Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phylogeny and biogeography of the American live oaks (Quercus subsection Virentes): a genomic and population genetics approach

The nature and timing of evolution of niche differentiation among closely related species remains an important question in ecology and evolution. The American live oak clade, Virentes, which spans the unglaciated temperate and tropical regions of North America and Mesoamerica, provides an instructive system in which to examine speciation and niche evolution. We generated a fossil‐calibrated phylogeny of Virentes using RADseq data to estimate divergence times and used nuclear microsatellites, chloroplast sequences and an intron region of nitrate reductase (NIA‐i3) to examine genetic diversity within species, rates of gene flow among species and ancestral population size of disjunct sister species. Transitions in functional and morphological traits associated with ecological and climatic niche axes were examined across the phylogeny. We found the Virentes to be monophyletic with three subclades, including a southwest clade, a southeastern US clade and a Central American/Cuban clade. Despite high leaf morphological variation within species and transpecific chloroplast haplotypes, RADseq and nuclear SSR data showed genetic coherence of species. We estimated a crown date for Virentes of 11 Ma and implicated the formation of the Sea of Cortés in a speciation event ~5 Ma. Tree height at maturity, associated with fire tolerance, differs among the sympatric species, while freezing tolerance appears to have diverged repeatedly across the tropical–temperate divide. Sympatric species thus show evidence of ecological niche differentiation but share climatic niches, while allopatric and parapatric species conserve ecological niches, but diverge in climatic niches. The mode of speciation and/or degree of co‐occurrence may thus influence which niche axis plants diverge along.
Quinapril—A Preclinical Review of the Pharmacology, Pharmacokinetics, and Toxicology

Quinapril is an orally active, non- peptide, nonsulfhydryl angiotensin- converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor that acts potently and specifically to interrupt the conversion of angioten sin I to angiotensin II in both plasma and tissue. Quinapril is enzymatically hydrolyzed to a pharmacologically active diacid form quinaprilat. Quinapril is efficacious in hyperten sive models exhibiting both high (re nal hypertensive rats, diuretic- treated dogs) and normal (spontan eously hypertensive rats) plasma re nin activity. Quinapril does not pre vent the development of hypertension when plasma renin activity (PRA) is markedly suppressed as in the deoxy corticosterone-saline treated rat. He modynamic studies in dogs indicate that quinapril decreases total periph eral and renal vascular resistance. Quinaprilat produces natriuresis and mild diuresis at doses that do not al ter mean arterial blood pressure. Quinapril has the potential to affect plasma lipids beneficially or at least be "lipid neutral. " Oral absorption of quinapril is rapid in rats, dogs, and monkeys. There is rapid and exten sive distribution of radiolabel to most tissues except brain. Plasma radiola bel concentration-time profiles ex hibit polyexponential decay with a prolonged terminal phase at low con centrations in all species. Metabolism to compounds other than quinaprilat is not extensive. Quinapril is excreted primarily as quinaprilat and to a lesser degree as quinapril. Quinapril is well tolerated in a variety of phar macologic safety screens and its tox icity profile is similar to that of other ACE inhibitors. Quinapril does not adversely affect reproduction; it is not teratogenic, carcinogenic, or mu tagenic. Preclinical studies indicate that quinapril is a safe and effective ACE inhibitor and that its activity re sides mainly in the diacid form (quinaprilat). The reduction in per ipheral vascular resistance associated with plasma and tissue ACE inhibi tion most likely accounts for the ther apeutic benefit of quinapril in hyper tension and congestive heart failure in man.
Measurement of Thermal Conductivities of Two Cryoprotective Agent Solutions for Vitreous Cryopreservation of Organs at the Temperature Range of 77 K-300 K Using a Thermal Sensor Made of Microscale Enamel Copper Wire.

Biobanking of organs by cryopreservation is an enabling technology for organ transplantation. Compared with the conventional slow freezing method, vitreous cryopreservation has been regarded to be a more promising approach for long-term storage of organs. The major challenges to vitrification are devitrification and recrystallization during the warming process, and high concentrations of cryoprotective agents (CPAs) induced metabolic and osmotic injuries. For a theoretical model based optimization of vitrification, thermal properties of CPA solutions are indispensable. In this study, the thermal conductivities of M22 and vitrification solution containing ethylene glycol and dimethyl sulfoxide (two commonly used vitrification solutions) were measured using a self-made microscaled hot probe with enameled copper wire at the temperature range of 77 K-300 K. The data obtained by this study will further enrich knowledge of the thermal properties for CPA solutions at low temperatures, as is of primary importance for optimization of vitrification.
A Brief History of Cross-Species Organ Transplantation

Cross-species transplantation (xenotransplantation) offers the prospect of an unlimited supply of organs and cells for clinical transplantation, thus resolving the critical shortage of human tissues that currently prohibits a majority of patients on the waiting list from receiving transplants. Between the 17th and 20th centuries, blood was transfused from various animal species into patients with a variety of pathological conditions. Skin grafts were carried out in the 19th century from a variety of animals, with frogs being the most popular. In the 1920s, Voronoff advocated the transplantation of slices of chimpanzee testis into aged men whose “zest for life” was deteriorating, believing that the hormones produced by the testis would rejuvenate his patients. Following the pioneering surgical work of Carrel, who developed the technique of blood vessel anastomosis, numerous attempts at nonhuman primate organ transplantation in patients were carried out in the 20th century. In 1963–1964, when human organs were not available and chronic dialysis was not yet in use, Reemtsma transplanted chimpanzee kidneys into 13 patients, one of whom returned to work for almost 9 months before suddenly dying from what was believed to be an electrolyte disturbance. The first heart transplant in a human ever performed was by Hardy in 1964, using a chimpanzee heart, but the patient died within 2 hours. Starzl carried out the first chimpanzee-to-human liver transplantation in 1966; in 1992, he obtained patient survival for 70 days following a baboon liver transplant. With the advent of genetic engineering and cloning technologies, pigs are currently available with a number of different manipulations that protect their tissues from the human immune response, resulting in increasing pig graft survival in nonhuman primate models. Genetically modified pigs offer hope of a limitless supply of organs and cells for those in need of a transplant.
DELUSIONS OF PREGNANCY - A REPORT OF FOUR CASES

We report four cases (three women, one man) having delusions of pregnancy seen over a four month period at a short - stay in-patient facility in a General Hospital Psychiatry Department. None had organic factors and all could be explained on the basis of psychological mechanisms. Delusions of pregnancy may not be as uncommon as was previously believed.
Value-Added Models (VAMs): Caveat Emptor

ABSTRACT Value-added models (VAMs) are being used in education to link the contribution of individual teachers and schools to students’ learning. The use of VAMs has been surrounded by controversy and high-profile public debates. On April 8, 2014 the American Statistical Association (ASA) released a statement on VAMs related to their use in education practice. In this article, we lay out the discussion of the main points raised in the ASA statement within the large amount of scholarly literature published over the past decade in statistical, education, and economics journals. We identify the issues that are critical for the understanding of the VAMs’ strengths and weaknesses, and related consequences of their use for high-stakes decision-making. We conclude that the cautionary points raised in the ASA statement are supported by the findings in the existing research that, with a few exceptions, challenges the assumptions underlying the use of VAMs and demonstrates the issues that should be taken into consideration when using VAMs for consequential decisions.
Women's managerial careers in the context of the United Arab Emirates

Omair, Katlin Women’s managerial careers in the context of the United Arab Emirates Jyvaskyla: University of Jyvaskyla, 2011, 57 p. (Jyvaskyla Studies in Business and Economics ISSN 1457-1986; 106) ISBN 978-951-39-4490-2 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-4491-9 (PDF) The aim of this dissertation is to examine women’s careers evolving in a socioculturally different context, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While, the careers of Western women have gained considerable attention in the existing literature, the research on Arab women and their managerial careers remains scarce. The position of Arab women and their managerial careers are investigated from two different viewpoints: women’s managerial career development and female managers’ professional identity construction and seeks to answer to the following research questions: (1) How do the UAE national women managers construct their career development in a patriarchal working environment? (2) How do the UAE national women construct their social identities through the meanings they ascribe to their clothing while pursuing managerial careers? (3) What is the role of socio-cultural background on Arab women’s managerial careers? The study uses exploratory qualitative research techniques in the form of in-depth interviews held with fifteen female managers in the UAE. Both Grounded Theory and narrative approach were used in data analysis. The results of this study emphasise the importance of socio-cultural context on women’s careers and argues that due to the differences in personal, family and socio-economic circumstances, women’s careers can be viewed as a typology. The research results produced a typology of four categories of career development of Arab women managers. In addition the results of this study show the role of professional clothing in identity formation and identify multiple coexisting identities in Arab women pursuing managerial careers.
LEUKEMIA FOLLOWING THE CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT

The accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine in 1986 led to a substantial increase of thyroid cancer among those exposed as children. The other cancer that is the most sensitive to the effects of ionizing radiation is leukemia, and this paper evaluates the evidence relating exposure to Chernobyl radioactivity and leukemia risk. Two types of objectives are identified, namely, scientific evidence and public health, and two approaches to addressing such objectives are discussed. Empirical studies in affected populations are summarized, and it is concluded that, possibly apart from Russian cleanup workers, no meaningful evidence of any statistical association between exposure and leukemia risk as yet exists. However, it is important to carry on with such studies to satisfy various public health objectives.
Hull-Vane® Submerged-Elevation Optimization for Improved Seakeeping Performance: A Case Study of an Orela Crew Boat

Effects of the Hull Vane®’s submerged elevation on seakeeping performance are studied. As a case study, the Orela planning-hull crew boat is considered. Three foil’s submerged elevations are investigated: h/T = 1.5, 1.0 and 0.75, where h is the submerged elevation and T is the design draft. Model tests were done and the experimental data were verified using results of numerical simulation. In all cases, the Hull Vane® results in a decrease of both the heave and the pitch responses. For a sailing boat with 22-knots speed (Fr = 0.57) in sea state 4 head seas, the decrease of heave rms reaches 18.9% and the decrease of pitch rms reaches 20.4%. Furthermore, for the same ship speed, the shallower the foil’s submerged elevation, the smaller the decrease of the heave response but the larger the decrease of the pitch response, compared to the case without foil.
Large neurons in the primate neostriatum examined with the combined Golgi‐electron microscopic method

Large neurons in the monkey neostriatum were examined in the electron microscope in tissue treated with the rapid‐Golgi impregnation method followed by the gold‐toning procedure. Two types of large neurons were investigated: an aspiny neuron (aspiny type II; N = 5) with numerous varicose dendrites and a spiny cell (spiny type II; N = 1) with few sparsely spined dendrites. The large aspiny neurons had variably shaped somata, an eccentric highly invaginated nucleus, and a cytoplasm rich in organelles. Mitochondria were distributed unevenly in dendrites and were localized primarily in varicosities. Some mitochondria exhibited dense hodies 80–300 nm in size. Most synapses (84%) onto large aspiny neurons occurred 20 μm or more from the cell body and contacted dendritic varicosities (63%). A smaller proportion of boutons (21%) contacted constricted portions of varicose segments. A low incidence of synaptic boutons was observed on smooth primary and secondary dendrites (11%), cell bodies (3%), and branch points (2%). Seven percent of the axons that synapsed with large aspiny neurons also contacted nearby dendrites or spines of medium‐sized spiny neurons. At least eight morphologically distinct types of axons making synapses with large aspiny neurons were identified and included both symmetric and asymmetric types.
Foreign Market Access in Government Procurement: Evidence from Japan and Switzerland

A home-bias in public purchases can have non-trivial efficiency effects, especially in times of crises. Using unexplored Japanese and Swiss public procurement data over 1990-2003, we examine the presence of a home-bias by controlling for the effect of macroeconomic, political economy, procurement-specific and domestic policy factors on governments’ sourcing decisions. We also provide an empirical test of Baldwin's (1970, 1984) "neutrality proposition" and of the effectiveness of the WTO's Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) in increasing foreign market access. Our results suggest that Swiss public purchases may have been more discriminatory than the Japanese’s during this period. They also reveal the importance of procurement demand magnitude and domestic-foreign productivity differences in both governments' cross-border purchases. However, the expected impact of traditional macroeconomic variables, political budget cycles and public-private imports substitutability does not come through. Significantly, membership of the GPA is not found to increase foreign access to either country’s public markets.
Time-Varying Correlations between Inflation and Stock Prices in the United States over the Last Two Centuries

The relationship between stock prices and the inflation can be either negative or positive, depending on the strengths of various theoretical channels at work. While previous studies have primarily examined this relationship in a time-invariant framework, and if at all a time-varying framework is used, it has been restricted to the post World War II period. Given this, we employ a time-varying approach to examine the dynamic correlations of inflation and stock prices in the United States over the period of 1791 to 2015. The results of our empirical analysis reveal that correlations between the inflation and stock prices in the United States evolve heterogeneously overtime. In particular, the correlations are significantly positive in the 1840s, 1860s, 1930s and 2011, and significantly negative otherwise. The policy implications of these findings are then discussed.
Identification of Yersinia spp. with the API 20E system

The ability of the API 20E system to identify 105 clinical isolates of Yersinia spp. was compared with those of conventional biochemical tests at 28 and 37 degrees C. Elimination of the Voges-Proskauer test (recorded as a negative result) increased the percentage of correct identifications for Yersinia spp. from 66 to 93% when the API 20E strips were incubated at 28 degrees C.
Relative and absolute reliability of isometric and isokinetic shoulder maximal moment and flexion/extension ratios in gymnasts

Shoulder strength is essential for gymnasts in order to succeed in their sport, but little research has examined isometric and isokinetic shoulder moment and flexion/extension ratios. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative and absolute reliability of isometric and isokinetic shoulder moment and shoulder flexion/extension ratios. Fifteen international level male gymnasts (age: 19.3 ± 2.3 years) participated in the study. Two identical measurements with one week interval were applied using the isokinetic Humac Norm 770 dynamometer at three angles (45o, 90o, and 135o) for isometric and at three angular velocities (60o/s, 180o/s, and 300o/s) for concentric and eccentric action modes. All measurements were conducted in a range of motion of 10o to 180o, in supine position, bilaterally, with the elbows fully extended. Notwithstanding a small systematic bias (due to testing/learning) from measurement 1 to measurement 2 significant in four parameters, the results supported the reliability of the measurements. Relative (a) and absolute (b) reliability values were ranged as follows: (a) intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) 0.73 to 0.96 and (b) standard error of measurement (SEM)(%) (calculated using ICC) 3.4 to 11.2%, minimum detectable change (MDC)(%) 10.7 to 31.1%, SEMe(%) (calculated using mean square error) 0.1 to 23.4%, MDCe(%) 1.6 to 48.8%, and coefficient of variation (CV)(%) 8.6 to 17.8%. Bland-Altman analysis showed that the bias was lower than 10% and limits of agreement (LOAs) were lower than 35%. SEMe(%) and MDCe(%) were considered as more important and meaningful to detect any significant change between two measurements, or to detect muscle imbalances. Considering the limitations of the study, results from the present study provided assessment methods and normative data that could be very helpful for researchers and practitioners to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention programs aiming at the development of shoulder muscle strength.
User perspectives of transitional care for adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

OBJECTIVES To gain insight into the transitional needs of adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and to examine how these needs may be addressed within a structured programme of transitional care. METHODS A qualitative study using focused group discussions was performed. Groups comprised (i) adolescents with JIA aged 12-18 yr, (ii) young adults with JIA aged 19-30 yr, (iii) parents of adolescents with JIA, and (iv) parents of young adults with JIA. RESULTS Transitional needs included aspects of participants' physical, social, psychological and vocational lives. Participants (n = 55) called for developmentally appropriate care based upon shared decision-making, continuity of health professionals, and wider access to information and community services. Suggestions for improved care included individualized assessment of patient's holistic needs and increased transfer preparation. CONCLUSIONS These results provide a useful guide to transitional care and suggest an approach that is adolescent-focused and evidence-based.
Who lives downtown? Neighbourhood change in central Halifax, 1951–2011

ABSTRACT The paper traces neighbourhood change in central Halifax, Canada, from 1951 to 2011 to consider how urban renewal policies and other factors may have influenced who lives downtown. In the 1950s planners advocated slum clearance and modernization to permit commercial expansion in the city centre. Subsequent decades saw central neighbourhoods decline. By the 1980s population began to rebound as planning policy increasingly promoted residential uses downtown. Over the 60 years central Halifax transitioned in character: three of the central tracts became increasingly affluent, while the fourth went from close to the city average to a low-income tract. The trajectories that neighbourhoods follow depend on several factors including societal changes, economic conditions, public policy interventions, and decisions made by other significant institutions (such as universities).
Contribution of a sedentary lifestyle and inactivity to the etiology of overweight and obesity: current evidence and research issues.

PURPOSE The etiology of overweight and obesity is clearly multifactorial, but ultimately it is determined by the long-term balance between energy intake and expenditure. This review will consider the effects on body weight and the risk of obesity of sedentary lifestyles, within the context of dietary habits. METHODS The data from ecological, cross-sectional, and prospective studies that have assessed physical activity and dietary intake and their relationship to body weight were reviewed. RESULTS Ecological analyses imply that the increase in the prevalence of obesity is more strongly related to lower levels of physical activity than higher energy intakes. However, there is a paucity of pertinent data from cross-sectional or prospective studies. There is some evidence that both a high proportion of dietary fat and low levels of physical activity may increase the likelihood of weight gain. However, even the most comprehensive studies are unable to account for more than a small proportion of the interindividual variance in weight gain, so it is difficult to usefully assess their relative importance. Furthermore, there are insufficient data that pertain to "sedentary lifestyles" to segregate any putative effect from a protective effect of exercise. All the data in this review is NHLBI Evidence category C. CONCLUSIONS This review provides clear evidence that low levels of physical activity are associated with an increased risk of weight gain and obesity. On balance, the evidence is suggestive of a causal link, but the experimental designs are too weak is provide conclusive evidence. The potential effect of interactions between diet and activity have largely been ignored. To make progress in this area, a number of key issues need to be resolved with regard to the methodology, study design, and statistical analysis of prospective epidemiological studies. In the meantime, data need to be drawn from other sources, particularly those studies designed to elucidate the mechanism of action of diet and physical activity in the etiology of obesity, to establish rational interventions to guide public health policies.