Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Purification and Characterization of the Pigments from Rhodotorula glutinis DFR-PDY Isolated from Natural Source

Carotenoids from some of the coloured yeasts like Rhodotorula, Phaffia rhodozyma have attracted commercial interest as a natural pigment for foods. Red yeast isolated from the contaminated PDA plate yeast has been found to produce carotenoids. This red was characterized and designated as Rhodotorula glutinis DFR-PDY. The isolated crude pigment from the red yeast Rhodotorula glutinis DFR-PDY was separated by column chromatography and purified by thin layer chromatography (TLC) yielding three major fractions, viz., a yellow, an orange and a red fraction). The absorption spectra of these three fractions were giving the at max 446 nm, 479 nm and 515 nm respectively. These fractions were further purified to homogeneity through high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) before subjecting to FT-IR and NMR spectral analysis for their structural elucidation. The spectral data of these fractions revealed that the three major fractions are -carotene, torulene and torularhodin respectively. The red yeast pigment is pretty stable when stored in vegetable oils and it can be of use in oil based food products as foods coloured with these pigments are more appealing.
Local structure and dynamics of proton and hydride-ion conducting perovskite type oxides

Proton and hydride-ion conducting oxides show potential for application in several technological devices, such as solid oxide fuel cells and batteries. However, fundamental properties pertaining to the local structure and conduction mechanisms in these materials are unclear. Such fundamental knowledge is crucial for the development of novel materials and, ultimately, for their application in technological devices. This thesis reports on investigations of local structure and dynamics in two families of hydrogen containing perovskite structured oxides, namely proton-conducting BaZr xM 1- x O3H x ( M = In, Sc and Y, x ≤ 0.5) and hydride-ion conducting BaTiO3- x H x ( x ≤ 0.15). For the proton conducting BaZr x M1- x O3H x materials, the investigations focused on the nature of the proton sites in polycrystalline powder samples and were performed using inelastic neutron scattering and infrared and Raman spectroscopy combined with computer simulations. The results reveal the presence of a distribution of different types of proton sites, which were virtually the same for all chemical compositions except for a high level ( x ≥ 0.5) of In-doping. It is argued that the high In-doping results in the presence of additional proton sites located in distorted structural arrangements and which resemble those found in the hydrated form of the brownmillerite structured Ba2In2O5 system. It is also shown that the local environment for a specific proton changes over time due to the lattice vibrational dynamics. Additionally, thin-film samples were investigated by means of X-ray and neutron reflectivity and nuclear reaction analysis, with the aim to obtain details about the incorporation and distribution of protons in the samples. A key result is the observation of a thin (3-4 nm) proton-rich layer near to the surface of the films. This layer features proton sites characterized by relatively week hydrogen-bond interactions and a reduced proton mobility compared to the bulk of the film. The studies on hydride-ion conducting BaTiO3- x H x materials focused on revealing the nature of the local environments of the hydride ions and were performed using inelastic neutron scattering techniques and computer simulations. It is found that the presence of oxygen vacancies in the proximity of the hydride ions significantly influences their local environments and the vibrational properties.
A Canonical Correlation Analysis of Intelligence and Executive Functioning

Executive functioning is one of the most researched and debated topics in neuropsychology. Although neuropsychologists routinely consider executive functioning and intelligence in their assessment process, more information is needed regarding the relationship between these constructs. This study reports the results of a canonical correlation study between the most widely used measure of adult intelligence, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 3rd edition (WAIS-III; Wechsler, 1997), and the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS; Delis, Kaplan, & Kramer, 2001). The results suggest that, despite considerable shared variability, the measures of executive functioning maintain unique variance that is not encapsulated in the construct of global intelligence.
Understanding the Impact of Electronic Medical Record Use on Practice-Based Population Health Management: A Mixed-Method Study

Background Practice-based population health (PBPH) management is the proactive management of patients by their primary care clinical team. The ability of clinics to engage in PBPH and the means by which they incorporate it in a clinical setting remain unknown. Objective We conducted the Canadian Population Health Management Challenge to determine the capacity and preparedness of primary care settings to engage in PBPH using their existing medical record systems and to understand the complexities that may exist in PBPH implementation. Methods We recruited a sample of electronic medical record (EMR) -enabled and paper-based clinics from across Canada to participate in the challenge. The challenge required clinic staff and physicians to complete time-controlled, evidence-based practice reviews of their patients who may benefit from evidence-informed care, treatment, or interventions across five different areas (immunization, postmyocardial infarction care, cancer screening, diabetes management, and medication recall). We formulated a preparedness index to measure the capacity of clinics to engage in PBPH management. Finally, we conducted follow-up qualitative interviews to provide richer understanding of PBPH implementation and related issues (ie, challenges and facilitators). Results A total of 11 primary care clinics participated, representing 21 clinician practices. EMR-enabled clinics completed a full review of charts in an average of 1.37 hours. On the contrary, paper-based clinics reviewed nearly 10% of their charts in an average of 3.9 hours, hinting that they would have required an estimated 40 hours to complete a review of charts in their practice. Furthermore, the index revealed a major gap in preparedness between the EMR and paper-based clinics (0.86–3.78 vs 0.05–0.12), as well as a broad range among the EMR clinics. Finally, building on the results of the qualitative analysis, we identified factors facilitating the integration of PBPH. Conclusions Our results suggest that EMR usage is pivotal in setting the foundation to support PBPH. The wide range of performance variation among EMR-enabled clinics suggests that EMR functionality and optimization, its support of clinical practice workflow, and policy issues to ensure adoption of standards are critical issues to facilitate PBPH.
Antidepressant-like effects of N-acetyl-L-cysteine in rats

Oxidative stress disturbances have been reported in depressed patients and in animals submitted to stress. Recent evidence suggests that antidepressants may have antioxidant properties. However, the therapeutic potential of antioxidants as antidepressant drugs has not been systematically investigated. Therefore, this study tested the hypothesis that N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), a cysteine prodrug with powerful antioxidant activity, would possess antidepressant-like properties in the forced swimming test. Male Wistar rats were subjected to 15 min of forced swimming and immediately afterward, 5, and 23 h later received intraperitoneal injections of NAC (5, 15, 50, 150, and 250 mg/kg), imipramine, (15 mg/kg) or vehicle. One hour later they were submitted to the 5 min test swimming session, where immobility time was recorded. Independent groups of animals received the same treatments and their exploratory activity was measured in an open arena for 5 min. NAC (at the doses of 15, 50, and 150 mg/kg) and imipramine induced a significant decrease in immobility time without changing exploratory behavior measured in an open arena. These results suggest that antioxidants such as NAC may have antidepressant effects.
Proteolytic activation of bacterial toxins by eukaryotic cells is performed by furin and by additional cellular proteases

Before intoxication can occur, anthrax toxin protective antigen (PA), Pseudomonas exotoxin A (PE), and diphtheria toxin (DT) must be activated by proteolytic cleavage at specific amino acid sequences. Previously, it was shown that PA and DT can be activated by furin. In Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, wild-type (RKKR) and cleavage site mutants of PA, each administered with a modified form of anthrax toxin lethal factor (the N terminus of lethal factor fused to PE domain III), had the following potencies: RKKR (wild type) (concentration causing 50% cell death [EC50] = 12 ng/ml) > or = RAAR (EC50 = 18 ng/ml) > FTKR (EC50 = 24 ng/ml) > STRR (EC50 = 49 ng/ml). In vitro cleavage of PA and cleavage site mutants of PA by furin demonstrated that native PA (RKKR) and PA with the cleavage sequence RAAR are substrates for furin. To characterize eukaryotic proteases that play a role in activating bacterial toxins, furin-deficient CHO cells were selected after chemical mutagenesis. Furin-deficient cells were resistant to PE, whose cleavage site, RQPR, constitutes a furin recognition site and to all PA cleavage site mutants, but were sensitive to DT (EC50 = 2.9 ng/ml) and PA (EC50 = 23 ng/ml), whose respective cleavage sites, RKKR and RVRR, contain additional basic residues. Furin-deficient cells that were transfected with the furin gene regained sensitivity to PE and PA cleavage site mutants. These studies provide evidence that furin can activate the three toxins and that one or more additional proteases contribute to the activation of DT and PA.
Search for Correlates of Self-Actualization

It was hypothesized that self-actualizing Ss, compared with other persons, will be more accurate perceptually, will have superior ability to reason and be logical, and will have greater preference for ambiguous and unstructured stimuli. The Personal Orientation Inventory was used as a measure of self-actualization and was correlated with abbreviated versions of the Seashore Measures of Musical Talents, the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, and the Barron-Welsh Art Scale, using 39 undergraduates as Ss. The hypotheses were not supported.
Isolation and bioenergetic characterization of mitochondria from Pichia pastoris

Pichia pastoris is a methylotrophic yeast of high biotechnological interest. The bioenergetic properties of mitochondria from Pichia pastoris have not yet been determined. We report on a protocol for the isolation of the mitochondria in a state that shows good energy coupling. Analysis of Pichia pastoris growth and bioenergetic properties of the isolated mitochondria reveals that glycerol is the carbon source that yields the best results. Under our growth conditions, mitochondria oxidize external NADH but do not possess an alternative oxidase. Finally, Pichia pastoris mitochondria also lack the nucleotide‐stimulated uncoupling pathway previously identified in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Long-term beneficial effect of coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with COPD.

OBJECTIVE This study assesses the impact of COPD on the long-term outcome of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). METHODS Between 1991 and 1993, 37 patients (5.68%) undergoing CABG had significant clinical COPD. They were compared to 37 matched control subjects. RESULTS The patients in the COPD group had worse preoperative pulmonary function. More patients in this group were smokers, had more symptoms of shortness of breath, and had more preoperative arrhythmia. A total of 13 patients died in the COPD group compared with 3 subjects in the control group during 8.6 +/- 2 years (mean +/- SD) of follow-up with arrhythmia being the major cause of death (62%). Actuarial survival at 9 years was 92% for the control group vs 65% for the COPD group (p = 0.005). The rate of readmissions during mid-term follow-up (13.8 +/- 7.2 months) was higher in the COPD group, and more patients in this group described their quality of life as worse than before the operation (37% vs 3%, p < 0.001). At late follow-up, all survivors in the COPD group had an improved quality of life. Cox regression analysis identified older age and lower FEV(1) as independent predictors of late death. Pulmonary function returned to baseline in the control group and improved to above baseline in the patients with COPD. CONCLUSIONS Patients with significant COPD have a higher risk after CABG compared to patients without COPD. Nevertheless, when assessing the natural history of patients with COPD, it seems those who undergo CABG benefit from the operation.
L‐DOPA‐induced dyskinesia in a rat model of Parkinson's disease is associated with the fluctuational release of norepinephrine in the sensorimotor striatum

L‐3,4‐dihydroxyphenylalanine (L‐DOPA)‐induced dyskinesia (LID) is the most common complication of standard L‐DOPA therapy for Parkinson's disease experienced by most parkinsonian patients. LID is associated with disruption of dopaminergic homeostasis in basal ganglia following L‐DOPA administration. Norepinephrine (NE) is another important catecholaminergic neurotransmitter that is also believed to be involved in the pathogenesis of LID. This study compared NE release in the ipsilateral sensorimotor striatum of dyskinetic and nondyskinetic 6‐hydroxydopamine‐lesioned hemiparkinsonian rats treated chronically with L‐DOPA. After L‐DOPA injection, the time‐course curves of NE levels in the sensorimotor striatum were significantly different between dyskinetic and nondyskinetic rats. Several metabolic kinetic parameters of NE levels were also differentially expressed between the two groups. In comparison with nondyskinetic rats, the ΔCmax of NE was significantly higher in dyskinetic rats, whereas Tmax and t1/2 of NE were significantly shorter. Intrastriatal perfusion of NE into the lesioned sensorimotor striatum revealed a moderate dyskinesia in dyskinetic rats, which was similar to the dyskinetic behavior after L‐DOPA administration. The L‐DOPA‐related dyskinetic behavior was inhibited significantly by a further pretreatment of noradrenergic neurotoxin N‐(2‐chloroethyl)‐N‐ethyl‐2‐bromobenzylamine or intrastriatal administration of the α2‐adrenoceptor antagonist idazoxan, accompanied by significant changes in metabolic kinetic parameters of NE in the sensorimotor striatum. The results provide evidence to support the correlation between abnormal NE neurotransmission and the induction of LID and suggest that the aberrant change of the quantitative and temporal releasing of NE in the sensorimotor striatum might play an important role in the pathogenesis of LID. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Effect of Using Communicative Language Teaching Activities on EFL Students’ Speaking Skills at the University of Jeddah

The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of using communicative language teaching (CLT) activities on EFL students’ speaking skills at the English Language Institute (ELI) of the University of Jeddah (UJ). The researcher conducted the current study in two classes of 21 female EFL students each; one class was the experimental group and the other the control group. The experimental group was taught using three communicative activities—interviewing, problem-solving, and role-playing—while the control group was taught using traditional methods. The current study followed a quasi-experimental study to answer the primary research question. The quasi-experimental study was conducted using a pre- and post-test design to determine if there was a significant difference between the scores of the experimental and control groups. The findings of the current study show that the experimental group scored higher than the control group. These findings have positive implications for the continued implementation of CLT teaching practices at the ELI of UJ.
Insurance parity and outpatient care following a psychiatric hospitalization.

esting question about whether heavy caffeine consumption might explain the higher risk of incident coronary artery calcification among those with shorter measured sleep duration. We are able to investigate the role of caffeine in our study. In the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) year-20 examination, which was the follow-up examination in our ancillary sleep study, detailed diet data were collected using an interviewer-administered quantitative foodfrequency questionnaire, assisted by plastic food models and food estimation tools such as measuring cups. Average daily caffeine intake was estimated using the nutrient database developed by the Nutrition Coordinating Center at the University of Minnesota (version 36). Because our primary analysis found a significant trend in the association between sleep duration (modeled as a continuous variable) and incident calcification across the entire range of sleep durations, we investigated caffeine consumption for the entire study population rather than just the few participants sleeping less than 4 hours. There was an unexpected weak but positive correlation between estimated daily caffeine consumption and sleep duration (Spearman correlation, 0.08; P=.07). Mean daily caffeine consumption was 146 mg for those sleeping less than 5 hours and 170 mg for those sleeping more than 7 hours. After transforming caffeine (using a fourth-root transformation to achieve symmetry), caffeine was not associated with incident calcification (P=.62) nor did it confound the odds ratio estimate of the association between sleep duration and incident calcification, which was 0.67 per hour of sleep in an adjusted multivariate model without caffeine and was unchanged after adding caffeine consumption. Modeling caffeine consumption as quintiles also did not affect the association between sleep and calcification or suggest a nonlinear association between caffeine consumption and calcification. While some participants may have had nondietary sources of caffeine (for example, from over-the-counter drugs), our analysis found that caffeine estimated from a diet questionnaire did not explain the observed association between sleep duration and incident coronary artery calcification.
Dynamic disk bandwidth management and metadata pre-fetching in a real-time file system

The authors focus on two practical considerations that arise in the design of a real-time file system. Firstly, disk bandwidth management should be dynamic, which in turn would allow a QoS manager to dynamically reallocate disk bandwidth to running applications based on their changing needs. Secondly, real-time access to file system data structures should be deterministic, in order to avoid unexpected latencies when accessing files from disk. These issues have implications to the design of the file system and to its schedulability analysis. They address both these problems and present an implementation in RTFS (Real-Time Filesystem Server), a real-time file system supporting disk bandwidth reservation running on top of the Real-Time Mach microkernel. Finally, quantitative comparisons of actual achieved file system bandwidth and response times are used to validate the approach.
Autopsy Study of HIV‐1‐Positive and HIV‐1‐Negative Adult Medical Patients in Nairobi, Kenya

Summary: HIV infection has now been consistently identified as the major cause of death in young Africans in both urban and rural areas. In Africa, several studies have defined the clinical presentation of HIV disease but there have only been a limited number of autopsy studies. Because of the scarcity of autopsy data and the possibility of differing type and frequency of opportunistic infections between different geographic locations we set out to study consecutive new adult medical admissions to a tertiary referral hospital in Nairobi and perform autopsies on a sample of HIV‐1positive and HIV‐1‐negative patients who died in the hospital ward. Basic demographic data were collected on all patients admitted to two acute medical wards over an 11‐month period. Final outcome and final clinical diagnoses were recorded at discharge or death. An autopsy examination was requested if the patient died in the ward. Autopsy examination was performed in 75 HIV‐1‐positive (40 men, 35 women) and 47 HIV‐1‐negative (28 men, 19 women) adults who died in the hospital. This represented 48.4% of all HIV‐1‐positive deaths and 33.3% of all HIV‐1‐negative deaths. Tuberculosis (TB) and bacterial and interstitial bronchopneumonia accounted for 96% of the major pathology in patients found to be HIV‐1‐positive at autopsy. TB was present in half the HIV‐1‐positive autopsy patients and was disseminated in over 80% of cases. Meningeal involvement was present in 26% of those with disseminated TB. By contrast, TB was much less common in the HIV‐1‐negative patients at autopsy in whom bacterial bronchopneumonia and malignancies were the most common pathologies. The type pathology found in the HIV‐1‐positive autopsy patients was not different than that found in other areas in Africa so far studied.
T-cell abnormalities are present at high frequencies in patients with hypereosinophilic syndrome

A T-cell clone, identified by clonal rearrangement of the T-cell receptor and by the presence of aberrant T-cell immunophenotype in peripheral blood, defines lymphocytic variant of hypereosinophilic syndrome. This study shows that T-cell abnormalities are present at high frequencies in patients with hypereosinophilic syndrome. See related perspective article on page 1188. Background A T-cell clone, thought to be the source of eosinophilopoietic cytokines, identified by clonal rearrangement of the T-cell receptor and by the presence of aberrant T-cell immunophenotype in peripheral blood defines lymphocytic variant of hypereosinophilic syndrome (L-HES). Design and Methods Peripheral blood samples from 42 patients who satisfied the diagnostic criteria for HES were studied for T-cell receptor clonal rearrangement by polymerase chain reaction according to BIOMED-2. The T-cell immunophenotype population was assessed in peripheral blood by flow cytometry. The FIP1L1-PDGFRA fusion gene was detected by nested polymerase chain reaction. Results Forty-two HES patients (18 males and 24 females) with a median age at diagnosis of 56 years (range 17–84) were examined in this study. Their median white blood cell count was 12.9×109/L (range 5.3–121), with an absolute eosinophil count of 4.5×109/L (range 1.5–99) and a median eosinophilic bone marrow infiltration of 30% (range 11–64). Among the 42 patients, clonal T-cell receptor rearrangements were detected in 18 patients (42.8%). Patients with T-cell receptor clonality included: T-cell receptor β in 15 patients (35%), T-cell receptor γ in 9 (21%) and T-cell receptor δ in 9 (21%) patients, respectively. Clonality was detected in all three T-cell receptor loci in 4 cases, in two loci in 7 patients and in one T-cell receptor locus in the remaining 7 patients. The FIP1L1-PDGFRA fusion transcript was absent in all but 2 patients with T-cell receptor clonality. Three patients out of 42 revealed an aberrant T-cell immunophenotype. In some patients, an abnormal CD4:CD8 ratio was demonstrated. Conclusions T-cell abnormalities are present at high frequencies in patients with HES.