the effect of the endothelial, cGMP-mediated vasodilators C-type natriuretic peptide and nitric oxide (NO). In isolated arteries from SMC GC-A KO mice, the vasorelaxing sensitivity to sodium nitroprusside and the endothelium-dependent vasodilator, acetylcholine, was significantly greater than in control mice. There was no difference in responses to C-type natriuretic peptide or to the activator of cGMP-dependent protein kinase I, 8-para-chlorophenylthio-cGMP. The aortic expression of soluble GC (sGC), but not of endothelial NO synthase or cGMP-dependent protein kinase I, was significantly increased in SMC GC-A KO mice. Chronic oral treatment with the NO synthase inhibitor Nw-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester increased arterial blood pressure, the effect being significantly enhanced in SMC GC-A KO mice. We conclude that SMC GC-A KO mice exhibit a higher vasodilating sensitivity to NO. This can be attributed to an enhanced expression of sGC, whereas the expression and/or activity levels of downstream cGMP-effector pathways are not involved. Increased vasodilating responsiveness to endothelial NO contributes to compensate for the missing vasodilating effect of ANP in SMC GC-A KO mice.
Comparative Study of Baccalaureate Nursing Student Self-Efficacy Before and After Simulation

Evaluation of learning and the development of prelicensure nursing education include an exploration of new teaching models and techniques for student learning assessment. The utilization of high-fidelity human simulation in nursing provides nursing faculty and students the opportunity to expand the boundaries of conventional learning from an instructional paradigm to a blending of modalities that enrich the student experience and provide an avenue for self-determined learning. The inception of computer-generated high-fidelity human simulation technology into the undergraduate nursing curriculum generated this correlation study, which examined two separate groups of senior baccalaureate nursing students’ reported self-efficacy for providing family-centered care. This research examined each group of students’ reported self-efficacy on the first day of the pediatric semester before and after simulation and on the last day of the pediatric semester before and after simulation. In addition, the relationship between two senior baccalaureate nursing student groups’ reported self-efficacy at four data points was examined. The concluding data identified that senior baccalaureate nursing students have unrealistic self-assessments of their clinical knowledge and nursing performance capabilities before simulation scenario participation. The perceived ability of undergraduate students to self-identify their previously acquired knowledge and transferable clinical reasoning to family-centered situations is inaccurate. Human simulators are an effective teaching and learning modality in measuring factors that affect student outcomes.
Crystal Structure of the Free Radical Intermediate of Pyruvate:Ferredoxin Oxidoreductase

In anaerobic organisms, the decarboxylation of pyruvate, a crucial component of intermediary metabolism, is catalyzed by the metalloenzyme pyruvate: ferredoxin oxidoreductase (PFOR) resulting in the generation of low potential electrons and the subsequent acetylation of coenzyme A (CoA). PFOR is the only enzyme for which a stable acetyl thiamine diphosphate (ThDP)–based free radical reaction intermediate has been identified. The 1.87 Å–resolution structure of the radical form of PFOR from Desulfovibrio africanus shows that, despite currently accepted ideas, the thiazole ring of the ThDP cofactor is markedly bent, indicating a drastic reduction of its aromaticity. In addition, the bond connecting the acetyl group to ThDP is unusually long, probably of the one-electron type already described for several cation radicals but not yet found in a biological system. Taken together, our data, along with evidence from the literature, suggest that acetyl-CoA synthesis by PFOR proceeds via a condensation mechanism involving acetyl (PFOR-based) and thiyl (CoA-based) radicals.
Impact of Mountains on Tropical Circulation in Two Earth System Models

AbstractTwo state-of-the-art Earth system models (ESMs) were used in an idealized experiment to explore the role of mountains in shaping Earth’s climate system. Similar to previous studies, removing mountains from both ESMs results in the winds becoming more zonal and weaker Indian and Asian monsoon circulations. However, there are also broad changes to the Walker circulation and El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Without orography, convection moves across the entire equatorial Indo-Pacific basin on interannual time scales. ENSO has a stronger amplitude, lower frequency, and increased regularity. A wider equatorial wind zone and changes to equatorial wind stress curl result in a colder cold tongue and a steeper equatorial thermocline across the Pacific basin during La Nina years. Anomalies associated with ENSO warm events are larger without mountains and have greater impact on the mean tropical climate than when mountains are present. Without mountains, the centennial-mean Pacific Walker circulation wea.
The Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Theory of Mind and Metacognition in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder experience difficulties with social skills, which can be attributed to deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM, the ability to infer others thoughts) and metacognitive abilities (thinking about your own thinking). Neuroimaging studies have revealed that the medial prefrontal cortex is part of the ToM and metacognitive networks, and is underactive in individuals with Autism. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) would temporarily improve ToM and metacognitive performance. In a double-blind, randomised design, 15 adults with Autism attended two research sessions, 1 week apart, where they received active (20 minutes of 1mA anodal tDCS to the medial prefrontal cortex) or sham tDCS before completing tasks that assessed their ToM and metacognitive ability. Paired-samples t-tests revealed that active tDCS did not improve ToM or metacognitive ability. However, further analysis revealed interactions between tDCS type and tDCS order, for some of the tasks. We cannot conclude whether anodal tDCS improves or worsens performance on ToM tasks but it seems likely that under some circumstances active tDCS can improve metacognitive ability. Future research is needed to further explore the impact of tDCS on the medial prefrontal cortex in order to aid the development of new therapies for individuals with
The Role of Domain Expertise in Smart, User-Sensitive, Health Information Portals

The provision of consumer health information portals acting as gateways to online resources is one strategy for enabling patients to be better informed and engaged in healthcare decision making and support. These portals need to be both smart and user sensitive, able to identify and select resources of relevance to a user community, describe them in ways that facilitate user assessments of quality and relevance, and provide efficient and effective search functionality that can be tailored to individual information needs. The domain expertise required to select and describe resources in this manner is a key to the efficacy of such portals, with their viability dependent on the sustainability and scalability of their resource identification, selection and description processes. This paper reports on a study of the domain expertise involved with the provision of an information portal for a breast cancer community undertaken as part of the Smart Information Portal Project.
Clinical impact of whole-body FDG-PET for evaluation of response and therapeutic decision-making of primary lymphoma of bone.

Primary lymphoma of bone (PLB) is one of the rarest primary bone malignancies [1, 2]. Prognosis depends on the response to systemic chemotherapy, and, according to the response to primary treatment, subsequent treatment could be different; therefore, proper evaluation for treatment effectiveness is essential. However, evaluation of treatment effectiveness is more difficult than for other lymphomas owing to the characteristics of bone lesions [3, 4]. Evaluation for the viability of a residual tumor after chemotherapy is very important, but difficult, since viable tumors cannot easily be differentiated from bone fibrosis and remodeling lesions. Therefore, it is not easy to accurately determine complete response (CR). A survey of 1422 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) patients who were diagnosed at the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences between 1989 and 2004 identified 28 patients with PLB (2%). In 18 of these cases, fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) was used for evaluation of diagnosis and response, and for recurrence cases. All 18 cases were reviewed and confirmed with bone biopsy by an experienced hematopathologist. The clinical data and imaging findings of these 18 patients were monitored during treatment and follow-up period for changes in the imaging findings. All study findings were retrospectively interpreted jointly and in consensus by one radiologist and two nuclear physicians. All computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the involved lesions were timed to coincide with the PET images. We analyzed the clinical relevance of the separate imaging findings. The effects in staging, response and recurrence evaluation were determined according to the final clinical decisions. The study population is summarized in Table 1. The number of patients in whom PET findings would contribute to treatment decisions in addition to clinical findings was 15 out of 18 patients. PET contributed in the staging of 12 PBLs with polyostotic lesions. Five patients in whom there were difficulties in evaluating the response turned out to have CR during the follow-up period. The lesion finding resolved on a subsequent PET scan, with rapid decline of FDG uptake, indicating successful chemotherapy, although MRI findings were little changed. Four patients who had newly developed lesion on PET during the follow-up period showing CR turned out to have recurred, with rapid increase of FDG uptake. Those cases who were detected to have recurred resumed salvage high-dose chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation. This study showed the usefulness of PET scan in PBL. Compared with CT and MRI findings before and after treatment as well as at relapse, PET scanning was found to be superior for the evaluation of response. Consequently, both overand under-treatment can be avoided. In cases of CR, PET scanning after treatment showed no hypermetabolic lesion, with a rapid
273-GHz 2X Subharmonic Up-Conversion Mixer for System-on-Package Applications

In this paper, a 273-GHz 2X subharmonic passive mixer is proposed for system-on-package applications. The mixer is designed and implemented using thin-film microstrip line on a three-layer package platform. The antiparallel-diode-pair-based mixer up-converts the 135-GHz IF input signal to 273 GHz with a 69-GHz local oscillator. The isolation between the IF and RF ports is achieved by a duplexer. The duplexer is composed of two dual-mode bandpass filters with uniform/nonuniform square ring resonators. The mixer is fabricated and measured, and the measured single-sideband conversion loss is 17.7 dB with an output RF of 270 GHz.
Effects of Canrenone on Aorta and Right Ventricle of the Rat

Canrenone is a major active metabolite of spironolactone and, in addition to the antimineralocorticoid effect, shares with the parent compound the action as a partial agonist with respect to ouabain on the Na+-K+ ATPase. We have investigated whether canrenone, through its action on Na+-K+ ATPase, reverses rat aorta contractions induced by ouabain and has vasorelaxant properties unrelated to its interaction with ouabain. Contractile responses of endothelium-deprived aorta to 1 m M ouabain, 0.1 &mgr;M phenylephrine, 10 &mgr;M serotonin, and 60 m M K+ were relaxed by canrenone (50–250 &mgr;M), with maximum inhibitions of 85.3%, 55.3%, 56.7%, and 64.2%, respectively. Canrenone shifted to the right the concentration-response curve for Ca2+ in depolarized aorta and did not affect the response to 10 m M caffeine. In rat right ventricular strips driven at 0.1 Hz, canrenone exerted negative inotropic effect. The relaxation of ouabain-induced contraction may be due, at least in part, to an interaction between canrenone and ouabain on the Na+-K+ ATPase. Inhibition of calcium entry through calcium channels either in aorta or ventricles is the most parsimonious hypothesis of mechanism underlying the effect of canrenone on contractile responses of rat aorta to agonists and high K+ and the negative inotropic effect on ventricular strips.
Optimal Perioperative Care in Major Head and Neck Cancer Surgery With Free Flap Reconstruction: A Consensus Review and Recommendations From the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Society

Importance Head and neck cancers often require complex, labor-intensive surgeries, especially when free flap reconstruction is required. Enhanced recovery is important in this patient population but evidence-based protocols on perioperative care for this population are lacking. Objective To provide a consensus-based protocol for optimal perioperative care of patients undergoing head and neck cancer surgery with free flap reconstruction. Evidence Review Following endorsement by the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Society to develop this protocol, a systematic review was conducted for each topic. The PubMed and Cochrane databases were initially searched to identify relevant publications on head and neck cancer surgery from 1965 through April 2015. Consistent key words for each topic included “head and neck surgery,” “pharyngectomy,” “laryngectomy,” “laryngopharyngectomy,” “neck dissection,” “parotid lymphadenectomy,” “thyroidectomy,” “oral cavity resection,” “glossectomy,” and “head and neck. ” The final selection of literature included meta-analyses and systematic reviews as well as randomized controlled trials where available. In the absence of high-level data, case series and nonrandomized studies in head and neck cancer surgery patients or randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews in non–head and neck cancer surgery patients, were considered. An international panel of experts in major head and neck cancer surgery and enhanced recovery after surgery reviewed and assessed the literature for quality and developed recommendations for each topic based on the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system. All recommendations were graded following a consensus discussion among the expert panel. Findings The literature search, including a hand search of reference lists, identified 215 relevant publications that were considered to be the best evidence for the topic areas. A total of 17 topic areas were identified for inclusion in the protocol for the perioperative care of patients undergoing major head and neck cancer surgery with free flap reconstruction. Best practice includes several elements of perioperative care. Among these elements are the provision of preoperative carbohydrate treatment, pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis, perioperative antibiotics in clean-contaminated procedures, corticosteroid and antiemetic medications, short acting anxiolytics, goal-directed fluid management, opioid-sparing multimodal analgesia, frequent flap monitoring, early mobilization, and the avoidance of preoperative fasting. Conclusions and Relevance The evidence base for specific perioperative care elements in head and neck cancer surgery is variable and in many cases information from different surgerical procedures form the basis for these recommendations. Clinical evaluation of these recommendations is a logical next step and further research in this patient population is warranted.
Cross-reactivity and sequence homology between the 65-kilodalton mycobacterial heat shock protein and human lactoferrin, transferrin, and DR beta subsets of major histocompatibility complex class II molecules

Immunogold ultracytochemistry and Western immunoblotting showed that polyclonal antibodies against human lactoferrin bind to the highly immunogenic 65-kilodalton (kDa) heat shock protein of mycobacteria. The fast-growing mycobacterial species Mycobacterium smegmatis showed a higher density of these receptors for antilactoferrin sera than the slow-growing M. avium. Polyclonal antibodies against mycobacteria (M. bovis BCG) recognized human lactoferrin. Comparison of the amino acid sequence of lactoferrin with that of the 65-kDa protein of M. tuberculosis revealed seven instances of four amino acid sequence homology between the microbial and the human iron-binding protein. Four of these tetrapeptide sequences were also shared with the human transferrin molecule. The shared amino acid sequence KDLL was also present in the DR1, DR3, and DR4 subsets of the DR beta subregion of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules. The molecular mimicry between the 65-kDa mycobacterial protein and the human proteins (lactoferrin, transferrin, and MHC class II molecules) offers a molecular setting for mycobacteria-associated, T-cell-dependent autoimmune disease, namely, for rheumatoid arthritis.