Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Respiratory responses of exercising asthmatic volunteers exposed to sulfuric acid aerosol.

Young asthmatic adult volunteers (N = 27) were exposed in an environmental chamber to sulfuric acid aerosol at concentrations near 0, 122, 242, and 410 μg/m3, in purified background air at 22° C and 50 percent relative humidity. The polydisperse aerosol had a mass median aerodynamic diameter near 0.6 μm. Exposures occurred in random order at one-week intervals. Each lasted 1 h, during which subjects exercised (mean ventilation 42 L/min) and rested during alternate 10-min periods. Specific airway resistance and forced expiratory function were measured pre-exposure, after the initial exercise, and at end-exposure. Bronchial reactivity was determined by challenge with cold air immediately post-exposure. Symptoms were monitored during exposure for one week afterward. Exercise-induced bronchospasm was observed under all conditions. Physiologic and symptom changes possibly attributable to sulfuric acid exposure were small and not statistically significant. Our largely negative results contrast with positive fin.
Nicotine Replacement Therapy Use Among a Cohort of Smokers

Abstract Methods: As part of ongoing follow-up of a cohort established in 1989 in Washington County, Maryland, a questionnaire mailed in 1998 included a question about ever use of the two NRT products then available over-the-counter: nicotine gum and nicotine patch. This study reports on ever use of NRT among the 1,954 respondents who were current smokers in 1989 and subsequently provided data on NRT use and smoking habits in 1998. Results: Overall, 36% of the smokers in 1989 had ever used NRT in some form by 1998; 10% used gum only, 16% used patch only, and 10% used both gum and patch. Number of cigarettes smoked per day at baseline was the strongest predictor of ever use of NRT (ptrend < 0.001). Compared to nonusers, ever users of NRT were more likely to have more than 12 years of education (p < 0.01) and be 25-54 years old at baseline (p < 0.001). When NRT use was assessed in relation to smoking status in 1998, 30% of NRT ever users compared to 39% of nonusers had quit smoking (p < 0.01). Among persistent smokers, the likelihood of reducing the number of cigarettes smoked per day was similar between NRT ever users (40%) and nonusers (41%). Conclusions: Ever use of NRT was common among this cohort of smokers, particularly among heavy smokers. Compared to nonusers, ever users of NRT were less likely to have stopped smoking and equally likely to cut down the frequency of smoking. This may reflect a tendency to turn to NRT for help after failing to quit by other means.
Toward a unified view of the American monsoon systems

An important goal of the Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) research on the American monsoon systems is to determine the sources and limits of predictability of warm season precipitation, with emphasis on weekly to interannual time scales. This paper reviews recent progress in the understanding of the American monsoon systems and identifies some of the future challenges that remain to improve warm season climate prediction. Much of the recent progress is derived from complementary international programs in North and South America, namely, the North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME) and the Monsoon Experiment South America (MESA), with the following common objectives: 1) to understand the key components of the American monsoon systems and their variability, 2) to determine the role of these systems in the global water cycle, 3) to improve observational datasets, and 4) to improve simulation and monthly-to-seasonal prediction of the monsoons and regional water resources. Among the recent observational advances highlighted in this paper are new insights into moisture transport processes, description of the structure and variability of the South American low-level jet, and resolution of the diurnal cycle of precipitation in the core monsoon regions. NAME and MESA are also driving major efforts in model development and hydrologic applications. Incorporated into the postfield phases of these projects are assessments of atmosphere–land surface interactions and model-based climate predictability experiments. As CLIVAR research on American monsoon systems evolves, a unified view of the climatic processes modulating continental warm season precipitation is beginning to emerge.
Dietary helplessness and disinhibition in weight cyclers and maintainers.

OBJECTIVE The primary purpose of this study was to compare obese versus nonobese adults and weight cyclers versus maintainers on measures of dietary helplessness, nutrition concern, dietary restraint, and disinhibition. METHOD Dietary helplessness, nutrition concern, dietary restraint, and disinhibition were assessed in 385 healthy obese and nonobese men and women in the RENO Diet-Heart Study, a 5-year prospective investigation of cardiovascular risk factors, weight cycling, and lifestyle. RESULTS The results indicated that dietary helplessness and disinhibition were significantly greater in obese individuals, subjects with a history of weight cycling, and weight fluctuators (prospectively measured). Women were found to score significantly higher than men on measures of dietary helplessness, disinhibition, and cognitive restraint. DISCUSSION The role of nutrition attitudes is discussed in relation to dietary self-regulation, weight fluctuation, and management of body weight.
A Detection Method of Palmprint Principal Lines Based on Local Minimum Gray Value and Line Following

A novel detection method of palmprint principal lines is proposed, which employs the priori knowledge of statistical properties about palm lines. Firstly, considering the particular direction of principal lines and the feature of their valley type edges, only one directional template of 45 degrees based on local minimum gray value is used to segment palmprint, and it can significantly reduce the excessive noise that multi-directional templates may bring. Next, a following method of the principal lines is employed, and another linking algorithm for the broken lines is devised. Compared with the existing methods, this scheme can limit principal lines detection in a small area, and trace the principal lines in a certain direction, thus it can effectively avoid the problem of blind searching and enhance the robustness. Finally, an index called "extraction rate"(ER) is defined to evaluate the effect of the proposed approach. The experiments based on the palmprint database of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) show that the extraction rate is 86.67%, and the principal lines are complete. Therefore this method can provide a good support for palmprint identification or other multimodal person identification.
Factors associated with return to work in patients with long-term disabilities due to neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders

ABSTRACT The current study explores factors predicting return to work in a sample of patients with neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders who have attended a prevocational readiness and social skills training programme many years after trauma. Participants were community-dwelling adults with long-term disabilities (N = 67). Results of univariate analyses followed by multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that both pre-injury (prior) and post-injury (current) factors influenced the likelihood of employment in our sample: prior employment, current employment readiness, current cognitive competence (particularly memory and executive functioning) and emotional adjustment. Our findings demonstrate that both pre-trauma and current factors interact in predicting return to work not only for individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), but also for a broader group of patients with long-term disabilities due to a variety of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. Thus, our findings provide preliminary support for ongoing long-term management of individuals with long-term disabilities and warrant close attention of future investigators to potential benefits of cognitive remediation, psychotherapy and vocational rehabilitation in terms of maintenance of initial gains and increased probability of return to work many years after trauma.
High Lipoprotein(a) Levels in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetic Patients With Macroalbuminuria

our belief that microproteinuria is not a prerequisite for the development of preeclampsia. Four of the five IDDM patients developing preeclampsia in our study had albuminuria <20 mg/24 h. An impaired endothelium-dependent relaxation in vitro in resistance arteries from women with gestational diabetes who are unlikely to exhibit proteinuria, similar to findings seen in vessels from women with preeclampsia, has recently been demonstrated (2). This speaks in favor of vascular pathophysiology in diabetes being independent of microalbuminuria.
THE EFFECT OF AMINO ACIDS ON SERUM AND URINE CREATINE.

There is now unequivocal evidence that creatine is formed from glycine, arginine, and methionine (1). It is equally well established that creatine can be transformed into creatinine and excreted in this form by the kidneys (2). Creatine is also concerned with the intermediary metabolism of carbohydrate. By a photometric modification of Folin's method, devised by Peters (3), Tierney and Peters (4) demonstrated that the serum of normal men contained measurably significant amounts of creatine. They found that the serum creatine was elevated in patients with hyperthyroidism. Creatinuria was almost invariably associated with concentrations of serum creatine greater than 0.6 mgm. per cent, suggesting that creatine, presumably filtered in the renal glomeruli,. is completely reabsorbed in the tubules when its concentration in the serum is less than 0.6 mgm. per cent. The present paper deals with the serum creatine and creatine excretion in various pathological conditions and after certain induced physiological disturbances.
Overstory Response to Alternative Thinning Treatments in Young Douglas-fir Forests of Western Oregon

An increase in land dominated by young second-growth Douglas-fir forests in the Pacific Northwest has coincided with heightened concerns over loss of old-growth habitat. In search of options for managing young forests to provide late-successional forest structures, the Young Stand Thinning and Diversity Study was designed to test the effectiveness of modified thinning in acceleration of late-successional structural characteristics. Thinning treatments included: a control, a light thin (typical of standard commercial thins), a heavy thin (densities lower than typically prescribed), and a light thin with gaps (stands thinned lightly with the addition of 0.2 hectare patch cuts evenly spaced throughout the stand). Early response (maximum of 5–7 years post-treatment) of overstory vegetation was examined. Average growth of Douglas-fir increased in all thinned stands, but growth of the largest Douglas-fir trees was only accelerated in the heavy thin. After thinning, the canopy of all thinned treatments was initially more open than the control, but after 5–7 years the light thin was no longer significantly different from the control. The light with gaps thin had the highest variation in overstory canopy cover. Differentiation of vertical canopy structure among treatments was not evident. There was no difference in mortality among any of the treatments for most species tested; those that did had highest mortality in the control. Our results indicate that thinning can be effective in hastening development of some, but not all late-successional attributes, but such acceleration is not equivalent among the different thinning treatments.
The use of breeding dens and kitten development in the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus)

The use of breeding dens and the early kitten development was studied in a free-ranging population of Iberian lynx Lynx pardinus. Radio-tracking of female lynx allowed intensive monitoring of three litters during 1997, and additional data to be obtained from nine other litters in the previous 4 years. Females gave birth a maximum of one litter per year in spring; nine of the 10 births were recorded between the last 2 weeks of March and the first days of April. Kittens were born semi-altricial and reared for nearly 20 days in secluded hollow trunks. Afterwards, they were moved between different bushes, which served as auxiliary dens, where they began to develop walking and senses. Kittens first consumed meat at the age of 4 weeks, although they were not fully weaned until they were at least 10 weeks old. At the age of 2 months, kittens began to leave the dens, accompanying their mothers on outings. It is suggested that the pattern of den use was related to the stage of kitten development, to fulfil the kittens’ need for both protection and space as they grew. Data on kitten denning and development should be accounted for in in-situ and ex-situ conservation programmes for this endangered felid.
Analgesic activity of the methanolic seed extract of Buchholzia coriacea

Tail flick, hot plate and acetic-acid induced writhing reflex analgesic models in mice were used to investigate the analgesic activities of the methanolic seed extract of Buchholzia corincea. The extract was used at the doses of 250, 500 and 1000mg/kg while acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) (400mg/kg) was used as the standard reference drug in all the models. In the acetic acid induced writhing reflex model all the doses of the extract used and the reference drug showed a potent analgesic activity by significantly (p <0.0001) decreasing the number of abdominal constrictions and also increased the percentage inhibition of writhing in a dose dependent manner. In the tail flick and hot plate models, the extract just like the reference drug showed high analgesic activity by dose dependently and significantly (p <0.0001 and p <0.005 respectively) increasing the pain reaction time (PRT) with the extract at the dose of 1000mg/kg displaying a better analgesic effect than the reference drug (ASA). These results suggest significant analgesic potential of B. coriacea and may be acting through both peripheral and central mechanisms.
NMDA Receptor Heterogeneity During Postnatal Development of the Rat Brain: Differential Expression of the NR2A, NR2B, and NR2C Subunit Proteins

Abstract: Changes in the expression of the NMDA receptor subunits (NRs) NR2A, 2B, and 2C were investigated in histo blots of the developing rat brain with subunit‐specific antisera. At birth, the NR2B subunit was detected almost ubiquitously, the NR2A subunit staining was faint and restricted to the hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and striatum, and no NR2C subunit immunoreactivity was detected. During the first 3 postnatal weeks, the NR2B subunit became confined to forebrain structures, whereas the NR2A immunoreactivity became abundantly expressed throughout the brain. The NR2C immunoreactivity emerged 5 days after birth in the olfactory bulb, thalamus, and vestibular nuclei and became very intense after 10 days in cerebellar granule cells, its primary site of expression in adulthood. After 3 weeks, NR2A and NR2B immunoreactivity decreased to adult levels, whereas NR2C immunoreactivity remained unchanged. The patterns of distribution of the subunit proteins were in agreement with those of their corresponding mRNAs, as monitored by in situ hybridization histochemistry, although the mRNA translation appeared to be delayed by several days in certain areas. Our results reveal a progressive increase in the heterogeneity of NMDA receptors due to the comparably late onset of NR2A and NR2C subunit expression and by the area‐specific rearrangement of NR2B subunit expression following birth.
Reviving Lolita?

Lolita: A name that conjures up images of preadolescent allure and perversion. The Lolita look has become a main stay not only of movies, books, and magazines but also of advertising, particularly fashion advertising. In this brief study, Galician’s model for media literacy is applied to four illustrative fashion advertisements. The sexualization of preadolescent and adolescent girls has implications for their psychological and physical well-being.
SMC1A codon 496 mutations affect the cellular response to genotoxic treatments

Cornelia de Lange syndrome is a pleiotropic developmental syndrome characterized by growth and cognitive impairment, facial dysmorphic features, limb anomalies, and other malformations. Mutations in core cohesin genes SMC1A and SMC3, and the cohesin regulatory gene, NIPBL, have been identified in Cornelia de Lange syndrome probands. Patients with NIPBL mutations have more severe phenotypes when compared to those with mutations in SMC1A or SMC3. To date, 26 distinct SMC1A mutations have been identified in patients with Cornelia de Lange syndrome. Here, we describe a 3‐year‐old girl with psychomotor and cognitive impairment, mild facial dysmorphic features but no limb anomaly, heterozygous for a c.1487G>A mutation in SMC1A which predicts p.Arg496His. We show that this mutation leads to an impairment of the cellular response to genotoxic treatments. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Determinants of customer repurchase intention in online shopping

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand customers' repurchase intentions in online shopping. This study extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) by introducing e‐service quality dimensions, trust and enjoyment in the development of a theoretical model to study customers' repurchase intentions within the context of online shopping.Design/methodology/approach – Data collected from 360 PCHome online shopping customers provides strong support for the proposed research model. PLS (partial least squares, PLS‐Graph version 3.0) is used to analyse the measurement and structural models.Findings – The study shows that trust, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and enjoyment are significant positive predictors of customers' repurchase intentions.Research limitations/implications – The data are collected from a single online shopping store – the generalisation of the model and findings to other online stores requires additional research. Our findings imply that the five dimensions of e‐servi.
Effect of V/III ratio on the structural and optical properties of self-catalysed GaAs nanowires

The performance of GaAs nanowire (NW) devices depends critically on the presence of crystallographic defects in the NWs such as twinning planes and stacking faults, and considerable effort has been devoted to understanding and preventing the occurrence of these. For self-catalysed GaAs NWs grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) in particular, there are in addition other types of defects that may be just as important for NW-based optoelectronic devices. These are the point defects such as the As vacancy and the Ga antisite occurring due to the inherently Ga-rich conditions of the self-catalysed growth. Here we demonstrate experimentally the effects of these point defects on the optical properties of GaAs/AlGaAs core–shell NWs grown by self-catalysed MBE. The present results enable insight into the role of the point defects both on their own and in conjunction with crystallographic planar defects.
Phylogeography of the invasive cyanobacterium Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii

Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii is a planktonic freshwater cyanobacterium that has become increasingly prevalent in tropical and temperate water bodies world‐wide. This species is of concern from a water‐quality perspective because of its known ability to produce toxins that can affect the health of humans and other animals. This study investigates genetic vari‐ation between strains of C. raciborskii isolated from freshwater rivers and reservoirs in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Hungary, Portugal and the USA. Strains were first characterized by analysis of their 16S rRNA gene nucleotide sequences and were found to have a sequence divergence of 99.1%. A phylogenetic tree, constructed using the 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strains grouped into Australian, European and North/South American phylotypes. To investigate further the observed separation of strains into geographically distinct groups, we applied a cyanobacterium‐specific short tandem repeat sequence technique, HIP1. An electrophoretic comparison of the HIP1 polymerase chain reaction products showed clear distinctions between the C. raciborskii strains. A phylogenetic tree, based on the repeat element banding patterns, also revealed three distinct groups of C. raciborskii strains. The first group consisted of strains from the USA and Brazil; the second comprised European strains from Germany, Hungary and Portugal; and the third were strains from Australia. In general, between‐country variation was greater than within‐country variation, indicating that this fingerprinting technique can successfully distinguish C. raciborskii strains taken from different global locations. The relationship between toxicity and the observed HIP1 polymerase chain reaction fingerprint profiles was less clear, although it is interesting to note that of the strains analysed in this study, only Australian strains are known to produce cylindrospermopsin and only Brazilian strains have been reported to produce paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins.
MC-CDMA System Using Unitary Space-Time Modulation on Down-link Broadband Mobile Radio Communication

To solve the degradation of the BER performance of Space-Time Block Code (STBC)/MC-CDMA system when MC-CDMA system has large number of users, we propose Unitary Space-Time Modulation (USTM)/MC-CDMA sys-tem. USTM combines STBC and baseband modulation by employing unitary matrix. USTM is designed in order not to receive signals from different transmit antennas simultaneously at the receiver. In the proposed system, the effect of MUI can be reduced by employing USTM in comparison with STBC/MC-CDMA. Consequently, we show that the proposed system can improve the BER performance compared with STBC/MC-CDMA system when MC-CDMA system has large number of users.
Clinical evaluation of the efficacy of inoculating cattle with a vaccine containing Tritrichomonas foetus.

To test the efficacy of a polyvalent Tritrichomonas foetus vaccine, 130 nulliparous heifers were randomly assigned to either receive the test T foetus vaccine or to serve as nonvaccinated controls. The polyvalent test vaccine consisted of a Campylobacter fetus/Leptospira canicola-grippotyphosa-hardjo-icterohaemorrhagiae-pamona bacterine containing 5 x 10(7) killed T foetus/dose. The polyvalent control vaccine consisted of the aforementioned formulation without T foetus. Heifers were administered 2 doses of control or experimental vaccine at 3-week intervals. Heifers were bred to T foetus-infected bulls and their conception and pregnancy rates were determined throughout gestation. In addition, serum samples were analyzed to determine induced concentrations of antitrichomonal antibodies and vaginal secretions were sampled to determine T foetus infection rates in control and vaccinated animals. One week after each of the 15-day breeding periods, 60% (6 of 10) of tested vaccinates and 80% (8 of 10) of tested control animals were T foetus culture-positive. The mean duration of infection of vaccinates was 3.8 weeks (+/- 7.5 days), compared with 5.4 weeks (+/- 7.5 days) of infection for control heifers. All vaccinates developed increased immunofluorescence and serum neutralizing antibody titers following the first immunization, and had additional increases of at least fourfold in response to the second injection. In contrast, no consistent increase in immunofluorescence or serum neutralizing antibodies was observed in control animals. Conception rates were 89.2% for vaccinates and 85.9% for control animals 30 days after breeding and 80 to 90% of these remained pregnant 60 days after breeding. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)