Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of continuous light exposure on antioxidant enzymes, porphyric enzymes and cellular damage in the Harderian gland of the Syrian hamster

Abstract: The Syrian hamster Harderian gland (HG), an organ present in the male two secretory cell types (type‐I and type‐II cells), is physiologically exposed to high oxidative stress because of high concentrations of porphyrins and their precursor, 5‐aminolevulinic acid. Because of its juxtaorbital location, the HG is accessible to light, and subject to phototoxic effects of these substances. After having previously demonstrated circadian rhythms in antioxidant enzymes, porphyric enzymes and oxidative damage of proteins and lipids, as well as influences of melatonin on these parameters, we have now studied the effects of continuous light (LL), which suppresses melatonin secretion by the pineal gland. Measurements were performed in two different circadian phases, in order to detect the presence or absence of day/night differences. In LL, no differences between circadian phases of subjective day and subjective night were demonstrable for 5‐aminolevulinate synthase, 5‐aminolevulinate dehydratase, porphobilinogen deaminase, or superoxide dismutase; temporal differences in glutathione reductase and catalase were markedly diminished, whereas all these parameters showed marked day/night differences in the rats exposed to a light/dark cycle of 14:10. In LL, oxidative damage to lipids was minimally effected, while protein damage was enhanced. LL also caused a reduction in the percentage of type‐II cells. Therefore, cell differentiation in the HG does not seem to be controlled only by the androgen, but, unexpectedly, also by melatonin.
Left ventricle structural remodelling in the prediabetic Goto–Kakizaki rat

This study tested the hypothesis that experimental prediabetes can elicit structural remodelling in the left ventricle (LV). Left ventricles isolated from 8‐week‐old male Goto–Kakizaki (GK) rats and age‐matched male Wistar control rats were used to assess remodelling changes and underlying transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) activity, prohypertrophic Akt–p70S6K1 signalling and gene expression profile of the extracellular matrix (ECM) using histological, immunohistochemical, immunoblotting and quantitative gene expression analyses. Prediabetes in GK rats was confirmed by impaired glucose tolerance and modestly elevated fasting blood glucose. Left ventricle remodelling in the GK rat presented with marked hypertrophy of cardiomyocytes and increased ECM deposition that together translated into increased heart size in the absence of ultrastructural changes or fibre disarray. Molecular derangements underlying this phenotype included recapitulation of the fetal gene phenotype markers B‐type natriuretic peptide and α‐skeletal muscle actin, activation of the Akt–p70S6K1 pathway and altered gene expression profile of key components (collagen 1α and fibronectin) and modulators of the ECM (matrix metalloproteinases 2 and 9 and connective tissue growth factor). These changes were correlated with parallel findings of increased TGFβ1 transcription and activation in the LV and elevated active TGFβ1 in plasma of GK rats compared with control animals (Student's t test, P < 0.05 versus age‐matched Wistar control animals for all parameters). This is the first report to describe LV structural remodelling in experimental prediabetes. The results suggest that ventricular decompensation pathognomonic of advanced diabetic cardiomyopathy may have possible origins in profibrotic and prohypertrophic mechanisms triggered before the onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
A Low-Power Fast-Transient 90-nm Low-Dropout Regulator With Multiple Small-Gain Stages

A power-efficient 90-nm low-dropout regulator (LDO) with multiple small-gain stages is proposed in this paper. The proposed channel-resistance-insensitive small-gain stages provide loop gain enhancements without introducing low-frequency poles before the unity-gain frequency (UGF). As a result, both the loop gain and bandwidth of the LDO are improved, so that the accuracy and response speed of voltage regulation are significantly enhanced. As no on-chip compensation capacitor is required, the active chip area of the LDO is only 72.5 μm × 37.8 μm. Experimental results show that the LDO is capable of providing an output of 0.9 V with maximum output current of 50 mA from a 1-V supply. The LDO has a quiescent current of 9.3 μA, and has significantly improvement in line and load transient responses as well as performance in power-supply rejection ratio (PSRR).
Behavioral Treatment of High Blood Pressure. I. Analyses of Intra‐ and Interdaily Variations of Blood Pressure During A One‐Month, Baseline Period

&NA; A group of 125 patients was enrolled in a study designed to evaluate the effectiveness of two behavioral treatments of high blood pressure, “relaxation’ and systolic blood pressure “biofeedback. ” All patients monitored their pressures three times daily and also had their pressures recorded by a health professional weekly for a one‐month, baseline period. This article reports only the results form the baseline period. The main findings are: 1) extensive self‐monitoring of blood pressure is feasible and practical; 2) systolic pressure rises throughout the day, but is highest in the afternoon; 3) diastolic pressure falls form morning to evening, but is highest in the afternoon; 4) intradaily range of systolic but not diastolic blood pressure is higher among women than among men; 5) both systolic and diastolic pressures fall throughout the first 3 weeks; 6) standard deviations and ranges of self‐determined blood pressures are highly intercorrelated; however, changes in professionally measured blood pressures are poorly correlated with these indices of blood pressure lability; 7) systolic pressure levels, rates of decline throughout the baseline period and lability indices are correlated with age, but comparable measures of diastolic blood pressure are not correlated with age.
The mismatch repair system (mutS, mutL and uvrD genes) in

 Pseudomonas aeruginosa: molecular characterization of naturally occurring mutants

We have recently described the presence of a high proportion of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates (20%) with an increased mutation frequency (mutators) in the lungs of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. In four out of 11 independent P. aeruginosa strains, the high mutation frequency was found to be complemented with the wild‐type mutS gene from P. aeruginosa PAO1. Here, we report the cloning and sequencing of two additional P. aeruginosa mismatch repair genes and the characterization, by complementation of deficient strains, of these two putative P. aeruginosa mismatch repair genes (mutL and uvrD). We also describe the alterations in the mutS, mutL and uvrD genes responsible for the mutator phenotype of hypermutable P. aeruginosa strains isolated from CF patients. Seven out of the 11 mutator strains were found to be defective in the MMR system (four mutS, two mutL and one uvrD). In four cases (three mutS and one mutL), the genes contained frameshift mutations. The fourth mutS strain showed a 3.3 kb insertion after the 10th nucleotide of the mutS gene, and a 54 nucleotide deletion between two eight nucleotide direct repeats. This deletion, involving domain II of MutS, was found to be the main one responsible for mutS inactivation. The second mutL strain presented a K310M mutation, equivalent to K307 in Escherichia coli MutL, a residue known to be essential for its ATPase activity. Finally, the uvrD strain had three amino acid substitutions within the conserved ATP binding site of the deduced UvrD polypeptide, showing defective mismatch repair activity. Interestingly, cells carrying this mutant allele exhibited a fully active UvrABC‐mediated excision repair. The results shown here indicate that the putative P. aeruginosa mutS, mutL and uvrD genes are mutator genes and that their alteration results in a mutator phenotype.
Anaplasma phagocytophilum in Small Mammals and Ticks in Northeast Florida

ABSTRACT: Human anaplasmosis is an emerging tick-borne disease in the United States, but few studies of the causative agent, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, have been conducted in southeastern states. The aim of this study was to determine if A. phagocytophilum is present in small mammals and ticks in northeast Florida. Polymerase chain reaction assays designed to amplify portions of the major surface protein 2 gene (p44), 16S rDNA, and groESL operons were used to test rodent blood and tick DNA samples for the presence of A. phagocytophilum. Positive samples were confirmed by DNA sequence analysis. Anaplasma phagocytophilum DNA was detected in less than 5% of cotton mice and 45% of cotton rats from two sites in northeast Florida. Anaplasma phagocytophilum DNA was also confirmed in 1.3% of host-seeking adult Ixodes scapularis tested and 2.7% of host-seeking adult Amblyomma americanum. This report describes the first DNA sequence data confirming strains of A. phagocytophilum in rodents and ticks in Florida. The DNA sequences of the msp2, 16S rDNA, and groESL gene fragments obtained in this study were highly similar to reference strains of human pathogenic strains of A. phagocytophilum. These findings suggest that A. phagocytophilum is present and established among some small mammal species in northeast Florida. Although the infection prevalence was low in the total number of ticks tested, the presence of A. phagocytophilum in two human biting tick species, one of which is a known competent vector, suggests that humans in this region may be at risk of granulocytic anaplasmosis caused by this pathogen.
Association of intracranial aneurysms and meningiomas: a case-control study.

OBJECT The authors aimed to assess whether the prevalence of intracranial aneurysms in patients with intracranial meningiomas was higher than that in a healthy population. METHODS The authors performed a hospital-based case-control study of 300 patients with newly diagnosed intracranial meningiomas and 900 age- and sex-matched controls without a history of brain tumors to evaluate any associations between intracranial aneurysms and intracranial meningiomas. Unconditional multivariate logistic regression models were used for case-control comparisons. RESULTS Intracranial aneurysms were identified in 23 patients (7.7%) and 24 controls (2.7%; p < 0.001). There was a significant association between intracranial aneurysms and intracranial meningiomas (OR 2.913, 95% CI 1.613-5.261) and hypertension (OR 1.905, 95% CI 1.053-3.446). In a subgroup analysis of the patients with newly diagnosed intracranial meningiomas, there was a significant association between intracranial aneurysms and hypertension (OR 2.876, 95% CI 1.125-7.352) and tumor volume (OR 1.012, 95% CI 1.001-1.024). These patients were also more likely than controls to have other intracranial vascular diseases (p < 0.001), such as isolated occlusion of the intracranial vessels, excluding intracranial aneurysms. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of intracranial aneurysms was higher in patients with intracranial meningiomas. Hypertension and tumor volume appear to be associated with the formation of intracranial aneurysms in these patients.
Do Lower Returns on Bank Stocks Suggest Lower Cost of Capital? An Explanation for the Low Risk Anomaly and the Loan Growth Effect

Banks with higher equity risk and faster loan growth have lower abnormal stock returns. By disentangling ex ante cost of capital from cash flow and discount rate news in bank stock returns, we show that the lower returns do not suggest lower cost of capital. The underperformance of banks with higher equity risk is explained by the poorer cash flow news. The underperformance of banks with faster loan growth is due to both the cash flow and the discount rate news components. Overall, the evidence points to the nontrivial role of investors’ inefficient forecasts of expected bank risk and fundamentals.
Long-term use of benzodiazepines and related drugs among community-dwelling individuals with and without Alzheimer’s disease

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of benzodiazepine and related drug (BZDR) use, especially long-term use, and associated factors among community-dwelling individuals with and without Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We utilized data from the MEDALZ-2005 cohort, which includes all community-dwelling individuals diagnosed with AD in Finland at the end of 2005 and matched comparison individuals without AD. Register-based data included prescription drug purchases, comorbidities, and hospital discharge diagnoses. In this study, 24 966 individuals with AD and 24 985 individuals without AD were included. During the 4-year follow-up, we found that 45% (N=11 312) of individuals with AD and 38% (N=9534) of individuals without AD used BZDRs. The prevalence of long-term (≥180 days) BZDR use was more common among individuals with AD (30%) than individuals without AD (26%). The median durations of the first long-term use periods of BZDRs were 1.5 and 2 years for individuals with and without AD, respectively. Factors associated with long-term BZDR use included female sex, AD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, coronary artery disease, and asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The high prevalence of long-term BZDR use among individuals with AD is especially a cause for concern because long-term use may further impair cognition and may be associated with serious adverse events.
The Walk-Down to Beatable Forecasts: International Evidence

We use the framework developed in Richardson et al. (2004) to identify country, firm and analyst characteristics that we expect to be associated with the prevalence of the analyst walk-down forecast pattern. Based on a large sample of 50,649 analysts covering 33,645 firms from 46 countries during 1992-2014, we find that the walk-down pattern positively correlates with country characteristics related to insider trading restrictions and equity sales. It also positively relates to the stock market reward for beating analyst forecasts, firm-level characteristics underlying management concerns with share prices after earnings announcements, and analysts’ incentives to cooperate with management. The effects of these factors on the walk-down pattern are more pronounced in countries with better media-coverage institutions. Overall, these findings suggest that capital market incentives affecting the communication between managers and analysts and the resulting analyst forecast bias involves various forces including a country’s institutional infrastructure, and firm and analyst characteristics.
A deep learning method for classifying mammographic breast density categories

PURPOSE Mammographic breast density is an established risk marker for breast cancer and is visually assessed by radiologists in routine mammogram image reading, using four qualitative Breast Imaging and Reporting Data System (BI-RADS) breast density categories. It is particularly difficult for radiologists to consistently distinguish the two most common and most variably assigned BI-RADS categories, i.e., "scattered density" and "heterogeneously dense". The aim of this work was to investigate a deep learning-based breast density classifier to consistently distinguish these two categories, aiming at providing a potential computerized tool to assist radiologists in assigning a BI-RADS category in current clinical workflow. METHODS In this study, we constructed a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based model coupled with a large (i.e., 22,000 images) digital mammogram imaging dataset to evaluate the classification performance between the two aforementioned breast density categories. All images were collected from a cohort of 1,427 women who underwent standard digital mammography screening from 2005 to 2016 at our institution. The truths of the density categories were based on standard clinical assessment made by board-certified breast imaging radiologists. Effects of direct training from scratch solely using digital mammogram images and transfer learning of a pretrained model on a large nonmedical imaging dataset were evaluated for the specific task of breast density classification. In order to measure the classification performance, the CNN classifier was also tested on a refined version of the mammogram image dataset by removing some potentially inaccurately labeled images. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and the area under the curve (AUC) were used to measure the accuracy of the classifier. RESULTS The AUC was 0.9421 when the CNN-model was trained from scratch on our own mammogram images, and the accuracy increased gradually along with an increased size of training samples. Using the pretrained model followed by a fine-tuning process with as few as 500 mammogram images led to an AUC of 0.9265. After removing the potentially inaccurately labeled images, AUC was increased to 0.9882 and 0.9857 for without and with the pretrained model, respectively, both significantly higher (P < 0.001) than when using the full imaging dataset. CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrated high classification accuracies between two difficult to distinguish breast density categories that are routinely assessed by radiologists. We anticipate that our approach will help enhance current clinical assessment of breast density and better support consistent density notification to patients in breast cancer screening.
Use of High-Fidelity Simulation for Staff Education/Development: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Currently, high-fidelity simulations (HFS) are widely used in nursing education and are being introduced into acute care to assist with orientation programs, continuing education, certification courses, and staff development. In a review of the literature, many articles were found that describe HFS and its advantages and how to use the technology. But, there are few research studies to support the use. Upon completion of a review of the literature and an analysis of utility, the data do not clearly show that HFS is the best practice for the orientation and education of staff nurses. Overall, HFS is recognized as a safe way to learn, and most nurses like participating in HFSs. However, before the healthcare industry continues on this journey of widespread adoption of HFSs, more research needs to be done to show that the increased skills and knowledge of the nurse obtained through simulation does translate into safer patient care and better patient outcomes.
Evolution of a Lawsonite Eclogite from the Monviso Meta-ophiolite ( Western Alps ) : Dehydration and Redox Reactions during Subduction of Oceanic FeTi-oxide

Lawsonite eclogites represent fossil records of processes occurring during subduction of coldand fast-subducting slabs, and provide an opportunity to investigate the thermal and metamorphic evolution of palaeosubduction zones. Occurrences of lawsonite eclogites are rare because lawsonite is often replaced during exhumation. We report here, for the first time, the occurrence of a lawsonite eclogite from the Monviso meta-ophiolite (Western Alps), representing the product of the Alpine metamorphism of a FeTi-oxide gabbro. The prograde metamorphic evolution of this lawsonite eclogite has been investigated using the petrological approach of pseudosections.The reconstruction of its prograde P^T evolution allowed us to monitor changes in chemical and physical properties (mineral assemblages and compositions, density, H2O content, oxygen fugacity) during subduction. The pseudosection modelling suggests peak metamorphic conditions ofT 5508C, P1⁄4 25^26 kbar, and a decrease in the thermal gradient during subduction from about 98C km 1 to less than 78C km , which may be interpreted as related to an increase in the subduction rate. During its prograde evolution, at a depth of about 65^70 km, the eclogite-facies metagabbro experienced a significant dehydration passing from the Grt1þOmp1þLwsþChlþQtzþRt assemblage (stage I) to the Grt2þOmp2þTlcþQtzþRt assemblage (stage II). The breakdown of lawsonite and chlorite caused the release of up to 3 wt % of H2O and also of oxygen, as modelled by the redox equilibrium LwsþQtzþChlþOmp11⁄4Grtþ Omp2þH2OþO2. This redox-equilibrium represents the boundary between an earlier, more oxidized assemblage (stage I), stable at lowerT, and a later, more reduced assemblage (stage II), stable at higher T. These results have possible implications for the understanding of the complex interactions between crust and mantle in subduction zones, especially in clarifying the processes locally involved in the oxidation of the mantle wedge overlying the subducting slab.
Measuring Visitor Experiences: Creating and Testing the Tourism Autobiographical Memory Scale

The purpose of this study was to test the validity of the new Tourism Autobiographical Memory Scale (TAMS) that measures visitor experience through personal memory. The TAMS uses the autobiographical memory framework to represent the degree to which a travel experience was impactful to a traveler’s life. Visitors were asked to recall a memory from their visit to a national park and rate the memory of the experience based on its impact and frequency of rehearsal on a 7-point scale. Using exploratory factor analysis and reliability testing, two distinct factors emerged. Results identified a reliable measure of a memory’s impact and frequency of rehearsal of tourists. The TAMS provides researchers a new scale to gather information about the impact of a visitor experience from the direct source—personal memories. Destination managers who understand the impact they can have on a traveler will be able to manage and market to those types of experiences.
Nontraditional Alternative Teacher Certification Programs: Their Purpose, Design and Participants

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! Essays in Education (EIE) is a professional, peer-reviewed journal intended to promote practitioner and academic dialogue on current and relevant issues across human services professions. The editors of EIE encourage both novice and experienced educators to submit manuscripts that share their thoughts and insights. Visit https://openriver.winona. edu/eie for more information on submitting your manuscript for possible publication.
On electron-trap transformation and its unexpected frequency dependence under dynamic positive-bias temperature stressing

In the course of our study on the frequency dependence of dynamic positive-bias temperature instability (PBTI) in the HfO2/TiN gate n-MOSFET, an unexpected result was obtained. In accordance with our recent study, electron trapping is observed to gradually evolve into a more permanent form, suggesting that some shallow electron traps are converted into deeper ones as the PBTI stress progresses. Interestingly, however, this evolution is found to exhibit a positive dependence on the gate frequency, i.e. the fraction of electron trapping that is rendered more permanent is increased with the gate frequency over the range of frequency studied (1 mHz - 1 MHz).