Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sensation Seeking and Hormones in Men and Women: Exploring the Link

Risky behaviors (e.g., binge drinking, drunk driving, risky sex) are increasing among U.S. college students, and the personality trait of sensation seeking provides a potential link between such norm-breaking behaviors and biological processes. We examined the relationship between sensation-seeking behaviors and two hormones, testosterone and cortisol, in male and female college students. Hormone levels were hypothesized to contribute to the variability of individual scores on Zuckerman's Sensation-Seeking Scale. As expected, males scored higher on the scale than females, but the data failed to support the generally accepted positive relationship between testosterone and sensation seeking for either sex. Instead, our results support the existence of a significant inverse relationship between cortisol and sensation seeking in men, but not in women, even after adjustment for testosterone levels and age. Our study contributes to the current literature by (a) supporting the association between risky behavior and a hormone other than testosterone, (b) being the first to examine the association between cortisol and sensation seeking in women, and (c) identifying a possible effect of gender on the association between hormones and sensation-seeking behaviors. Gendered social norms and expectations are likely to be partly responsible for this effect. Theory-guided interdisciplinary research is needed to improve understanding of the biological influences on human behavior, and special attention must be paid to social context, women's perceptions of their expected behavior, and gendered socialization regarding norm-breaking or risky behaviors, which may obscure biological links to female behavior.
Additional Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) Radiocarbon Assays on Haliotis Fishhooks From CA-ORA-378

AMS radiocarbon assays confirm that shell fishhook and line fishing was a feature of early Late Holocene and Intermediate Cultures period subsistence technology in coastal Orange County. Other data support a similar development of coastal line fishing in southern and central California beginning no earlier than the third millenium B.P. However, limited data from San Clemente Island suggest shell fishhooks were employed prior to that time. We suggest that AMS dating be applied to San Clemente Island fishhooks to help clarify the relationship of the island data with established fishhook sequences for Orange County and other parts of California.
Experimental Investigations On Falling-Film Absorbers With Horizontal Tubes - A Review

It is necessary to improve the energy efficiency of all technical processes due to the uncertainties associated with climate change. One possibility to achieve higher energy efficiency is to utilize waste heat which occurs in many different applications. This heat may be used to replace compression chillers by heat driven absorption chillers which leads to a lower consumption of primary energy. Thus, research on heat driven absorption chillers is important to gain higher energy efficiency. In most cases the absorber is the limiting component of absorption chillers which is often designed as a falling-film absorber with horizontal tubes. This paper gives a brief overview on the latest experimental results of absorption on horizontal tubes published in the literature. All important design parameters and their influence on the efficiency of absorbers are considered. This includes the different working fluids and their additives as well as the various geometrical parameters. Thereby, a special focus is put on the different surface structures of the tubes that are used in absorbers. Also recent trends in research as ionic fluids and nanoparticles are examined. As an important result it can be concluded that some design parameters and their effects on the efficiency of absorbers are still not completely understood. Due to this, possibilities for further investigations are given.
Cellular Mechanisms of Cortisol-Induced Changes in Mauthner-Cell Excitability in the Startle Circuit of Goldfish

Predator pressure and olfactory cues (alarm substance) have been shown to modulate Mauthner cell (M-cell) initiated startle escape responses (C-starts) in teleost fish. The regulation of such adaptive responses to potential threats is thought to involve the release of steroid hormones such as cortisol. However, the mechanism by which cortisol may regulate M-cell excitability is not known. Here, we used intrasomatic, in vivo recordings to elucidate the acute effects of cortisol on M-cell membrane properties and sound evoked post-synaptic potentials (PSPs). Cortisol tonically decreased threshold current in the M-cell within 10 min before trending towards baseline excitability over an hour later, which may indicate the involvement of non-genomic mechanisms. Consistently, current ramp injection experiments showed that cortisol increased M-cell input resistance in the depolarizing membrane, i.e., by a voltage-dependent postsynaptic mechanism. Cortisol also increases the magnitude of sound-evoked M-cell PSPs by reducing the efficacy of local feedforward inhibition (FFI). Interestingly, another pre-synaptic inhibitory network mediating prepulse inhibition (PPI) remained unaffected. Together, our results suggest that cortisol rapidly increases M-cell excitability via a post-synaptic effector mechanism, likely a chloride conductance, which, in combination with its dampening effect on FFI, will modulate information processing to reach threshold. Given the central role of the M-cell in initiating startle, these results are consistent with a role of cortisol in mediating the expression of a vital behavior.
Epithelial to mesenchymal transition: a new twist to biotrauma?.

charge from intensive care unit: Report from a stakeholders’ conference. Crit Care Med 2012; 40:502–509 3. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence: Rehabilitation after critical illness: NICE clinical guideline 83. London. 2009. Available at: http://www.nice. org.uk/CG83. Accessed October 1, 2011 4. Griffiths RD, Hall JB: Intensive care unitacquired weakness. Crit Care Med 2010; 38: 779–787 5. Griffiths RD, Jones C: Seven lessons from 20 years of follow-up of intensive care unit survivors. Curr Opin Crit Care 2007; 13: 508 –513 6. Girard TD, Jackson JC, Pandharipande PP, et al: Delirium as a predictor of long-term cognitive impairment in survivors of critical illness. Crit Care Med 2010; 38:1513–1520 7. Hopkins RO, Weaver LK, Pope D, et al: Neuropsychological sequelae and impaired health status in survivors of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1999; 160:50–56 8. Jones C, Bäckman C, Capuzzo M, et al: Intensive care diaries reduce new onset PTSD following critical illness: A randomised, controlled trial. Crit Care 2010; 14:R168
An updated table of minimum-distance bounds for binary linear codes

In 1973 Helgert and Sfinaff published a table of upper and lower bounds on the maximum minimum-distance for binary linear error-correcting codes up to length 127 . This article presents an updated table incorporating numerous improvements that have appeared since then. To simplify the updating task the author has developed a computer program that systematically investigates the consequences of each improvement by applying several well-known general code-construction techniques. This program also made it possible to check the original table. Furthermore, it offers a quick and reliable update service for future improvements.
Early Endotracheal Tube Insertion with the GlideScope: A Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND:The GlideScope videolaryngoscope is an intubating device routinely used by anesthesiologists for tracheal intubation. It is occasionally difficult to advance the endotracheal tube (ETT) into the trachea, despite a good view of the glottis. One technique that may be used when difficulty is encountered is to remove the GlideScope from the pharynx and introduce the ETT into the pharynx first, leaving it in place posteriorly while the GlideScope is inserted. Frequently, when the GlideScope is subsequently inserted, the ETT tip will then be in good view, resting near the glottis, and will easily advance into the trachea. In this randomized, single-blinded trial, we assessed whether orotracheal intubation with the GlideScope is faster and/or easier with the ETT-first technique as a primary technique in elective patients. METHODS:One hundred sixty patients with normal-appearing airways who required elective orotracheal intubation were allocated randomly to intubation with insertion of the ETT or GlideScope into the oropharynx first. The primary outcome was time to intubation. The secondary outcomes were subjective ease of intubation (100-mm visual analog scale, 0 = easy; 100 = difficult), number of attempts/failures, incidence of oropharyngeal bleeding, and postoperative sore throat and/or vocal changes. RESULTS:Baseline demographics were similar between the 2 groups. Mean time to intubation was 48.2 ± 17.1 seconds with the ETT-first technique and 51.5 ± 21.8 seconds with the GlideScope-first technique (P = 0.30). The mean difference was 3.3 seconds in favor of the ETT-first technique (95% confidence interval, −2.9 to 9.6). The median ease of intubation using the visual analog scale was 13.3 mm (interquartile range, 5.3 to 21) with the ETT-first technique and 13.5 mm (interquartile range, 5.6 to 29.5) with the GlideScope-first technique (P = 0.30). The difference between the medians was −2.0 mm in favor of the ETT-first group (95% confidence interval, −1.5 to 6.0). There was no difference between groups for number of intubation attempts, incidence of oropharyngeal bleeding, laryngoscopic grade, sore throat, or vocal changes. CONCLUSIONS:In this study of GlideScope laryngoscopy, no statistically significant difference was observed in the time to intubate or the subjective ease of intubation whether the ETT or GlideScope was inserted into the oropharynx first.
Human β-Defensin 2 and 3 and Their Mouse Orthologs Induce Chemotaxis through Interaction with CCR2

β-defensins play a dual role during immune response. Their direct antimicrobial properties contribute to the local innate immune response by combating microbial invasions. Furthermore, previous studies revealed the capacity of certain β-defensin family members to chemoattract immature dendritic cells and CD45RO+ CD4+ T cells through chemokine receptor CCR6. However, because β-defensins also chemoattract macrophages and monocytes, which do not express CCR6, efforts have been made to identify other receptors for these polypeptides. In this study, we demonstrate the capacity of human β-defensin (hBD)2 and 3 and their mouse orthologs, β-defensin 4 and 14, to interact with CCR2, a chemokine receptor expressed on monocytes, macrophages, and neutrophils. These β-defensins, fused to the Fc region of human IgG1, showed binding to CCR2-transfected HEK293 cells, as revealed by flow cytometry. The β-defensin fusion proteins also induced CCR2-specific chemotaxis of transfected HEK293 cells, human peripheral blood monocytes, and mouse peritoneal exudate cells in a dose-dependent manner. Preincubation of human monocytes with CCL2/MCP-1, the chemokine ligand for CCR2, abolished migration induced by β-defensins. Conversely, preincubation with hBD2:Ig or hBD3:Ig inhibited MCP-1 induced migration. Peritoneal exudate cells from CCR2-deficient mice failed to migrate toward these fusion proteins. In conclusion, the β-defensins used in this study contribute to the innate and adaptive immune response in their role as chemoattractants. Our data indicate that hBD2 and hBD3, together with their mouse orthologs (β-defensin 4 and 14), are chemotactic for a broad spectrum of leukocytes in a CCR6- and CCR2-dependent manner.
Desensitization of Superfused Isolated Ovine Anterior Pituitary Cells to Human Corticotropin‐Releasing Factor

We have employed an in vitro system to study the time‐course of β‐endorphin (β‐EP) immunoreactivity release from anterior pituitary cells stimulated with corticotropin‐releasing factor (CRF) and whether exposure to CRF desensitizes the cells to subsequent stimulation. Ovine anterior pituitaries were enzymatically disrupted into single cells, mixed with Siegel P2 and superfused in mini‐columns with carbogen‐gassed medium at 37 °C. Superfusate fractions were collected at 5‐min intervals and β‐EP immunoreactivity in the eluate was measured by radioimmunoassay. Peaks of β‐EP release that rose significantly above baseline noise were detected using the PULSAR algorithm.
The Immunology of Cancer Cells

RP215 is a monoclonal antibody discovered in 1987 which was later found to react specifically with a carbohydrate-associated epitope detected mainly among immunoglobulin heavy chains from cultured cancer cells. With RP215 as the unique probe for cancerous immunoglobulins, the experimental evidences seem to suggest that the immunology of cancer cells plays dramatic roles in the growth/ proliferation and immune protection of cancer cells. RP215-specific cancerous immunoglobulins serve in part to capture or neutralize circulating antibodies or antigen hostile to cancer cells in human body. In the conventional immune system, B and T lymphocytes and their associated antigen receptors play key roles in the adaptive immune response against pathogens and/or cancer cells through established mechanisms. In contrast, cancer cells co-express both B and T lymphocyte-associated antigen receptors and immune protection is exercised by completely different mechanisms. For example, these cancer cell-expressed antigen receptors demonstrate a lack of class switching, or limited hyper mutation. Furthermore, toll-like receptors involved in the innate immune system in cancer cells are strongly affected by these cancer cell-expressed antigen receptors. Therefore, both normal and cancerous immune systems can co-exist and can be operated simultaneously within the human body. A potential therapeutic strategy may be developed by using RP215 as a drug candidate to target cancer cells based on these observations.
Melatonin modulates the expression of VEGF and HIF‐1α induced by CoCl2 in cultured cancer cells

Abstract: Melatonin is an important natural oncostatic agent. At present there are no data available as to its possible influence on tumor angiogenesis, which is a major biological mechanism responsible for tumor growth and dissemination. It is well known that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is crucial to a solid tumor’s higher vascularization and development. To investigate the possible influence of melatonin on angiogenesis, we studied the effect of melatonin on endogenous VEGF expression in three human cancer cell lines (PANC‐1, HeLa and A549 cells). In this study, we report that physiologic concentrations of melatonin have no obvious impact on the VEGF expression, whereas pharmacologic concentrations of melatonin suppress the VEGF mRNA and protein levels induced by hypoxia mimetic cobalt chloride (CoCl2). Melatonin also decreases hypoxia‐inducible factor (HIF)‐1α protein levels, suggesting a role for transcription factor HIF‐1 in the suppression of VEGF expression. The effect of pharmacologic concentrations of melatonin on VEGF and HIF‐1α under normoxia is uncertain, which indicates that the regulatory mechanisms of VEGF in the absence or presence of CoCl2 are different and other or additional transcription factors may be involved. Taken together, our data show that melatonin in high concentrations markedly reduces the expression of endogenous VEGF and HIF‐1α induced by CoCl2 in cultured cancer cells.
Setup and dosimetry for exposure of human skin in vivo to RF‐EMF at 900 MHz

The aim of this study was a dosimetrical analysis of an experimental setup used in the exposure of 10 female volunteers to GSM 900 radiation. The exposure was carried out by irradiating a small region of the right forearms of the volunteers for 1 h, after which biopsies were taken from the exposed skin for protein analysis. The source of irradiation was a half‐wave dipole fed with a computer controlled GSM phone. The specific absorption rate (SAR) induced in the skin biopsy was assessed by computer simulations. The numerical model of the arm consisted of a muscle tissue simulating cylinder covered with thin skin (1 mm) and fat (3 mm) layers. The simulation models were validated by measurements with a homogeneous cylindrical liquid phantom. The average SAR value in the biopsy was 1.3 W/kg and the estimated uncertainty ±20% (K = 2). The main source of error was found to be variations in the distance of the forearm from the dipole (10 ± 1 mm). Other significant sources of uncertainty are individual variations of the fat layer and arm thicknesses, and the uncertainty of radio frequency (RF) power measurement. Bioelectromagnetics 29:207–212, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Biological screening of some Turkish medicinal plant extracts for antimicrobial and toxicity activities

Screening of antibacterial activity and toxicity of 22 aqueous plant extracts from 17 Turkish plants was conducted. Antibacterial activity was performed with six bacteria including Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. Extracts of Tussilago farfara leaves, Helichyrsum plicatum flowers, Solanum dulcamara aerial parts and Urtica dioica leaves gave the best inhibitory activity against S. pyogenes, S. aureus and S. epidermidis. Of the 22 plant extracts, 20 extracts displayed toxicity (LC50 was <1000 mg L−1) in the brine shrimp bioassay. For radish seed bioassay, two different determinations (root length and seed germination) were performed with a comparison between two concentrations (50,000 mg L−1 and 10,000 mg L−1). At low concentration (10,000 mg L−1), S. dulcamara aerial parts and Primula vulgaris leaf extracts were observed to inhibit the root length more than the other plant extracts. Also, the most inhibitive plant extract for seed germination was obtained with S. dulcamara aerial parts.
Oil product transportation with combinatorial auctions

This paper discusses a new practical variant of the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) that incorporates a combinatorial auction (CA) problem, which originated from the regional transportation planning of oil products for a prominent Chinese petroleum company. During peak seasons, the petroleum company needs to outsource some transportation projects to third party logistics (3PL) providers because the demand for oil products and the corresponding transportation requirements at this time are considerably higher. To minimize the total cost of oil product transportation from the depots to the oil stations, we integrate the CA and the VRPTW problems into a single problem, called the combinatorial auction and vehicle routing problem with time windows. The problem is formulated into a mixed-integer programming model and shown to be NP-hard. We devise a heuristic to separate all the stations into two types (whether to outsource to 3PL companies) according to distance. We then obtain an initial solution by separately solving the CA and VRPTW problems. To improve the initial solution, we design and test multiple heuristic operators to interactively solve the CA and VRPTW. Experiments show that good quality solutions are achieved for problem cases of practical scope.
Consistency-Driven Automatic Methodology to Set Interval Numerical Scales of 2-Tuple Linguistic Term Sets and Its Use in the Linguistic GDM With Preference Relation

The 2-tuple linguistic modeling is a popular tool for computing with words in decision making. In order to deal with the linguistic term sets that are not uniformly and symmetrically distributed, the numerical scale model has been developed to generalize the 2-tuple linguistic modeling. In the numerical scale model, the key task of the 2-tuple based models is the definition of a numerical scale function that establishes a one to one mapping between the linguistic information and numerical values. In this paper, we propose a consistency-driven automatic methodology to set interval numerical scales of 2-tuple linguistic term sets in the decision making problems with linguistic preference relations. This consistency-driven methodology is based on a natural premise regarding the consistency of preference relations. If linguistic preference relations provided by experts are of acceptable consistency, the corresponding transformed numerical preference relations by the established interval numerical scale are also consistent. Compared with the existing approach based on canonical characteristic values, the consistency-driven methodology provides a new way to set the interval numerical scale without the need of the semantics defined by interval type-2 fuzzy sets. Meanwhile, interval multiplicative preference relations are used in the pairwise comparisons method and the presented theory can be utilized in the pairwise comparisons method as it provides a novel approach to automatic construct interval multiplicative preference relations. Finally, we present the framework for the use of the consistency-driven automatic methodology in linguistic group decision making problems and two numerical examples are given to illustrate the feasibility and validity of this proposal.
Trabajadores por cuenta propia: ¿Quienes son? ¿De donde vienen? ¿Para donde van?

Usando datos del modulo de historia laboral de la Encuesta de Proteccion Social para los anos 2002, 2004 y 2006, se construyo un panel mensual para el periodo 2000-2006. Para modelar las variables que intervienen en la decision de los individuos de trabajar por cuenta propia consideramos un modelo general del mercado del trabajo, donde los individuos eligen entre 5 opciones, estas son: trabajo por cuenta propia, empleador, asalariado, desempleado e inactivo. Este modelo fue estimado usando un probit multinomial. Los resultados muestran que los trabajadores por cuenta propia tienden a ser hombres de baja escolaridad, con baja aversion al riesgo y que estudiaron en establecimiento publicos. Estos resultados, sumado al relativamente bajo salario de los trabajadores por cuenta propia muestran que el trabajo por cuenta propia tiende a ser de baja productividad . Para modelar las transiciones que existen entre ocupaciones calculamos matrices de markov para el mismo periodo, estas marices nos muestran que en promedio un 78% de los trabajadores por cuenta propia se mantiene en ese estado despues de un ano. Al modelar las transiciones desde y hacia el trabajo por cuenta propia encontramos que existen dos tipos predominantes de transiciones circulares, una es entre el trabajo por cuenta propia y el desempleo, que ocurre para individuos con baja educacion. El segundo tipo de transicion es entre los empleadores y los trabajadores a cuenta propia, que ocurre con mayor probabilidad en individuos con alta escolaridad y con menor aversion al riesgo.
Green Fluorescent Protein-Labeled Monitoring Tool To Quantify Conjugative Plasmid Transfer between Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Bacteria

ABSTRACT On the basis of pIP501, a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged monitoring tool was constructed for quantifying plasmid mobilization among Gram-positive bacteria and between Gram-positive Enterococcus faecalis and Gram-negative Escherichia coli. Furthermore, retromobilization of the GFP-tagged monitoring tool was shown from E. faecalis OG1X into the clinical isolate E. faecalis T9.