Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The water vapour self- and water–nitrogen continuum absorption in the 1000 and 2500 cm−1 atmospheric windows

The pure water vapour and water–nitrogen continuum absorption in the 1000 and 2500 cm−1 atmospheric windows has been studied using a 2 m base-length White-type multi-pass cell coupled with a BOMEM DA3-002 Fourier transform infrared spectrometer. The measurements were carried out at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, Gaithersburg, MD) over the course of several years (2004, 2006–2007, 2009). New data on the H2O:N2 continuum in the 1000 cm−1 window are presented and summarized along with the other experimental results and the continuum model. The experimental data reported on the water vapour continuum in these atmospheric windows basically agree with the most reliable laboratory data from the other sources. The MT_CKD (MlawerTobinCloughKneizysDavies) continuum model significantly departs from the experimental data in both windows. The deviation observed includes the continuum magnitude, spectral behaviour and temperature dependence. In the 2500 cm−1 region, the model does not allow for the nitrogen fundamental collision-induced absorption (CIA) band intensity enhancement caused by H2O:N2 collisions and underestimates the actual absorption by over two orders of magnitude. The water vapour continuum interpretation as a typical CIA spectrum is reviewed and discussed.
The Evolutionary Role of Modularity and Integration in the Hominoid Cranium

Abstract Patterns of morphological integration and modularity among shape features emerge from genetic and developmental factors with varying pleiotropic effects. Factors or processes affecting morphology only locally may respond to selection more easily than common factors that may lead to deleterious side effects and hence are expected to be more conserved. We briefly review evidence for such global factors in primate cranial development as well as for local factors constrained to either the face or the neurocranium. In a sample comprising 157 crania of Homo sapiens, Pan troglodytes, and Gorilla gorilla, we statistically estimated common and local factors of shape variation from Procrustes coordinates of 347 landmarks and semilandmarks. Common factors with pleiotropic effects on both the face and the neurocranium account for a large amount of shape variation, but mainly by extension or truncation of otherwise conserved developmental pathways. Local factors (modular shape characteristics) have more degrees of freedom for evolutionary change than mere ontogenetic scaling. Cranial shape is similarly integrated during development in all three species, but human evolution involves dissociation among several characteristics. The dissociation has probably been achieved by evolutionary alterations and by the novel emergence of local factors affecting characteristics that are controlled at the same time by the common factors.
Choline acetyltransferase immunoreactivity in the developing brain of Xenopus laevis

The spatiotemporal sequence of the appearance of cholinergic structures in the brain of Xenopus laevis during development was studied by means of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunohistochemistry. The first ChAT labeling in the central nervous system of Xenopus was obtained at late embryonic stages in the spinal motoneurons, the cranial nerve motor nuclei of the brainstem, and in amacrine cells of the retina. During premetamorphosis, these cholinergic structures maturated significantly and new ChAT‐immunoreactive cells were observed in several other nuclei such as the solitary tract nucleus, isthmic nucleus, laterodorsal and pedunculopontine tegmental nuclei, epiphysis, dorsal habenular nucleus, medial amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and dorsal pallidum. Further maturation continued through prometamorphosis and the climax of the metamorphosis together with the appearance of new cell groups in the efferent octaval nucleus, ventral hypothalamic nucleus, anterior preoptic area, suprachiasmatic nucleus, and medial septum. Transient expression of ChAT was only seen in the large Mauthner cells that showed moderate ChAT labeling during pre‐ and prometamorphosis but became immunonegative at the end of the metamorphosis. The gradual appearance, in general from caudal to rostral brain levels, of ChAT immunoreactivity in Xenopus, was correlated with other developmental events to get insight into the possible roles of acetylcholine during ontogeny. Comparison with the developmental pattern of cholinergic systems in other vertebrates shows that Xenopus possesses abundant features in common with amniotes, suggesting a conservative developmental plan for tetrapods. J. Comp. Neurol. 453:418–434, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Immunohistochemical Distribution of Epithelioid Cell, Myofibroblast, and Transforming Growth Factor‐β1 in the Granuloma Caused by Mycobacterium avium intracellulare Complex Pulmonary Infection

The present study was designed to evaluate the distribution of epithelioid cells, myofibroblasts, and TGF‐β1 in the formation of granuloma caused by Mycobacterium avium intracellulare complex (MAC) lung infection. A retrospective study was performed for 9 cases of positive MAC culture in which lung resections were performed between January 1989 and August 1999. Resected lung specimens were evaluated histologically and immunohistochemically for CD68 (stain for monocytes and macrophages, and epithelioid cells) and α‐smooth muscle actin as well as vimentin (stain for myofibroblasts), and TGF‐β1 was performed. When granuloma was initially formed, no myofibroblasts were found, but as caseous necrosis appeared, the thin epithelioid cell layer was detected and the outer myofibroblast layer gradually became thick. In the cavitary wall, the layer of epithelioid cells and multinucleated giant cells surrounded necrosis, and was associated with the outer layer of myofibroblasts. In addition, the anti‐TGF‐β1 antibody stained the cytoplasm of epithelioid cells and multinucleated giant cells, preceding the advent of myofibroblasts. In summary, our present study evaluated distributions of epithelioid cells, myofibroblasts, and TGF‐β along with the morphogenesis of granuloma, and clearly demonstrated the immunohistochemical difference between granuloma with caseous necrosis and granulomas without caseous necrosis.
Effect of multiple suckling on liveweight, milk production and fertility of dairy cows.

A three year full lactation (A) and two early lactation (B) multiple suckling experiments were conducted at Kairi Research Station, North Queensland. For the full lactation studies 12 cows, of which 6 weresupplemented with maize fof c.100 days post partum, were free access suckled at 4 calves cowfor 300 days and 20 were machine milked. Short term studies evaluated suckling method with calves weaned at eight weeks:(i) Eight cows restricted access suckled (15 min twice daily) and eight cows free access suckled at four calves/cow; eight cows milked. (ii) Sixteen cows restricted access suckled with either four or five calves/cow, 16 milked. Assessment of oestrus included per rectum examination. In (B) experiments nurse cow milk production was estimated weekly by weighing calves before and after feeding at two consecutive milkings.
Hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy: towards clinically significant gene transfer efficiency

Early clinical gene therapy and gene marking trials using retroviral vectors to transduce hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) revealed two major shortcomings of this new treatment modality. One was insufficient expression or even silencing of the integrated vector sequences, and the second was the low gene transfer efficiency achieved to in vivo repopulating cells. It became clear that neither rodent models nor human in vitro surrogate assays for stem cells were predictive of in vivo transgene levels in human target cells. Using the rhesus monkey model we have focused on improving gene transfer efficiency into HSC. Immune rejection of trans duced cells has been shown to occur in mature peripheral target cells such as lymphocytes or myocytes. Our studies and those from other investiga tors suggest that transgenes introduced via HSC induces immunologic tolerance towards the foreign product. In vivo priming of target cells, i.e. mobilization of HSC into the circulation with granulocyte colony stimulating factor and stem cell factor, as well as optimization of the in vitro transduction conditions, now allow a stable in vivo gene transfer efficiency of up to 10-15% in both lymphoid and myeloid circulating cells in non-human primates, levels that would be adequate for many clinical applications.
Review article: New‐onset diabetes after transplantation

SUMMARY: This article reviews the clinical aspects and epidemiological links between diabetes mellitus and renal transplantation, and emphasizes areas that warrant further clarification. In particular, we summarize the data for various immunosuppression medications on the risk of new‐onset diabetes after transplantation (NODAT). An increased mechanistic understanding of new‐onset diabetes might provide new insights into the pathophysiology of this complication after solid organ transplantation. Claims that selecting immunosuppression regimen to minimize the risk of NODAT, nevertheless, are currently not supported by the scientific published work. Intuitively, strategies that aim to change the underlying biology of the disease process of NODAT are desirable; among them, lifestyle modification is currently the most promising in terms of real benefit with the least risk.
Aging effect on electrical characteristics of insulating oil in field transformer

To ensure long-term reliability of transformers, it is important to identify the degradation characteristics of insulating oil in long-term operations, which are the dominant factors of the transformer dielectric strengths. Analysis on aged field insulating oil was conducted to identify how insulating oil in transformers changes and deteriorates with increasing age and what are the impacts on the electrical characteristics such as breakdown voltages. Insulating oil samples were collected from a total of 98 transformers, varying significantly with six manufacturers, manufacture years of 1956 to 1999, and voltage classes of 66 kV to 500 kV. Electrical, physical and chemical characteristics were obtained, and the impact of increasing age and the relationships among characteristics were evaluated. The characteristics found to deteriorate with increasing age were volume resistivities, dielectric loss tangents, interfacial tensions, and total acid values. These characteristics can be used as effective indexes for trend monitoring to identify aging statuses and detect abnormalities at an early stage. The physical characteristics (kinetic viscosities, densities, and flash points) showed different tendencies depending on the oil type and age. Since the physical characteristics depend on the compositions of insulating oil, the possible causes for this result are that the compositions of insulating oil were different between oil types and that the compositions varied in accordance with increasing age. Furthermore, the correlations between characteristics were evaluated. As a result, a correlation was found between volume resistivities and total acid values, and good correlations were found between interfacial tensions and volume resistivities and total acid values. Interfacial tensions, which change with a higher rate than total acid values, can be possibly used as an effective index for insulating oil degradation.
Candida glabrata is unusual with respect to its resistance to cationic antifungal proteins

Naturally occurring salivary antifungal proteins have been of major interest, due to their potential to provide the basis for peptide antimycotics effective in combating fungal infections in the oral cavity or elsewhere. We tested the fungistatic activity of a number of cationic antifungal proteins, with major emphasis on histatin 5, a basic protein secreted by the human parotid and submandibular glands. Histatin 5 inhibited the growth of Candida albicans and that of other medically important Candida species, such as C. kefyr, C. krusei, and C. parapsilosis, with IC50 values in the range of 10–20 µg/ml. Two Cryptococcus neoformans strains were also sensitive (IC50 5.2 and 5.6 µg/ml). On the other hand, three C. glabrata strains (ATCC 90030, 2001 and 64677) were entirely insensitive to histatin 5 (IC50>225 µg/ml). Four genetically very similar species to C. glabrata, Candida castelli (CBS 4332), Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S288C, BY4741 and CBS 1171), Kluyveromyces delphensis (CBS 2170) and Kluyveromyces bacillisporus (CBS 7720) were all sensitive to histatin 5 (IC50 2.6–64.6 µg/ml). C. glabrata was also insensitive to other members of the histatin family; histatin 1, 3 and P‐113 (IC50 values in all cases >225 µg/ml). In addition, two entirely different cationic antifungal proteins originating from frog skin, PGLa and magainin 2, also showed a strong reduced activity toward this fungus. Besides the well‐described inherent resistance of C. glabrata to azole‐derived antifungal agents, our studies indicate that this species is also able to withstand the otherwise detrimental activities of cationic antifungal proteins. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Beta2-adrenergic receptor gene polymorphisms and risk of ischemic stroke.

BACKGROUND Beta2-adrenergic receptors (beta2-AR) mediate vasorelaxation in response to adrenergic agents. Genetic polymorphisms of beta2-AR were implicated in various cardiovascular and noncardiovascular traits. METHODS We tested the role of the beta2AR-16 and beta2AR-27 gene variants in the susceptibility to the development of ischemic stroke in a genetically homogenous and clinically well-characterized case-control sample that included 294 cases and 286 controls from Sardinia, Italy. This population was shown to be an optimal study sample for carrying out genetic analyses. RESULTS Age, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and atrial fibrillation were independent risk factors for stroke in this cohort. We found that the presence of the Glu27 allelic variant was associated with a significantly increased risk of stroke when assuming a recessive mode of inheritance (odds ratio [OR], 1.68; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.17-2.41; P = .005). The same results were obtained for the subgroup of ischemic strokes of arterial origin (n = 215): OR, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.14-2.57; P = . 009. Furthermore, haplotype analysis confirmed that the presence of the Glu27 allele increased the risk of cerebrovascular accidents. CONCLUSIONS Our data suggest that the Glu27 allelic variant of the beta2-AR gene may be a determinant of ischemic stroke.
Causal Models can be Used to Predict Base-Rate Neglect

Causal models are used to predict individuals' probability judgments on the taxicab problem of Tversky and Kahneman (1982). Predictions are based on the hypothesis that judgments take into account only those variables that are judged causally relevant. Two versions of the problem were tested, one with and one without causally-relevant base rates. The results showed that causal models were able to predict judgments reasonably well. However, the data failed to replicate Tversky and Kahneman's finding of a difference between the two conditions.
School Nurses

School nurses coordinate student health care for prevention and treatment to remove health barriers to learning and to school attendance. They use a team approach to manage students with chronic conditions as they transition among home, school and healthcare settings, working to develop competent self-care aligned with developmental ages of students. Care coordination ensures the continuum of care is unbroken. Meeting the health needs of low-income students can be challenging, because those students are likely to be uninsured or underinsured and often lack necessary resources, such as transportation, to access primary health care. Care coordination is a tenet of school nursing and to optimally serve low-income students, school nurses form partnerships in the community. One innovative and successful partnership is Healthy Learners, an organization that works with community healthcare providers and school district nurses to connect eligible students to needed healthcare services. Always, the goal is to keep students in school, healthy, and ready to learn.
Social Patterns of Inequality, Partisan Competition, and Latin American Support for Redistribution

This article argues that social patterns of inequality and structures of partisan competition play central roles in shaping support for redistribution, offering three important insights concerning redistribution attitude formation. First, pronounced income disparities between ethnic/racial groups reduce support for redistribution. Second, for members of marginalized ethnic groups, entrenched discrimination reflected in large between-group inequalities provokes skepticism regarding state redistributive efforts, undermining their generally favorable attitudes toward redistribution. Third, when party systems feature programmatic competition around distributional issues, citizens are more likely to view government redistribution favorably, particularly where meaningful left options are present, while in systems without programmatic parties advocating pro-poor policy, support for redistribution is weaker. The results based on multilevel analysis of survey data from 18 Latin American countries suggest that building political support for redistribution is more difficult when economic and ethnic inequalities overlap and when party systems lack programmatic appeals emphasizing distributive issues.
The Effects of Education on Canadians’ Retirement Savings Behaviour

This paper assesses the extent to which education affects how Canadians save and accumulate wealth for retirement. The paper makes three contributions. First, a descriptive analysis is presented of differences in savings and home values across individuals based on their levels of educational attainment. To this end, new datasets that link survey respondents from the 1991 and 2006 censuses of Canada to their administrative tax records are used. These data provide a unique opportunity to jointly observe education, savings, home values, and a plethora of other factors of relevance. Second, the causal effect of high school completion on savings rates in tax-preferred accounts is estimated, exploiting compulsory schooling reforms in the identification. Third, building on a recent study by Messacar (2015), education is also found to affect how individuals re-optimize their savings rates in response to an automatic change in pension wealth accumulation. The implications of this study’s findings for the “nudge paradigm” in behavioural economics are discussed.
Man-made interference in below 3 GHz frequencies: How severe is the problem?

We present initial results from our ongoing on radio's spectrum measurement campaign on characterizing radio noise levels. The measurements are done at a number of diverse locations in order to study in detail the power and other characteristics of the man-made noise. We observe a significantly increased occurrence of noise compared to levels reported in the earlier literature. In some areas can even deteriorate the quality of service of deployed wireless networks. In this paper we present the measurement methodology, initial results, and show that the man-made noise is something that needs to be considered when planning future wireless systems.
Critical immaturities limiting infant binocular stereopsis.

PURPOSE To determine what critical immaturity is responsible for the poor binocular stereopsis of human infants. METHODS Infant and adult psychometric functions were measured for detection of stereoscopic depth in a random-texture display. A test stimulus defined by horizontal binocular disparity and a distracter stimulus defined by vertical disparity were used. Adults were tested by direct psychophysical methods at several contrast values, and infants by forced-choice preferential looking at 100% contrast. RESULTS Infant stereoacuity matured from unmeasurable at age 12 weeks to 7.9 arc min at 20 weeks, which was still far from the nominal adult value of 5 to 10 arc seconds. In contrast, infant d-max (maximum disparity) was 86.8 minutes at 20 weeks, which was near the adult d-max of 110.6 minutes. The average maximum level of infant performance at 20 weeks was 77% correct, still far below adult performance. When the adult stereogram was low contrast, adult extrafoveal performance was similar to infant performance. Infant and adult stereo performance was predicted quantitatively, using infant and adult monocular performance in detecting the stereogram texture. Infant and adult stereopsis performance approached, but did not reach, the predicted values. CONCLUSIONS The infantlike performance of adults tested at low contrast and the similarity of infant maximum percentage of correct data relative to the predicted values suggested that the critical immaturity limiting infant stereopsis is the well-known insensitivity of the infant visual system to contrast. This conclusion supports the clinical use of stereopsis as a screening test for bilateral monocular function in infants.
Occupational risk factors for endometriosis in a cohort of flight attendants.

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to (i) compare odds of endometriosis in a cohort of flight attendants against a comparison group of teachers and (ii) investigate occupational risk factors for endometriosis among flight attendants. METHODS We included 1945 flight attendants and 236 teachers aged 18-45 years. Laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis was self-reported via telephone interview, and flight records were retrieved from airlines to obtain work schedules and assess exposures for flight attendants. We used proportional odds regression to estimate adjusted odds ratios (OR adj) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for associations between exposures and endometriosis, adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS Flight attendants and teachers were equally likely to report endometriosis (OR adj1.0, 95% CI 0.5-2.2). Among flight attendants, there were no clear trends between estimated cosmic radiation, circadian disruption, or ergonomic exposures and endometriosis. Greater number of flight segments (non-stop flights between two cities) per year was associated with endometriosis (OR adj2.2, 1.1-4.2 for highest versus lowest quartile, P trend= 0.02) but block hours (taxi plus flight time) per year was not (OR adj1.2, 95% CI 0.6-2.2 for highest versus lowest quartile, P trend=0.38). CONCLUSION Flight attendants were no more likely than teachers to report endometriosis. Odds of endometriosis increased with number of flight segments flown per year. This suggests that some aspect of work scheduling is associated with increased risk of endometriosis, or endometriosis symptoms might affect how flight attendants schedule their flights.