Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of fluoride in drinking water on children′s intelligence in high and low fluoride areas of Delhi

Introduction: Fluoride is one of the indispensable elements for the living being. However, the intake of F above the threshold level can affect the central nervous system even before causing dental or skeletal fluorosis. Aim: The aim was to assess the effect of fluoride in drinking water on the intelligence quotient (IQ) of 8-12 years old school going children residing in high and low Fluoride (F) areas of Delhi. Materials and Methods: A total of 200 school children were selected, 100 from low F area and 100 from high F area. The IQ of the children was assessed using Ravens Standardized Progressive Matrices Test. Information for each child′s sociodemographic data, mother′s diet during pregnancy, duration of residency in the village, source of drinking water, and duration of drinking water from the source was entered on a specially designed proforma from mothers of children. Height and weight were also recorded for each child to assess the nutritional status. Independent t-test and Chi-square test was used to compare mean IQ scores in high and low fluoridated areas. Pearson′s correlation and multivariate linear regression were used to appraise the issue of all the study variables on IQ. Results: Comparison of mean IQ of children in both high (76.20 ± 19.10) and low F (85.80 ± 18.85) areas showed a significant difference (P = 0.013). Multiple regression analysis between child IQ and all other independent variables revealed that mother′s diet during pregnancy (P = 0.001) along with F in drinking water (P = 0.017) were the independent variables with the greatest explanatory power for child IQ variance (r2 = 0.417) without interaction with other variables. Conclusion: Fluoride in the drinking water was significantly related with the IQ of children. Along with fluoride, mother′s diet during pregnancy was also found to be significantly related with IQ of children. Researches in the same field are further advocated with large sample size and over a large geographical area.
A thermal responsive affinity ligand for precipitation of sialylated proteins

We report here the development of a thermal responsive affinity ligand specific to sialic acid, sialic acid containing oligosaccharides, glycoproteins, and other sialylated glycoconjugates. The ligand is a fusion protein of 40 repeats of pentapeptide of an elastin like polymer (ELP) and the 21 kD sialic acid binding domain of a Vibrio cholera neuraminidase (VCNA). For cost-effective synthesis, the fusion protein was targeted to the periplasmic space of an E. coli lpp deletion mutant, resulting in its secretion to the growth medium. A pre-induction heat-shock step at 42 ˚C for 20 minutes was necessary to achieve high level expression of the ligand. Under optimized induction condition (18 ˚C, 0.1 mM IPTG and 48 hours of post-induction cultivation), the ligand was produced to about 100 mg/L. The ligand exhibited a transition temperature of 52 ˚C, which could be depressed to 37 ˚C with the addition of 0.5 M NaCl. Using fetuin as a model sialylated protein, the ligand was applied in an affinity precipitation process to illustrate its potential application in glycoprotein isolation. The ligand captured 100% fetuin from an aqueous solution when the molar ratio of ligand to fetuin was 10 to 1, which was lower than the expected for full titration of sialic acid on the glycoprotein by the lectin. Elution of fetuin from ligand was achieved with PBS buffer containing 2 mM sialic acid. To evaluate how protein and other contaminants influence the recovery of sialylated proteins, CHO medium was spiked into the fetuin solution. The predominant protein species in CHO medium was found to be albumin. Although its removal of over 94% was evident, purified fetuin contained some albumin due to its over-abundance. Additional experiments with albumin contaminant of varying concentrations showed that below 1 mg/L, albumin had no impact on the affinity precipitation, whereas above 10 mg/L, some albumin was co-purified with fetuin. However, even at 50 mg/ml, fetuin recovery yield remained high (about 90%) and about 95% of albumin was depleted with only one cycle of precipitation and elution. These results suggest that the ligand could be used in initial capture of sialylated proteins and to remove over-abundant albumin contaminant. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first thermal responsive sialic acid binding protein developed with gene fusion technology.
WASP-33: The first delta Scuti exoplanet host star

We report the discovery of photometric oscillations in the host star of the exoplanet WASP-33 b (HD 15082). The data were obtained in the R band in both transit and out-of-transit phases from the 0.3-m telescope and the Montcabrer Observatory and the 0.8-m telescope at the Montsec Astronomical Observatory. Proper fitting and subsequent removal of the transit signal reveals stellar photometric variations with a semi-amplitude of about 1 mmag. The detailed analysis of the periodogram yields a structure of significant signals around a frequency of 21 cyc per day, which is typical of delta Scuti-type variable stars. An accurate study of the power spectrum reveals a possible commensurability with the planet orbital motion with a factor of 26, but this remains to be confirmed with additional time-series data that will permit the identification of the significant frequencies. These findings make WASP-33 the first transiting exoplanet host star with delta Sct variability and a very interesting candidate to search for star-planet interactions.
Novel insight into the origin of the growth dynamics of sauropod dinosaurs

Sauropod dinosaurs include the largest terrestrial animals and are considered to have uninterrupted rapid rates of growth, which differs from their more basal relatives, which have a slower cyclical growth. Here we examine the bone microstructure of several sauropodomorph dinosaurs, including basal taxa, as well as the more derived sauropods. Although our results agree that the plesiomorphic condition for Sauropodomorpha is cyclical growth dynamics, we found that the hypothesized dichotomy between the growth patterns of basal and more derived sauropodomorphs is not supported. Here, we show that sauropod-like growth dynamics of uninterrupted rapid growth also occurred in some basal sauropodomorphs, and that some basal sauropods retained the plesiomorphic cyclical growth patterns. Among the sauropodomorpha it appears that the basal taxa exploited different growth strategies, but the more derived Eusauropoda successfully utilized rapid, uninterrupted growth strategies.
Simulation of pulse propagation in nonlinear optical fibers using GPUs

We present an implementation in graphical processing units of a numerical algorithm for the simulation of the nonlinear propagation of pulses in optical fibers. The implementation uses NVidia's cuFFT library to perform the large number of FFTs calculations required and parallelizes all vector sums and products. We show up to 50 × speedups as compared to a single-core implementation on a PC.
Polymer gel dosimeters with reduced toxicity: a preliminary investigation of the NMR and optical dose–response using different monomers

In this work, three new polymer gel dosimeter recipes were investigated that may be more suitable for widespread applications than polyacrylamide gel dosimeters, since the extremely toxic acrylamide has been replaced with the less harmful monomers N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM), diacetone acrylamide and N-vinylformamide. The new gel dosimeters studied contained gelatin (5 wt%), monomer (3 wt%), N,N′-methylene-bis-acrylamide crosslinker (3 wt%) and tetrakis (hydroxymethyl) phosphonium chloride antioxidant (10 mM). The NMR response (R 2) of the dosimeters was analysed for conditions of varying dose, dose rate, time post-irradiation, and temperature during irradiation and scanning. It was shown that the dose–response behaviour of the NIPAM/Bis gel dosimeter is comparable to that of normoxic polyacrylamide gel (PAGAT) in terms of high dose-sensitivity and low dependence on dose rate and irradiation temperature, within the ranges considered. The dose–response (R 2) of NIPAM/Bis appears to be linear over a greater dose range than the PAGAT gel dosimeter. The effects of time post-irradiation (temporal instability) and temperature during NMR scanning on the R 2 response were more significant for NIPAM/Bis dosimeters. Diacetone acrylamide and N-vinylformamide gel dosimeters possessed considerably lower dose-sensitivities. The optical dose–response, measured in terms of the attenuation coefficient for each polymer gel dosimeter, showed potential for the use of optical imaging techniques in future studies.
Molecular Dissection of Variation in Carbohydrate Metabolism Related to Water-Soluble Carbohydrate Accumulation in Stems of Wheat1[W]

Water-soluble carbohydrates (WSCs; composed of mainly fructans, sucrose [Suc], glucose [Glc], and fructose) deposited in wheat (Triticum aestivum) stems are important carbon sources for grain filling. Variation in stem WSC concentrations among wheat genotypes is one of the genetic factors influencing grain weight and yield under water-limited environments. Here, we describe the molecular dissection of carbohydrate metabolism in stems, at the WSC accumulation phase, of recombinant inbred Seri/Babax lines of wheat differing in stem WSC concentrations. Affymetrix GeneChip analysis of carbohydrate metabolic enzymes revealed that the mRNA levels of two fructan synthetic enzyme families (Suc:Suc 1-fructosyltransferase and Suc:fructan 6-fructosyltransferase) in the stem were positively correlated with stem WSC and fructan concentrations, whereas the mRNA levels of enzyme families involved in Suc hydrolysis (Suc synthase and soluble acid invertase) were inversely correlated with WSC concentrations. Differential regulation of the mRNA levels of these Suc hydrolytic enzymes in Seri/Babax lines resulted in genotypic differences in these enzyme activities. Down-regulation of Suc synthase and soluble acid invertase in high WSC lines was accompanied by significant decreases in the mRNA levels of enzyme families related to sugar catabolic pathways (fructokinase and mitochondrion pyruvate dehydrogenase complex) and enzyme families involved in diverting UDP-Glc to cell wall synthesis (UDP-Glc 6-dehydrogenase, UDP-glucuronate decarboxylase, and cellulose synthase), resulting in a reduction in cell wall polysaccharide contents (mainly hemicellulose) in the stem of high WSC lines. These data suggest that differential carbon partitioning in the wheat stem is one mechanism that contributes to genotypic variation in WSC accumulation.
The Impact of Opinion Leadership on Purchases through Social Networking Websites

Social media is used as a platform to not only make connections and share user-generated content but also to advertise products. We study the role of opinion leadership on the social media networking website of Facebook for product advertisements through news feeds and wall postings. We found that perceived benevolence of the opinion leader posting advertisements was significantly associated with increased intentions to purchase and also increased purchase behavior. Also, although the Theory of Planned Behavior variables of increased attitudes, social norms, and behavioral control were significantly associated with increasing purchase intentions, only purchase intentions was significantly associated with purchase behavior. Type of friend was significantly associated with purchase intention but no relationship occurred for purchase behavior. Management information systems professionals involved with the development of social networking websites should consider perceived benevolence as an area of importance for interesting consumers to explore and use newly developed aspects of social networking websites. Marketers should ensure that their advertisements on social networking websites are perceived by consumers as benevolent.
Between wild thoughts and schoolboy essays: Psychoanalytic reverie and the dreamy, digressive subjects of writing in Robert Walser’s Fritz Kocher’s essays

Abstract In this article, I engage the psychoanalytic writings of Donald Winnicott, Thomas Ogden and Wilfred Bion, who proffer maternal reverie – an intimate intersubjective communication between the mother and infant – as an early model for the psychosomatic drifts of form and thought experienced in the analytic encounter. As a way to frame these psychoanalytic dynamics, I turn to Robert Walser’s fictional collection of schoolboy writings Fritz Kocher’s essays, and read the titular character’s various detours and digressions as useful examples of how reverie experience – a space of indeterminate identification between the essay and writer – may be articulated in relation to the needs of writing practice. Since the dream is other to the time of school, Fritz’s contradictory meanings carry the trace of a disturbance that words can never clarify. I also adopt Bion’s conceptualization of the caesura of birth as a way of viewing the breach of meaning in writing as only one possible entrance of many into the infinite figures of signification. Looking at how Fritz’s writing encourages a productive decentering of that which is normally expected of writing students, I end this paper by celebrating the importance of the arbitrary nature of digression.
BAL cytokine profile in different interstitial lung diseases: a focus on systemic sclerosis.

BACKGROUND AND AIM Fibrosing alveolitis develops in up to 80% of systemic sclerosis patients (SSc) but progression to end stage fibrosis occurs in about 15% of cases. Mechanisms leading to the process remain mostly unknown. We compared cytokine profiles of broncho-alveolar lavage fluids (BAL-f) from patients with SSc associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) (n. 34), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) (n. 13), stage II sarcoidosis (n. 14) and 9 controls. METHODS Interleukin (IL) 8, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), gamma-interferon (IFN-gamma), IL12, IL18 and IL10 and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) were assessed by ELISA in concentrated BAL-f. RESULTS Levels of IL8 and MCP-1 were significantly elevated in SSc-ILD and in IPF as compared with controls (Mann Whitney test p < 0.05), while MCP-1 values were significantly lower in SSc-ILD than in IPF. A significant correlation between neutrophils and IL8 levels (p = 0.047), as well as between eosinophils and MCP-1 levels (p = 0.004) was also observed. IFN-gamma levels were slightly higher than normal only in sarcoidosis (p = 0.06), whereas IL12 levels increased both in sarcoidosis and SSc-ILD (p < 0.05). No differences were found in IL18 and TGF-beta levels. Finally, IL10 levels were higher in SSc-ILD and sarcoidosis than in controls and IPF (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION BAL-f cytokine profile differentiates ILD associated with SSc from IPF. The lower expression of MCP-1 and the higher expression of the anti-fibrotic IL12 and the anti-inflammatory IL10, observed both in sarcoidosis and in SSc-ILD, could account for the better prognosis of these ILDs. Further longitudinal studies are required to confirm whether a different cytokine phenotype may be considered predictive of clinical outcome in SSc-ILD.
Will There Be Blood? Incentives and Substitution Effects in Pro-Social Behavior

We examine how economic incentives affect pro-social behavior through the analysis of a unique dataset with information on more than 14,000 American Red Cross blood drives. Our findings are consistent with blood donors responding to incentives in a "standard" way; offering donors economic incentives significantly increases turnout and blood units collected, and more so the greater the incentive's monetary value. In addition, there is no disproportionate increase in donors who come to a drive but are ineligible to donate when incentives are offered. Further evidence from a small-scale field experiment corroborates these findings and confirms that donors are motivated by the economic value of the items offered. We also find that a substantial fraction of the increase in donations due to incentives may be explained by donors substituting away from neighboring drives toward drives where rewards are offered, and the likelihood of this substitution is higher the higher the monetary value of the incentive offered and if neighboring drives do not offer incentives. Thus, extrinsic incentives motivate pro-social behavior, but unless substitution effects are also considered, the effect of incentives may be overestimated.
Serum liver‐type fatty acid‐binding protein predicts recovery of graft function after kidney transplantation from donors after cardiac death

Kidneys procured by donation after cardiac death (DCD) may increase the donor pool but are associated with high incidence of delayed graft function (DGF). Urinary liver‐type fatty acid‐binding protein (L‐FABP) level is an early biomarker of renal injury after kidney transplantation (KTx); however, its utility is limited in DGF cases owing to urine sample unavailability. We examined whether serum L‐FABP level predicts functional recovery of transplanted DCD kidneys. Consecutive patients undergoing KTx from living related donors (LD), brain‐dead donors (BD), or DCD were retrospectively enrolled. Serum L‐FABP levels were measured from samples collected before and after KTx. Serum L‐FABP decreased rapidly in patients with immediate function, slowly in DGF patients, and somewhat increased in DGF patients requiring hemodialysis (HD) for >1 wk. Receiver‐operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated that DGF was predicted with 84% sensitivity (SE) and 86% specificity (SP) at cutoff of 9.0 ng/mL on post‐operative day (POD) 1 and 68% SE and 90% SP at 6.0 on POD 2. DGF >7 d was predicted with 83% SE and 78% SP at 11.0 on POD 1 and 67% SE and 78% SP at 6.5 on POD 2. Serum L‐FABP levels may predict graft recovery and need for HD after DCD KTx.
2D-Driven 3D Object Detection in RGB-D Images

In this paper, we present a technique that places 3D bounding boxes around objects in an RGB-D scene. Our approach makes best use of the 2D information to quickly reduce the search space in 3D, benefiting from state-of-the-art 2D object detection techniques. We then use the 3D information to orient, place, and score bounding boxes around objects. We independently estimate the orientation for every object, using previous techniques that utilize normal information. Object locations and sizes in 3D are learned using a multilayer perceptron (MLP). In the final step, we refine our detections based on object class relations within a scene. When compared to state-of-the-art detection methods that operate almost entirely in the sparse 3D domain, extensive experiments on the well-known SUN RGB-D dataset [29] show that our proposed method is much faster (4.1s per image) in detecting 3D objects in RGB-D images and performs better (3 mAP higher) than the state-of-the-art method that is 4.7 times slower and comparably to the method that is two orders of magnitude slower. This work hints at the idea that 2D-driven object detection in 3D should be further explored, especially in cases where the 3D input is sparse.
Microbial Diversity of Aquatic Ecosystem and its Industrial Potential

Studies suggested that microbes account for most of the diversity of life on our planet, due to their presence in almost all ecosystems. The microbial world encompasses most of the phylogenetic diversity and from varied climatic extremities. Recently, several researches are now focused on isolate and study of novel microbes and extracting the valuable chemicals and products out of it. Although, it was estimate that less than one percent of all microbial species have been identified so far, and most of the researchers believe that more deeper study of microbes will reveal novel biochemical’s and byproducts useful for humans, such as enzymes, proteins, drugs, biofuels, etc. Thus, nowthere is an urgent need to have more critical study of all the possible microbial adaptation present and to study their life cycle in varied environmental niches, which will gave us some clear picture to understand global microbial diversity and their evolution.Thus, in our present review we have tried to provide quick pragmatic evidence of aquatic microbial diversity and focus on some of their industrial important enzymes.
Fabricating Authenticity: Modeling a Whale at the American Museum of Natural History, 1906–1974

Historians of science have in recent years become increasingly attentive to the ways in which issues of process, matter, meaning, and value combine in the fabrication of scientific objects. This essay examines the techniques that went into the construction—and authentication—of one such scientific object: a model of a blue, or “sulfur‐bottom,” whale manufactured at the American Museum of Natural History in 1907. In producing their model, exhibitors at the American Museum employed a patchwork of overlapping discursive, procedural, and material techniques to argue that their fabrication was as authentic—as truthful, accurate, authoritative, and morally and aesthetically worthy of display—as an exhibit containing a real, preserved cetacean. Through an examination of the archival and published traces left by these exhibitors as they built their whale, I argue that the scientific meanings of authenticity at the American Museum were neither static nor timeless, but rather were subject to constant negotiation, examination, re‐evaluation, and upkeep.
Chronic bronchitis: a 10-year follow-up

A 10-year follow-up of 327 civil servants with bronchitis (301 men and 26 women) is presented. A further 14 were lost sight of during the period, so that the follow-up was 96% complete. More than one half (54%) of the men died during the 10-year period, some 57% of the deaths being attributed to respiratory causes and a further 8% to carcinoma of the bronchus. Mortality from these diseases was higher than among the general population, but other causes of death showed the normal pattern. The degree of dyspnoea noted at the first interview gave a useful estimate of prognosis, the mild, moderate, and severe groups showing progressively higher death rates. Neither the length of history nor the age at onset of symptoms could be related to mortality. The proportion of smokers among the patients was greater than expected in the general population, and although this may have been a factor contributing to the excess mortality of the group as a whole, it was not possible to determine any effect of smoking within this study.
Management of Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Comorbid Insomnia: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation

The purpose of this study was to examine the process of care in an interdisciplinary sleep clinic for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and comorbid insomnia. A mixed-methods approach was used to examine clinical and patient-centered measures for 34 patients who received positive-airway pressure for OSA or cognitive-behavior therapy for insomnia. The results revealed baseline-to-follow-up improvements on several self-reported sleep parameters and measures of daytime functioning. Qualitative analyses from patient interviews revealed three themes: conceptual distinctions about each sleep disorder, importance of treating both sleep disorders, and preferences with regard to the sequence of treatment. These findings indicate that patients with OSA and comorbid insomnia encounter unique challenges. A dimensional approach to assessment and treatment is proposed for future research.