Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SEVERE INBREEDING DEPRESSION AND NO EVIDENCE OF PURGING IN AN EXTREMELY INBRED WILD SPECIES—THE CHATHAM ISLAND BLACK ROBIN

Although evidence of inbreeding depression in wild populations is well established, the impact of genetic purging in the wild remains controversial. The contrasting effects of inbreeding depression, fixation of deleterious alleles by genetic drift, and the purging of deleterious alleles via natural selection mean that predicting fitness outcomes in populations subjected to prolonged bottlenecks is not straightforward. We report results from a long‐term pedigree study of arguably the world's most inbred wild species of bird: the Chatham Island black robin Petroica traversi, in which conditions were ideal for purging to occur. Contrary to expectations, black robins showed a strong, negative relationship between inbreeding and juvenile survival, yielding lethal equivalents (2B) of 6.85. We also determined that the negative relationship between inbreeding and survival did not appear to be mediated by levels of ancestral inbreeding and may be attributed in part to unpurged lethal recessives. Although the black robin demographic history provided ideal conditions for genetic purging, our results show no clear evidence of purging in the major life‐history trait of juvenile survival. Our results also show no evidence of fixation of deleterious alleles in juvenile survival, but do confirm that continued high levels of contemporary inbreeding in a historically inbred population could lead to additional severe inbreeding depression.
Extending Breastfeeding Duration Through Primary Care: A Systematic Review of Prenatal and Postnatal Interventions

This literature review provides an overview of the effectiveness of strategies and procedures used to extend breastfeeding duration. Interventions carried out during pregnancy and/or infant care conducted in primary health care services, community settings, or hospital clinics were included. Interventions covering only the delivery period were excluded. Interventions that were most effective in extending the duration of breastfeeding generally combined information, guidance, and support and were long term and intensive. During prenatal care, group education was the only effective strategy reported. Home visits used to identify mothers' concerns with breastfeeding, assist with problem solving, and involve family members in breastfeeding support were effective during the postnatal period or both periods. Individual education sessions were also effective in these periods, as was the combination of 2 or 3 of these strategies in interventions involving both periods. Strategies that had no effect were characterized by no face-to-face interaction, practices contradicting messages, or small-scale interventions.
Poverty, Population, Inequality, and Development in Historical Perspective

Seen in historical perspective the main economic predicaments of the present world (such as poverty, inequality, backwardness) appear in a somewhat different light than in many current discussions, especially by sociologists, radical economists and political scientists. In the present paper the achievements of the modern age, and in particular of the post- World War II period, are considered in the perspective of economic and demographic history, and in their connection with the contemporary systems of production and of international relations. Some considerations concerning future possible developments conclude the paper.
Lipid A: chemical structure and biological activity.

Further details of the chemical structure of lipid A of Salmonella have been evaluated. It was found that pyrophosphate bridges interlink (3-1,6-linked glucosamine disaccharide units, which are esterified by lauric, palmitic, and 3-D-myristoxymyristic acid and which are substituted at the amino groups by 3-D-hydroxymyristic acid. Lipid A is the biologically active component of lipopolysaccharides. Free lipid A, solubilized by complexing with bovine serum albumin, exhibits strong endotoxic activity in a number of biological tests. Lipid A exhibits immunogenic properties when suitably exposed on the bacterial surface. Immunization of rabbits with lipid A leads to the production of specific antibodies to lipid A that are capable of cross-reacting with a large variety of lipopolysaccharides.
The role of cereals in the aetiology of nutritional rickets: the lesson of the Irish National Nutrition Survey 1943–8

1. Review of the evidence of the Irish Nutrition Survey concerning a marked rise in the incidence of rickets in Dublin in 1942 concludes that a rise in the extraction rate of the national flour from 70 to 100% was principally responsible. 2. This rise and subsequent decrease in incidence as the extraction rate of flour was reduced is not explained by changes in the proportion of children protected by vitamin D supplements or by small changes in dietary vitamin D intake. 3. The evidence suggests that nutritional rickets in man cannot be explained on the basis of deficient vitamin D intake alone, whether derived from diet or U.V. radiation.
Alternative Neisseria spp. type IV pilin glycosylation with a glyceramido acetamido trideoxyhexose residue

The importance of protein glycosylation in the interaction of pathogenic bacteria with their host is becoming increasingly clear. Neisseria meningitidis, the etiological agent of cerebrospinal meningitis, crosses cellular barriers after adhering to host cells through type IV pili. Pilin glycosylation genes (pgl) are responsible for the glycosylation of PilE, the major subunit of type IV pili, with the 2,4-diacetamido-2,4,6-trideoxyhexose residue. Nearly half of the clinical isolates, however, display an insertion in the pglBCD operon, which is anticipated to lead to a different, unidentified glycosylation. Here the structure of pilin glycosylation was determined in such a strain by “top-down” MS approaches. MALDI-TOF, nanoelectrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance, and nanoelectrospray ionization quadrupole TOF MS analysis of purified pili preparations originating from N. meningitidis strains, either wild type or deficient for pilin glycosylation, revealed a glycan mass inconsistent with 2,4-diacetamido-2,4,6-trideoxyhexose or any sugar in the databases. This unusual modification was determined by in-source dissociation of the sugar from the protein followed by tandem MS analysis with collision-induced fragmentation to be a hexose modified with a glyceramido and an acetamido group. We further show genetically that the nature of the sugar present on the pilin is determined by the carboxyl-terminal region of the pglB gene modified by the insertion in the pglBCD locus. We thus report a previously undiscovered monosaccharide involved in posttranslational modification of type IV pilin subunits by a MS-based approach and determine the molecular basis of its biosynthesis.
Role of smoking in global and regional cancer epidemiology: Current patterns and data needs

Although smoking is widely recognized as a major cause of cancer, there is little information on how it contributes to the global and regional burden of cancers in combination with other risk factors that affect background cancer mortality patterns. We used data from the American Cancer Society's Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS‐II) and the WHO and IARC cancer mortality databases to estimate deaths from 8 clusters of site‐specific cancers caused by smoking, for 14 epidemiologic subregions of the world, by age and sex. We used lung cancer mortality as an indirect marker for accumulated smoking hazard. CPS‐II hazards were adjusted for important covariates. In the year 2000, an estimated 1.42 (95% CI 1.27–1.57) million cancer deaths in the world, 21% of total global cancer deaths, were caused by smoking. Of these, 1.18 million deaths were among men and 0.24 million among women; 625,000 (95% CI 485,000–749,000) smoking‐caused cancer deaths occurred in the developing world and 794,000 (95% CI 749,000–840,000) in industrialized regions. Lung cancer accounted for 60% of smoking‐attributable cancer mortality, followed by cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract (20%). Based on available data, more than one in every 5 cancer deaths in the world in the year 2000 were caused by smoking, making it possibly the single largest preventable cause of cancer mortality. There was significant variability across regions in the role of smoking as a cause of the different site‐specific cancers. This variability illustrates the importance of coupling research and surveillance of smoking with that for other risk factors for more effective cancer prevention. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Review of Coffee By-Products Including Leaf, Flower, Cherry, Husk, Silver Skin, and Spent Grounds as Novel Foods within the European Union

The coffee plant Coffea spp. offers much more than the well-known drink made from the roasted coffee bean. During its cultivation and production, a wide variety of by-products are accrued, most of which are currently unused, thermally recycled, or used as animal feed. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of novel coffee products in the food sector and their current legal classification in the European Union (EU). For this purpose, we have reviewed the literature on the composition and safety of coffee flowers, leaves, pulp, husk, parchment, green coffee, silver skin, and spent coffee grounds. Some of these products have a history of consumption in Europe (green coffee), while others have already been used as traditional food in non-EU-member countries (coffee leaves, notification currently pending), or an application for authorization as novel food has already been submitted (husks, flour from spent coffee grounds). For the other products, toxicity and/or safety data appear to be lacking, necessitating further studies to fulfill the requirements of novel food applications.
The 6 th International Workshop on Agent-based Mobility , Tra ffi c and Transportation Models , Methodologies and Applications ( ABMTrans 2017 ) Agent-based simulation of autonomous taxi services with dynamic demand responses

An agent-based simulation approach is presented, which makes it possible to capture the dynamic interplay between a supply of autonomous vehicle fleets with distinct operational schemes and a population of artificial persons based on an established multiagent traffic simulation framework. The simulation is able to show how agents react to the new travel options and make consistent decisions based on a well-defined framework of utility scoring. c © 2016 The Authors. Published by El evier B.V.
NADPH Oxidase Activity Is Independent of p47phox in Vitro*

The neutrophil superoxide generating NADPH oxidase is activated by the assembly of cytosolic protein components with a membrane-associated flavocytochrome. The activity can be reconstituted in vitro using purified cytosolic factors p47phox, p67phox, and Rac plus the phospholipid-reconstituted flavocytochrome b558. Here, we demonstrate that activity is reconstituted in the absence of p47phox when high concentrations of p67phox and Rac are used. Vmax values were the same in the presence or absence of p47phox, yet p47phox increases the affinity of both p67phox and Rac for the oxidase complex by nearly 2 orders of magnitude. p67phox-(1-246), a truncated form of the protein which eliminates SH3 domains involved in binding to p47phox, also supports superoxide generation, both in the presence and absence of p47phox, providing further evidence for p47phox independent activity. In the absence of p47phox, p67phox-(1-246) binds to the NADPH oxidase complex 3-fold more tightly than does native p67phox, indicating that the C terminus contains a region which masks binding to the oxidase complex. Results indicate that p47phox does not play a direct role in regulating electron transfer. Rather, its function is to serve as an adaptor protein to enhance the assembly of the other cytosolic components with the flavocytochrome and possibly to unmask a binding region in the N terminus of p67phox by binding to its C-terminal domains. p67phox and/or Rac play a more direct role in regulating electron transfer.
Contributions and limits of charge pumping measurement for addressing trap generation in high-k/SiO2 dielectric stacks

The relevance of charge pumping (CP) measurements for addressing reliability issues is investigated. This analysis points to the formation of defects in the interfacial SiO2 layer induced by the high-k film and enhanced when increasing the high-k thickness or the temperature anneal. Then, combined with stress under substrate injection regime, CP reveals a generation of defects within the interfacial layer (IL) that could support TDDB results which suggest a breakdown initiated in the IL. Nevertheless, as far as high-k traps are involved, like in PBTI, CP turns out to be insufficient because of its probing depth limitation.
Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli pathotypes isolated from children with diarrhea in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION Escherichia coli are frequently isolated from diarrheic children in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Nigeria, but their virulent properties are not routinely evaluated. Therefore, the etiology of childhood diarrheal disease attributable to diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) in Abuja, Nigeria remains unknown. METHODOLOGY Stool specimens from 400 acute diarrheic children between 0 and 60 months of age were studied. E. coli strains isolated were evaluated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for nine virulence genes and HEp-2 cell adherence to detect and identify five distinct diarrheagenic E. coli categories. RESULTS Diarrheagenic E.coli was detected in 51 (12.8%) of the diarrheic children. The observed DEC pathotypes were enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) in 18 (4.5%) children, enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) in 16 (4.0%), enteroaggrative E. coli (EAEC) in 8 (2.0%), enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) in 6 (1.5%), and enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC) in 3 (0.8%). Four (1.0 %) EPEC strains with only the eae+ gene that adhered diffusely to HEp-2 cell were identified as atypical EPEC. All the DEC categories except atypical EPEC were identified in children between 6 and 12 months of age. CONCLUSIONS This study underscores the need for routine evaluation of diarrheic children for virulence properties of infectious DEC. Atypical EPEC are emerging among the DEC pathotypes isolated from childhood acute gastroenteritis in Abuja, Nigeria.
The Role of Planetary Waves in the Downward Influence of Stratospheric Final Warming Events

AbstractStratospheric final warming events are simulated in an idealized atmospheric model by imposing a winter-to-summer transition in radiative equilibrium temperature only in the stratosphere. Large ensembles of events are simulated with different strengths of topographic forcing. It is found that the dates of final warmings become earlier and their downward influence on the troposphere becomes stronger for greater topographic amplitudes. This result is similar to observed differences between the downward influence of the final warming in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The mechanisms through which the final warming exerts its influence on the tropospheric circulation are investigated using a zonally symmetric model. It is found that lower-stratospheric wave driving induces a residual circulation that affects the tropospheric circulation. The stratosphere also affects the propagation of planetary waves in the upper troposphere, resulting in a burst of wave activity and a rapid deceleration of tr.
Virulence and Immunogenic Activities of B. Typhosus in Relation to its Antigenic Constituents

1. Rough variants, derived from strains of B. typhosus which possess the Vi antigen, may still contain this antigen though the smooth O antigen has been lost. 2. Such variants, which are non-virulent, are yet capable of inducing active and passive immunity. 3. The virulence of B. typhosus depends on the combined activity of the smooth O and the Vi antigen. Nevertheless the Vi antibody alone is sufficient to protect against infection with strains of the highly virulent type. 4. The use of avirulent, rough, but Vi-containing variants as vaccines and in the preparation of therapeutic sera is discussed.
Multisystemic necrotising vasculitis in a pygmy goat (Capra hircus)

tion. A sample of small intestinal contents was collected to test for Clostridium perfringens exotoxins by ELISA (Naylor and others 1987, 1997, Martin and others 1988). A sample of kidney was collected for lead analysis by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy. Samples of kidney, liver, lung, cerebral cortex, pons, medulla and cerebellum were fixed in 10 per cent neutral buffered formalin, dehydrated using increasing concentrations of alcohol, cleared with xylene and embedded in paraffin wax. Sections of 4 μm thickness were cut and stained with haematoxylin and eosin for histopathological examination. No bacteria were isolated from the brain or lung. Examination of the small intestinal contents for C perfringens exotoxins gave a positive ELISA result for alpha toxin and negative ELISA results for beta and epsilon toxins. Lead was not detected in the kidney sample. At histopathological examination, lesions of subacute necrotising vasculitis were identified in all the tissues examined, but were most severe in the kidney. Vasculitis was characterised by infiltration of the blood vessel walls, mainly by mononuclear cells (Figs 1, 2), with fibrinoid necrosis of some affected vessels. Moderate interstitial mononuclear nephritis, with hyaline material in the tubule lumina and Bowman’s capsules, were found in kidney samples. All levels of the brain examined revealed perivascular cuffing with mononuclear cells, focal gliosis and mild non-suppurative meningitis. In the liver, increased mononuclear cellularity within portal areas was evident, and in the lung extensive Multisystemic necrotising vasculitis in a pygmy goat (Capra hircus)
THE EVOLUTION OF SPERM SIZE IN BIRDS

Sperm size varies enormously among species, but the reasons for this variation remain obscure. Since it has been suggested that swimming velocity increases with sperm length, earlier studies proposed longer (and therefore faster) sperm are advantageous under conditions of intense sperm competition. Nonetheless, previous work has been equivocal, perhaps because the intensity of sperm competition was measured indirectly. DNA profiling now provides a more direct measure of the number of offspring sired by extrapair males, and thus a more direct method of assessing the potential for sperm competition. Using a sample of 21 species of passerine birds for which DNA profiling data were available, we found a positive relation between sperm length and the degree of extrapair paternity. A path analysis, however, revealed that this relationship arises only indirectly through the positive relationship between the rate of extrapair paternity and length of sperm storage tubules (SSTs) in the female. As sperm length is correlated positively with SST length, an increase in the intensity of sperm competition leads to an increase in sperm length only through its effect on SST length. Why females vary SST length with the intensity of sperm competition is not clear, but one possibility is that it increases female control over how sperm are used in fertilization. Males, in turn, may respond on an evolutionary time scale to changes in SST size by increasing sperm length to prevent displacement from rival sperm. Previous theoretical analyses predicting that sperm size should decrease as sperm competition becomes more intense were not supported by our findings. We suggest that future models of sperm‐size evolution consider not only the role of sperm competition, but also how female control and manipulation of ejaculates after insemination selects for different sperm morphologies.
Clinical and analytical evaluation of an immunoturbidimetric heart-type fatty acid-binding protein assay

Abstract Background. Heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP) is a low molecular weight protein involved in the intracellular uptake and buffering of long chain fatty acids in the myocardium. It is an early marker for ACS. We have evaluated the Randox Laboratories immunoturbidimetric assay on a Siemens Advia 1800 analyzer. The assay employs latex particles coated with mouse monoclonal anti-HFABP antibodies to generate turbidity. Methods. We used redundant patient samples and pools to assess precision, functional sensitivity, limit of detection, linearity, recovery of recombinant H-FABP and interference. We evaluated the 99th centile values and compared H-FABP with troponin in samples routinely received from chest pain patient samples. Results. Precision was typically < 10% and 12.5% at all concentrations for within and between batches. The functional sensitivity was 2.4 μg/L. The assay was linear on dilution over the range 2.76–115 μg/L. Recovery of recombinant H-FABP was approximately 20–25%. No interference was seen with haemoglobin concentrations <1.5 g/L, bilirubin < 250 μg/L and triacylglycerol < 5 mmol/L or rheumatoid factor. The 99th centile value in a reference population with eGFR > 60mL/min/1.73m2 was 9.1 μg/L with no significant gender difference. H-FABP was measured in routine clinical samples (N = 1310) received for troponin I measurement. Using Siemens TnI > 50 ng/L as an indicator of myocardial damage, the ROC area under curve for H-FABP was 0.82. Conclusions. The immunoturbidimetric H-FABP assay is robustly designed and shows good analytical performance. It is therefore well suited for use in a routine clinical laboratory.
Sonoelastographic Strain Index for Differentiation of Benign and Malignant Nonpalpable Breast Masses

Objective. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic potential of the sonoelastographic strain index for differentiation of nonpalpable breast masses. Methods. Ninety‐nine nonpalpable breast masses (79 benign and 20 malignant) in 94 women (mean age, 45 years; range, 21–68 years) who had been scheduled for a sonographically guided core biopsy were examined with B‐mode sonography and sonoelastography. Radiologists who had performed the biopsies analyzed the B‐mode sonograms and provided American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System categories. The strain index (fat to lesion strain ratio) was calculated by dividing the strain value of the subcutaneous fat by that of the mass. The histologic result from the sonographically guided core biopsy was used as a reference standard. The diagnostic performance of the strain index and that of B‐mode sonography were compared by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results. The mean strain index values ± SD were 6.57 ± 6.62 (range, 1.29–28.69) in malignant masses and 2.63 ± 4.57 (range, 0.54–38.76) in benign masses (P = .019). The area under the ROC curve values were 0.835 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.747–0.902) for B‐mode sonography and 0.879 (95% CI, 0.798–0.936) for the strain index (P = .490). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 95% (19 of 20), 75% (59 of 79), 48% (19 of 39), and 98% (59 of 60), respectively, when a best cutoff point of 2.24 was used. Conclusions. The strain index based on the fat to lesion strain ratio has diagnostic performance comparable with that of B‐mode sonography for differentiation of benign and malignant breast masses.