Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nitrogen and Phosphorus Concentrations of Runoff as Affected by Moldboard Plowing

The excessive application of manure on cropland areas can cause nutrients to accumulate near the soil surface. This study was conducted to measure the effects of moldboard plowing on the redistribution of nutrients within the soil profile and nutrient transport by overland flow. Composted beef cattle manure was applied at dry weights of 0, 68, 105, 142, and 178 Mg ha-1 to a silty clay loam soil and then incorporated by disking. Selected plots were moldboard plowed 244 days later to a depth of approximately 23 cm. Soil samples for analysis of water-soluble phosphorus, Bray and Kurtz No. 1 phosphorus (Bray-1 P), NO3-N, and NH4-N were collected at depths of 0-5, 5-15, and 15-30 cm before and after moldboard plowing. Three 30 min simulated rainfall events, separated by 24 h intervals, were then applied. Dissolved phosphorus (DP), NO3-N, NH4-N, and total nitrogen (TN) content of runoff were measured from 0.75 wide × 2.0 m long plots. Bray-1 P content at the 0-5 cm soil depth was reduced from 200 to 48.0 mg kg-1 and NO3-N content decreased from 9.49 to 2.52 mg kg-1 as a result of the moldboard plowing operation. Consequently, mean concentrations of DP and NO3-N in runoff decreased from 1.76 and 2.29 mg L-1 under no-till conditions to 0.03 and 0.60 mg L-1 on the moldboard plow plots. Thus, the experimental results suggest that moldboard plowing can significantly reduce concentrations of DP and NO3-N in runoff from land application areas.
Distribution of TRPV1‐ and TRPV2‐immunoreactive afferent nerve endings in rat trachea

Nociception in the trachea is important for respiratory modulation. We investigated the distribution, neurochemical characteristics, and origin of nerve endings with immunoreactivity for candidate sensor channels, TRPV1 and TRPV2, in rat trachea. In the epithelial layer, the intraepithelial nerve endings and dense subepithelial network of nerve fibers were immunoreactive for TRPV1. In contrast, TRPV2 immunoreactivity was observed mainly in nerve fibers of the tracheal submucosal layer and in several intrinsic ganglion cells in the peritracheal plexus. Double immunostaining revealed that some TRPV1‐immunoreactive nerve fibers were also immunoreactive for substance P or calcitonin gene‐related peptide, but neither neuropeptide colocalized with TRPV2. Injection of the retrograde tracer, fast blue, into the tracheal wall near the thoracic inlet demonstrated labeled neurons in the jugular, nodose, and dorsal root ganglia at segmental levels of C2–C8. In the jugular and nodose ganglia, 59.3% (70/118) and 10.7% (17/159), respectively, of fast blue‐labeled neurons were immunoreactive for TRPV1, compared to 8.8% (8/91) and 2.6% (5/191) for TRPV2‐immunoreactive. Our results indicate that TRPV1‐immunoreactive nerve endings are important for tracheal nociception, and the different expression patterns of TRPV1 and TRPV2 with neuropeptides may reflect different subpopulations of sensory neurons.
Clinical Significance of C-Reactive Protein in Patients on Hemodialysis: A Longitudinal Study

Background/Aim: The levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) have been related to hypoalbuminemia and the necessity of erythropoietin in patients on maintenance hemodialysis. However, in several studies, the patients’ clinical situation is not taken into account. The aim of the present work was to analyze the relationship between CRP and serum albumin and hemoglobin and the erythropoietin resistance index (ERI) in a population of patients on chronic hemodialysis classified according to their clinical situation. Methods: In a cohort of 53 patients followed for 12 months, we analyzed the CRP level and its association with albumin and hemoglobin levels and the ERI (ratio of total weekly erythropoietin dose in units/weight to hemoglobin concentration in g/dl) at the start of the study and at 6 and 12 months thereafter. The patients were divided into three groups based on the presence of inflammatory/infectious disorders during the 4 weeks prior to CRP determination (group A) or the use of a jugular catheter (group B) or an arteriovenous fistula (group C) as vascular access for hemodialysis. Results: At baseline, the CRP levels (47.1 mg/l in group A, 30.7 mg/l in group B, and 9.4 mg/l in group C) and the ERI (23.9 in group A, 24.6 in group B, and 10.7 in group C) were higher in groups A and B than in group C (p < 0.001 for both parameters). Serum albumin (3.9 g/dl in group A, 4.1 g/dl in group B, and 4.4 g/dl in group C) and hemoglobin (10.4 g/dl in group A, 11.3 g/dl in group B, and 12 g/dl in group C) were lower in groups A and B than in group C (p < 0.05 for serum albumin and p < 0.01 for hemoglobin). In all patients, the baseline CRP level correlated with the albumin level (r = –0.3853, p < 0.01), with the hemoglobin level (r = –0.2950, p < 0.05), and with the ERI (r = 0.4378, p < 0.01). However, if we only considered the group C patients, there was no correlation between baseline CRP and albumin, hemoglobin, and ERI. Similar results were observed at 6 and 12 months. Conclusions: The CRP, albumin, and hemoglobin levels and the ERI mostly depend on the existence of ongoing inflammatory/infectious disorders and the use of a catheter as vascular access. In the absence of these clinical conditions, we could not correlate the CRP level with the other parameters. The relationship between CRP, albumin, and anemia may be an epiphenomenon
Accurate, inaccurate, or biased teacher expectations: Do Dutch teachers differ in their expectations at the end of primary education?

BACKGROUND In several tracked educational systems, realizing optimal placements in classes in the first year of secondary education depends on the accuracy of teacher expectations. AIMS The aim of this study was to investigate between-teacher differences in their expectations regarding the academic aptitude of their students. SAMPLE The sample consisted of 500 teachers (classes) who provided their expectations of 7,550 students in the final grade of Dutch primary education. METHODS We analysed the extent to which teachers differed in their expectations and in what contexts their expectations were biased, using multilevel random slope models. RESULTS Multilevel analysis showed teacher expectation bias to be related to gender and socio-ethnic background of students. The differences among teachers in expectations for Turkish, Moroccan, and other foreign students with low-educated parents were larger than the average teacher expectation bias for these groups in the sample. When student characteristics were controlled for, we found that the teachers in our sample had higher expectations for students in high-performing classes or classes with only a small proportion of students from low-SES families. Teacher expectation bias for demographic groups, however, was found to be independent of the class population. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate the importance of the teacher and the necessity of using multilevel models when investigating the complex nature of between-teacher differences in expectations of student performance.
Cytoplasmic Tail of Phospholemman Interacts with the Intracellular Loop of the Cardiac Na+/Ca2+ Exchanger*

Phospholemman (PLM), a member of the FXYD family of small ion transport regulators, inhibits cardiac Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX1). NCX1 is made up of N-terminal domain consisting of the first five transmembrane segments (residues 1-217), a large intracellular loop (residues 218-764), and a C-terminal domain comprising the last four transmembrane segments (residues 765-938). Using glutathione S-transferase (GST) pull-down assay, we demonstrated that the intracellular loop, but not the N- or C-terminal transmembrane domains of NCX1, was associated with PLM. Further analysis using protein constructs of GST fused to various segments of the intracellular loop of NCX1 suggest that PLM bound to residues 218-371 and 508-764 but not 371-508. Split Na+/Ca2+ exchangers consisting of N- or C-terminal domains with different lengths of the intracellular loop were co-expressed with PLM in HEK293 cells that are devoid of endogenous PLM and NCX1. Although expression of N-terminal but not C-terminal domain alone resulted in correct membrane targeting, co-expression of both N- and C-terminal domains was required for correct membrane targeting and functional exchange activity. NCX1 current measurements indicate that PLM decreased NCX1 current only when the split exchangers contained residues 218-358 of the intracellular loop. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments with PLM and split exchangers suggest that PLM associated with the N-terminal domain of NCX1 when it contained intracellular loop residues 218-358. TM43, a PLM mutant with its cytoplasmic tail truncated, did not co-immunoprecipitate with wild-type NCX1 when co-expressed in HEK293 cells, confirming little to no interaction between the transmembrane domains of PLM and NCX1. We conclude that PLM interacted with the intracellular loop of NCX1, most likely at residues 218-358.
Inflammation triggers hypoferremia and de novo synthesis of serum transferrin and ceruloplasmin in mice

Oil of turpentine was used to induce an artificial inflammation so that we could study its effect on iron metabolism and on synthesis of serum transferrin and ceruloplasmin in mice. It was found that turpentine-induced inflammation triggered the establishment of a hypoferremic state characterized by low levels of serum iron, followed by recovery and a gradual return to normal plasma iron levels. This turpentine-induced hypoferremia and its subsequent recovery paralleled the hypoferremia obtained during meningococcal infection. Moreover, serum transferrin and ceruloplasmin activity levels increased drastically during the recovery from hypoferremia. [14C]leucine incorporation studies revealed a de novo synthesis of both transferrin and ceruloplasmin. Turpentine-induced hypoferremia was also found to provide a protective effect against meningococcal infection which could be partially reversed by exogenous iron. The results of this study suggest that transferrin and ceruloplasmin may be synthesized partly in response to the altered iron metabolism observed during hypoferremia.
A Causal Source Which Mimics Inflation.

How unique are the inflationary predictions for the cosmic microwave anisotropy pattern? In this paper, it is asked whether an arbitrary causal source for perturbations in the standard hot big bang could effectively mimic the predictions of the simplest inflationary models. A surprisingly simple example of a scaling causal source is found to closely reproduce the inflationary predictions. This Letter extends the work of a previous paper [N. Turok, Phys. Rev. D 54, 3686 (1996)] to a full computation of the anisotropy pattern, including the Sachs-Wolfe integral. I speculate on the possible physics behind such a source.
Renal afferent signaling diuretic response is impaired in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

UNLABELLED Renal afferent signaling diuretic response is impaired in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. BACKGROUND Renal insufficiency develops in diabetes and shows structural and functional abnormalities. Renal afferents, including chemoreceptors and mechanoreceptors located in the vascular and ureteropelvic portions of the kidney, may reflect changes in the environment and trigger an afferent nerve-mediated regulatory function that is known as the renorenal reflex. In this study, the involvement of these renal sensory receptors during the early diabetic state is defined. METHODS Diabetes was induced in rats after a tail vein injection of streptozotocin (STZ; 60 mg/kg intravenously). Four groups of rats, control (C), diabetic (DM), diabetic with acute insulin treatment (DMAI, 9 U/rat, subcutaneously, on the experimental day), and chronic insulin treatment (DMCI, 9 U/rat, subcutaneously, daily) were studied. Spontaneous firing type 2-renal chemoreceptor (CR2), arterial mechanoreceptor (MRa), ureteropelvic mechanoreceptor (MRu), and venous mechanoreceptor (MRv) were identified by single-unit analysis of renal afferent nervous activity. The receptor activities were confirmed by their response patterns to stimuli elicited by renal arterial occlusion (RAO), backflow of urine, increasing arterial pressure, increasing ureteropelvic pressure (UP), or renal venous occlusion (RVO). The response of these afferent receptors to a challenge of volume expansion and their functional activities on renorenal reflexes were also examined. Immunostaining with PGP 9.5 was applied for examination of the nerve distribution in the diabetic kidney. The tissue level of histamine in the renal pelvis was determined. We explored the effect of histamine on renal receptor activity in these animals to address the possible role of histamine in MRu receptor activity. RESULTS In early diabetics, signaling activities in MRa and MRv were maintained; however, activity in CR2 and MRu was depressed. For CR2, the reduced basal discharge and the repressed responses to RAO, backflow of urine, and volume expansion found in DM rats were recovered by acute insulin treatment to restore glucose levels to near normal. For MRu, the depressed response to increasing UP and volume expansion was not restored by acute correction of hyperglycemia in DMAI rats. However, antihistamine treatment or chronic insulin treatment recovered the MRu response to mechanical stimuli in DM rats. Because of the desensitized CR2 and MRu activity, renorenal reflexes elicited by backflow of urine and increasing UP were depressed in DM rats. CONCLUSION Despite a lack of structural changes, the operating system, signaling ability, and renorenal reflex regulatory function of two renal afferent nerve receptors, CR2 and MRu, are altered in the early diabetic state.
Technical Briefs

Abstract Objective: This study compared the otoacoustic emissions amplitudes of Asian youths at risk of leisure noise exposure through the use of portable music players with their less exposed counterparts. Design: A listening habit survey was conducted. Subjects were divided into two groups for analysis. A subject was placed within the high risk group if he/she reported listening to music at near maximum volume and had a physical measurement of his/her preferred listening level recorded at > 85 dBA. DPOAE and TEOAE levels were measured and compared between the two groups. Study sample: A total of 1928 students from a tertiary educational institution in Singapore. Results: TEOAE levels were found to be significantly lower in the high risk group at 4 kHz. DPOAE levels were also found to be significantly depressed in the high risk group at 1, 2, 3, and 4 kHz with the largest mean difference at 4 kHz. A four-way ANOVA carried out for OAE amplitudes using gender, ear laterality, risk profile, and years of usage as independent factors also showed that risk profile was a significant factor in determining the OAE amplitude at 4 kHz. Conclusion: We have demonstrated that both DPAOE and TEOAE values are diminished in the Asian subjects at high risk for noise exposure.
Nearest Neighbour Radial Basis Function Solvers for Deep Neural Networks

We present a radial basis function solver for convolutional neural networks that can be directly applied to both image classification and distance metric learning problems. Our method treats all training features from a deep neural network as radial basis function centres and computes loss by summing the influence of a feature's nearby centres in the embedding space. Having a radial basis function centred on each training feature is made scalable by treating it as an approximate nearest neighbour search problem. End-to-end learning of the network and solver is carried out, mapping high dimensional features into clusters of the same class. This results in a well formed embedding space, where semantically related instances are likely to be located near one another, regardless of whether or not the network was trained on those classes. The same loss function is used for both the metric learning and classification problems. We show that our radial basis function solver sets state-of-the-art embedding results on the Stanford Cars196 and CUB-200-2011 datasets. Additionally, we show that when used as a classifier, our method outperforms a conventional softmax classifier on the Caltech-256 object recognition dataset and the fine-grained recognition dataset CUB-200-2011.
Intrinsic energy resolution and light yield non-proportionality of BGO

The intrinsic energy resolution and nonproportionality of the light yield as a function of gamma ray energies were studied for small BGO crystals at room and liquid nitrogen (LN/sub 2/) temperatures. The study showed that intrinsic resolution of BGO and the light yield non-proportionality as a function of energy do not depend on the crystal temperature. High light outputs of 14000/spl plusmn/ 300 electron-hole pairs and energy resolution of 6.5/spl plusmn/ 0.2% for 662 keV gamma rays were measured with the 9 mm diameter, 4 mm thick crystals, coupled to a Large Area Avalanche Photodiodes and cooled down to LN/sub 2/ temperature. Special attention was paid to analyze the energy resolution of the escape peaks, which were well separated from the full-energy photopeaks due to the good energy resolution of BGO at LN/sub 2/ temperatures and the energy of bismuth K X-rays. The intrinsic energy resolution of the BGO crystal for escape peaks does not show deviations from analysis of total energy absorption photopeaks. This is in spite of the fact that the contributions of X-rays and Auger electron cascade in creation of escape peaks are much smaller than in full-energy peaks. In the small volume crystal, mainly electrons produced in the photoelectric absorption create the escape peaks.
Induction of neuronal phenotypes from NG2+ glial progenitors by inhibiting epidermal growth factor receptor in mouse spinal cord injury

Besides neural stem cells, some glial cells, such as GFAP+ cells, radial glia, and oligodendrocyte progenitor cells can produce neuronal cells. Attractively, NG2+ glial progenitors exhibit lineage plasticity, and they rapidly proliferate and differentiate in response to central nervous system (CNS) injuries. These attributes of NG2+ glial progenitors make them a promising source of neurons. However, the potential of neuronal regeneration from NG2+ glial progenitors in CNS pathologies remains to be investigated. In this study, we showed that antagonizing epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) function with EGFR inhibitor caused a significant number of proliferative NG2+ glial progenitors to acquire neuronal phenotypes in contusive spinal cord injury (SCI), which presumably led to an accumulation of newly generated neurons and contributed to the improved neural behavioral performance of animals. In addition, the neuronal differentiation of glial progenitors induced by EGFR inhibitor was further confirmed with two different cell lines either in vitro or through ex vivo transplantation experiment. The inhibition of EGFR signaling pathway under the gliogenic conditions could induce these cells to acquire neuronal phenotypes. Furthermore, we find that the Ras‐ERK axis played a key role in neuronal differentiation of NG2+ glial progenitors upon EGFR inhibition. Taken together, our studies suggest that the EGFR inhibitor could promote neurogenesis post SCI, mainly from the NG2+ glial progenitors. These findings support the possibility of evoking endogenous neuronal replacement from NG2+ glial progenitors and suggest that EGFR inhibition may be beneficial to CNS trauma. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Home blood pressure in poorly controlled hypertension: relationship with ambulatory blood pressure and organ damage

Objectives(1) To assess whether home blood pressure measurement is a reliable alternative to ambulatory blood pressure monitoring for the evaluation of treated patients with inadequate blood pressure control at the clinic; and (2) to evaluate the relationship between home blood pressure and several target-organ damage markers. Basic methodsA cross-sectional study was performed in 225 treated hypertensive patients with persistently high blood pressure values at the clinic (systolic blood pressure 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure 90 mmHg). All study participants underwent clinic blood pressure measurement, 24-h ambulatory blood pressure and home blood pressure monitoring. A subgroup of patients underwent the following procedures: carotid echography (n=74), microalbuminuria determination (n=88) and echocardiography (n=43). We defined out-of-clinic normotension as an average ambulatory or home blood pressure less than 135 mmHg (systolic) and 85 mmHg (diastolic). Main resultsThe sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values of the home blood pressure method for predicting out-of-clinic normotension (with the ambulatory method used as reference), expressed as percentages, were 50, 87, 64 and 79%, respectively. Systolic home blood pressure correlated significantly with left ventricular mass (r=0.33, P<0.05) and microalbuminuria (r=0.24, P<0.05). Similar correlation coefficients were found for systolic ambulatory blood pressure (r=0.32, P<0.05 and r=0.24, P<0.05, respectively). Clinic blood pressure did not correlate with either left ventricular mass or microalbuminuria (r=0.19, P=0.09 and r=0.19, P=0.24, respectively). Diastolic home blood pressure, but not ambulatory blood pressure, correlated negatively with mean carotid intima–media thickness (r=−0.27, P<0.05). ConclusionOur results suggest that, in patients with poorly controlled hypertension at the clinic, home blood pressure represents a complementary test rather than an alternative to ambulatory blood pressure, and correlates with several target-organ damage markers.
Differential roles of checkpoint kinase 1, checkpoint kinase 2, and mitogen-activated protein kinase–activated protein kinase 2 in mediating DNA damage–induced cell cycle arrest: implications for cancer therapy

Mammalian cells initiate cell cycle arrest at different phases of the cell cycle in response to various forms of genotoxic stress to allow time for DNA repair, and thus preserving their genomic integrity. The protein kinases checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1), checkpoint kinase 2 (Chk2), and mitogen-activated protein kinase–activated protein kinase 2 (MK2) have all been shown to be involved in cell cycle checkpoint control. Recently, cell cycle checkpoint abrogation has been proposed as one way to sensitize cancer cells to DNA-damaging agents due to the expected induction of mitotic catastrophe. Due to their overlapping substrate spectra and redundant functions, it is still not clear which kinase is mainly responsible for the cell cycle arrests conferred by clinically relevant chemotherapeutics. Thus, the issue remains about which kinase is the most therapeutically relevant target and, more importantly, whether multiple kinases might need to be targeted to achieve the best efficacy in light of recent studies showing superior efficacy for pan-receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors. To clarify this issue, we investigated the roles of the three kinases in response to different genotoxic stresses through small interfering RNA–mediated specific target knockdowns. Our result showed that only the down-regulation of Chk1, but not of Chk2 or MK2, abrogated camptothecin- or 5-fluorouracil–induced S-phase arrest or doxorubicin-induced G2-phase arrest. This was followed by mitotic catastrophe and apoptosis. Moreover, double inhibition of Chk1 and Chk2 failed to achieve better efficacy than Chk1 inhibition alone; surprisingly, inhibition of MK2, in addition to Chk1 suppression, partially reversed the checkpoint abrogation and negated mitotic catastrophe. We further showed that this is due to the fact that in MK2-deficient cells, Cdc25A protein, which is critically required for the mitotic progression following checkpoint abrogation, becomes greatly depleted. In summary, our findings show that Chk1 is the only relevant checkpoint kinase as a cancer drug target and inhibition of other checkpoint kinases in addition to Chk1 would be nonproductive. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(8):1935–43]