Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biodiversity and Habitat Characteristics of the Bycatch Assemblages in Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) and School Sets in the Eastern Pacific Ocean

This study examined diversity and habitat characteristics for bycatch assemblages in two different types of fishing (drifting fish aggregating devices sets and sets made on school of tunas) in the eastern Pacific Ocean (20oS-30oN and 70o-150oW) between 2005 and 2011 using biodiversity metrics and Generalized Additive Models. Bycatch information was based on data collected by onboard observers covering more than 80% of the purse seine fishing trips. Our results suggest that diversity and habitat characteristics of the bycatch assemblages differ depending of the fishing mode. Thus, diversity was mostly explained by area and set type; being higher in FAD sets than School sets. Concretely, diversity seems to be directly related with the equatorial upwelling and the front system in FAD sets and with the Costa Rica Dome and the coastal upwelling of Panama induced by wind jets in School sets. Among environmental variables, temperature and chlorophyll were the most important predictors to describe the diversity of the bycatch assemblages. This work has investigated multiple indicators related to the bycatch assemblages and their habitat, which could be helpful for the development of an Ecosystem Approach to Fishery Management.
ProFit: two‐dimensional prior‐knowledge fitting of J‐resolved spectra

A two‐dimensional fitting procedure is introduced, capable of extracting the full amount of information from 2D J‐resolved magnetic resonance spectroscopic data. The fitting procedure uses a linear combination of 2D model spectra. For reducing the degrees of freedom and increasing robustness, it is divided into a non‐linear outer loop and an inner linear least‐squares fit for the concentrations. In vitro and in vivo experiments on a whole‐body 3 T MR scanner show the detectability of a wide range of metabolites in the human brain, namely total creatine, N‐acetylaspartate, N‐acetylaspartylglutamate, choline‐containing compounds, glutamate, myo‐inositol, glutathione, scyllo‐inositol, γ‐aminobutyric acid, alanine and ascorbic acid. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Vietnamese and the typology of passive constructions

This presentation examines passive-type constructions in Vietnamese in comparison with similar structures found in Mandarin Chinese and explores the significance of Vietnamese for a general typology of passive, both from formal and functional perspectives. Much interesting research has been carried out on the syntactic structure of Mandarin passive constructions in recent years, with significant results described in Ting (1998), Huang (1999), and Tang (2001). Huang (1999), in particular, places modern Mandarin bei-constructions in a broad comparative perspective, incorporating insights from the diachronic development of bei passives, and the synchronic realization of passive in non-Mandarin varieties of Chinese (Cantonese and Southern Min) as well as other East Asian languages such as Japanese and Korean. Passive structures in Vietnamese show much obvious similarity to those in Mandarin, and seem to be closer to Chinese in surface structure than the passive in Japanese and Korean. The canonical adversity-type passive in Vietnamese is formed with a morpheme bị that is closely related to Chinese bei, and displays many of the same properties that Chinese bei passives have: (a) clear signs of a (possible) two-clause structure, (b) resistance to resumptive pronouns in the 'gap' position, (c) locality effects in the postbị/bei portion of the construction, and (d) indications that a 'short passive' may be an option alongside 'long passives'. Interestingly, Vietnamese also forms parallel non-adversity passive constructions with a second morpheme, được, cognate with Cantonese dak and Mandarin de. Elsewhere, Vietnamese được occurs as (a) a post-verbal modal of ability similar to Cantonese dak, (b) a lexical verb meaning 'to receive', similar to both Cantonese dak and Mandarin de. This is illustrated in example (2).
Regulation by external pH and stationary growth phase of the acetolactate synthase from Synechocystis PCC6803

Several characteristics identify the protein encoded by the alsS gene [sll1981 in Cyanobase (http://www.kazusa.or.jp/cyano/cyano.html)] of Synechocystis PCC6803 as an acetolactate synthase. The AlsS protein is about 60% homologous to the AlsS from Bacillus subtilis or other bacteria. These enzymes condense two pyruvates to form acetolactate, implicated in pH homeostasis via the acetoin−2,3‐butanediol pathway or in valine biosynthesis. Transcriptional fusions revealed that alsS was induced at the onset of stationary phase, as in B. subtilis, a situation leading to an increase in the pHout to above 11 in Synechocystis. This is the first cyanobacterial gene showing a dependence on pH for its expression. Induction was also obtained by the presence of > 100 mM Na+, the effect being prevented by amiloride, in agreement with Na+/H+ exchange in the pH homeostasis process. Homology of the Synechocystis AlsS protein to the close family of acetohydroxy acid synthases (including one in Synechocystis) is around 30%. These enzymes are involved in the parallel routes for valine/leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis. No phenotype of auxotrophy for any of these amino acids was associated with a null mutation in the Synechocystis alsS gene. The AlsS enzyme did not complement the isoleucine deficiency of an acetohydroxy acid synthase‐deficient Escherichia coli mutant.
Simultaneous Refractive Index and Temperature Measurement With LPFG and Liquid-Filled PCF

We proposed and demonstrated a novel scheme for simultaneous measurement of temperature and refractive index (RI) by cascading a liquid-filled photonics crystal fiber (PCF) to a long period fiber grating (LPFG) written in a single-mode fiber. The liquid-filled PCF showed a high-temperature sensitivity of 1.695 nm/°C, which is two orders of magnitude higher than that of the LPFG (0.0642 nm/°C). The LPFG exhibited a blue shift with the increased RI. In contrast, liquid-filled PCF showed a total immunity to the surrounding RI. So, the temperature was solely measured by the liquid-filled PCF, and the RI information was extracted from the total response of the LPFG with the temperature effect having been compensated by the liquid-filled PCF.
Evaluation of Peak Power Prediction Equations in Male Basketball Players

Duncan, MJ, Lyons, M, and Nevill, AM. Evaluation of peak power prediction equations in male basketball players. J Strength Cond Res 22: 1379-1381, 2008-This study compared peak power estimated using 4 commonly used regression equations with actual peak power derived from force platform data in a group of adolescent basketball players. Twenty-five elite junior male basketball players (age, 16.5 ± 0.5 years; mass, 74.2 ± 11.8 kg; height, 181.8 ± 8.1 cm) volunteered to participate in the study. Actual peak power was determined using a countermovement vertical jump on a force platform. Estimated peak power was determined using countermovement jump height and body mass. All 4 prediction equations were significantly related to actual peak power (all p < 0.01). Repeated-measures analysis of variance indicated significant differences between actual peak power and estimate peak power from all 4 prediction equations (p < 0.001). Bonferroni post hoc tests indicated that estimated peak power was significantly lower than actual peak power for all 4 prediction equations. Ratio limits of agreement for actual peak power and estimated peak power were 8% for the Harman et al. and Sayers squat jump prediction equations, 12% for the Canavan and Vescovi equation, and 6% for the Sayers countermovement jump equation. In all cases peak power was underestimated.
A failure to reproduce the intermediate effect in clinical case recall

PURPOSE: To investigate the differences between experts, intermediates, and novices in diagnosing and representing clinical cases under various time constraints. METHOD: Second-, fourth-, and sixth-year medical students, and internists studied, diagnosed, and recalled four clinical cases from internal medicine. Participants were allowed to study each case for either 3 minutes, 1 minute 15 seconds, or 30 seconds. The study replicated in most ways the 1993 clinical case recall study of Schmidt and Boshuizen. RESULTS: As expected, diagnostic accuracy increased with level of expertise. However, this study failed to disclose the intermediate effect in clinical case recall that was found in the original study. Instead, a positive linear relation between expertise level and case recall was found. The discrepancy resulted from more elaborate recall by experts in the present study. Constraining processing time did not effect diagnostic accuracy, but equally affected the recall performances of the participants of all expertise levels. This contrasts with the earlier finding that experts' recall is independent of processing time. CONCLUSION: Although it is unclear why the experts' case processing was more elaborate in the present study than in the earlier study, it must be concluded that expert medical knowledge is so flexibly organized that experts can easily represent clinical cases in either the encapsulated or the elaborated mode.
Ileitis alters neuronal and enteroendocrine signalling in guinea pig distal colon

Background and aims: Intestinal inflammation alters neuronal and enteroendocrine signalling, leading to functional adaptations in the inflamed bowel. Human studies have reported functional alterations at sites distant from active inflammation. Our aims were to determine whether neuronal and enteroendocrine signalling are altered in the uninflamed colon during ileitis. Methods: We used neurophysiological, immunohistochemical, biochemical and Ussing chamber techniques to examine the effect of 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid (TNBS)-induced ileitis on the properties of submucosal neurones, enteroendocrine cells and epithelial physiology of the distal colon of guinea pigs. Results: Three days after TNBS administration, when inflammation was restricted to the ileum, the properties of colonic enteric neurones were altered. Submucosal AH neurones were hyperexcitable and had reduced afterhyperpolarisations. S neurones received larger fast and slow excitatory postsynaptic potentials, due to an increase in non-cholinergic synaptic transmission. Despite the absence of inflammation in the colon, we found increased colonic prostaglandin E2 content in animals with ileitis. Ileitis also increased the number of colonic 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)- and GLP-2-immunoreactive enteroendocrine cells. This was accompanied by an increase in stimulated 5-HT release. Functional alterations in epithelial physiology occurred such that basal short circuit current was increased and veratridine-stimulated ion transport was reduced in the colon of animals with ileitis. Conclusion: Our data suggest that inflammation at one site in the gut alters the cellular components of enteric reflex circuits in non-inflamed regions in ways similar to those at sites of active inflammation. These changes underlie altered function in non-involved regions during episodes of intestinal inflammation.
Does an Inflation and Growth of a country affect its Foreign Direct Investment

This paper investigates the impact on foreign direct investment due to the growth and inflation of a country. This relationship is tested by applying multiple regression model. The change in FDI is taken as dependent variable while GDP growth and Inflation are considered to be independent variables. The data from 2001-2010 is used for this purpose. The results show that the overall model is significant. There is a positive but insignificant relationship found between change in FDI and GDP growth rate, while, a negative but insignificant relationship is observed between inflation and change in FDI.
Antiangiogenic Therapy for Diabetic Nephropathy

Angiogenesis has been shown to be a potential therapeutic target for early stages of diabetic nephropathy in a number of animal experiments. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is the main mediator for abnormal angiogenesis in diabetic glomeruli. Although beneficial effects of anti-VEGF antibodies have previously been demonstrated in diabetic animal experiments, recent basic and clinical evidence has revealed that the blockade of VEGF signaling resulted in proteinuria and renal thrombotic microangiopathy, suggesting the importance of maintaining normal levels of VEGF in the kidneys. Therefore, antiangiogenic therapy for diabetic nephropathy should eliminate excessive glomerular angiogenic response without accelerating endothelial injury. Some endogenous antiangiogenic factors such as endostatin and tumstatin inhibit overactivation of endothelial cells but do not specifically block VEGF signaling. In addition, the novel endothelium-derived antiangiogenic factor vasohibin-1 enhances stress tolerance and survival of the endothelial cells, while inhibiting excess angiogenesis. These factors have been demonstrated to suppress albuminuria and glomerular alterations in a diabetic mouse model. Thus, antiangiogenic therapy with promising candidates will possibly improve renal prognosis in patients with early stages of diabetic nephropathy.
Alzheimer dementia caused by a novel mutation located in the APP C‐terminal intracytosolic fragment

Since the first report showing that Alzheimer disease (AD) might be caused by mutations in the amyloid precursor protein gene (APP), 20 different missense mutations have been reported. The majority of early‐onset AD mutations alter processing of APP increasing relative levels of Aβ42 peptide, either by increasing Aβ42 or decreasing Aβ40 peptide levels or both. In a diagnostic setting using direct sequence analysis, we identified in one patient with familial early‐onset AD a novel mutation in APP (c.2172G>C), predicting a K724N substitution in the intracytosolic fragment. The mutation is located downstream of the ε‐cleavage site of APP and is the furthermost C‐terminal mutation reported to date. In vitro expression of APP K724N cDNA showed an increase in Aβ42 and a decrease in Aβ40 levels resulting in a near three‐fold increase of the Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio. Further, in vivo amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) imaging revealed significantly increased cortical amyloid deposits, supporting that in human this novel APP mutation is likely causing disease. Hum Mutat 27(9), 888–896, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Recent trends in the out-of-home of children in Australia

The recent collection of out-of-home care data by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has enabled an analysis of placement trends for the three year period 1993-1996. Significant findings include a sharp increase in overall numbers of children placed into care and a continuing decline in the use of residential/group care. The data are considered in the context of longer term placement trends and some implications for service delivery are discussed.
Stimulation of human Toll‐like receptor (TLR) 2 and TLR6 with membrane lipoproteins of Mycoplasma fermentans induces apoptotic cell death after NF‐κB activation

Mycoplasmal membrane diacylated lipoproteins not only initiate proinflammatory responses through Toll‐like receptor (TLR) 2 and TLR6 via the activation of the transcriptional factor NF‐κB, but also initiate apoptotic responses. The aim of this study was to clarify the apoptotic machineries. Mycoplasma fermentans lipoproteins and a synthetic lipopeptide, MALP‐2, showed cytocidal activity towards HEK293 cells transfected with a TLR2‐encoding plasmid. The activity was synergically augmented by co‐expression of TLR6, but not by co‐expression of other TLRs. Under the condition of co‐expression of TLR2 and TLR6, the lipoproteins could induce maximum NF‐κB activation and apoptotic cell death in the cells 6 h and 24 h after stimulation respectively. Dominant‐negative forms of MyD88 and FADD, but not IRAK‐4, reduced the cytocidal activity of the lipoproteins. In addition, both dominant‐negative forms also downregulated the activation of both NF‐κB and caspase‐8 in the cells. Additionally, the cytocidal activity was sufficiently attenuated by a selective inhibitor of p38 MAPK. These findings suggest that mycoplasmal lipoproteins can trigger TLR2‐ and TLR6‐mediated sequential bifurcate responses: NF‐κB activation as an early event, which is partially mediated by MyD88 and FADD; and apoptosis as a later event, which is regulated by p38 MAPK as well as by MyD88 and FADD.
MATTERS ARISING

The relationship between human immunoglobulin administration, and human and experimental epilepsy was investigated by reviewing the literature as well as the authors9 clinical and experimental studies. The focus was: 1) the possible efficacy of IVIg; 2) the possibility that IVIg significantly increases CSF IgG and could reach the brain, and 3) the interaction between the IVIg preparation and epilepsy. There is still no formal proof of efficacy of IVIg treatment in epilepsy. However, the clinical data presented suggests that IVIg is likely to be effective in a subgroup of patients with intractable and epilepsy, and may be considered as a safe add-on medication in various types of idiopathic and symptomatic intractable epilepsy. From the authors9 study on cerebrospinal fluid IgG concentrations before and after IVIg treatment in patients with epilepsy, it is concluded that the main component of the IVIg preparation (the IgG molecule) crosses the blood-CSF barrier, significantly increases CSF IgG concentration, and may reach the brain and act centrally. From a review of previous reports and two immunological studies carried out by the authors it is concluded that immunogenetic mechanisms may play a role in triggering or maintaining some types of epilepsy. In view of this, IVIg could act on epilepsy by its broad immunomodulatory mechanism of action. In addition, preliminary data are reported that contribute to the hypothesis that IVIg may have a direct neuromodulating effect.
Nitric oxide is responsible for flow-dependent dilatation of human peripheral conduit arteries in vivo.

BACKGROUND Experimental evidence suggests that flow-dependent dilatation of conduit arteries is mediated by nitric oxide (NO) and/or prostacyclin. The present study was designed to assess whether NO or prostacyclin also contributes to flow-dependent dilatation of conduit arteries in humans. METHODS AND RESULTS Radial artery internal diameter (ID) was measured continuously in 16 healthy volunteers (age, 24 +/- 1 years) with a transcutaneous A-mode echo-tracking system coupled to a Doppler device for the measurement of radial blood flow. In 8 subjects, a catheter was inserted into the brachial artery for measurement of arterial pressure and infusion of the NO synthase inhibitor NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA; 8 mumol/min for 7 minutes; infusion rate, 0.8 mL/min). Flow-dependent dilatation was evaluated before and after L-NMMA or aspirin as the response of the radial artery to an acute increase in flow (reactive hyperemia after a 3-minute cuff wrist occlusion). Under control conditions, release of the occlusion induced a marked increase in radial blood flow (from 24 +/- 3 to 73 +/- 11 mL/min; P < .01) followed by a delayed increase in radial diameter (flow-mediated dilatation; from 2.67 +/- 0.10 to 2.77 +/- 0.12 mm; P < .01) without any change in heart rate or arterial pressure. L-NMMA decreased basal forearm blood flow (from 24 +/- 3 to 13 +/- 3 mL/min; P < .05) without affecting basal radial artery diameter, heart rate, or arterial pressure, whereas aspirin (1 g PO) was without any hemodynamic effect. In the presence of L-NMMA, the peak flow response during hyperemia was not affected (76 +/- 12 mL/min), but the duration of the hyperemic response was markedly reduced, and the flow-dependent dilatation of the radial artery was abolished and converted to a vasoconstriction (from 2.62 +/- 0.11 to 2.55 +/- 0.11 mm; P < .01). In contrast, aspirin did not affect the hyperemic response nor the flow-dependent dilatation of the radial artery. CONCLUSIONS The present investigation demonstrates that NO, but not prostacyclin, is essential for flow-mediated dilatation of large human arteries. Hence, this response can be used as a test for the L-arginine/NO pathway in clinical studies.
A unified approach of control and identification for optimal control of non-linear systems

This paper proposes a novel unified approach of control and identification based on a new control performance criterion to maximize the performance of optimal control of unknown non-linear systems. Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation is used for developing the proposed criterion. Because the proposed criterion still includes unknown components due to the non-linearity of the system, two important ideas are proposed to represent the criterion as a function of identified system parameters. After constructing the proposed criterion which maximizes the control performance, the system identification and the controller design are performed simultaneously based on the criterion. A numerical simulation shows that the proposed method improves the optimal control performance compared with the other methods.
Assessment of the in vitro Efficacy of the Novel Antimicrobial Peptide CECT7121 against Human Gram-Positive Bacteria from Serious Infections Refractory to Treatment

Background: Resistant Gram-positive bacteria are causing increasing concern in clinical practice. This work investigated theefficacy of AP-CECT7121 (an antimicrobial peptide isolated from an environmental strain of Enterococcus faecalis CECT7121) against various pathogenic Gram-positive bacteria. Methods: Strains were isolated from intensive care unit patients unresponsive to standard antibiotic treatments. Inhibitory activity of AP-CECT7121 was assessed using the agar-well diffusion method. The most resistant isolates from each species screened (Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus faecalis,Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium difficile) were further examined in time-killing curve studies. Results: These bactericidal kinetic experiments demonstrated a rapid killing effect with no viable bacteria being detected within 30 and 90 min for enterococcal and streptococcal strains and 180 min for community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus and C. perfringens: viable counts for C. difficile were threefold decreased after 90 min. Conclusions: AP-CECT7121 may provide a novel strategy for treating potentially fatal clinical infections in hospitalized patients.
Miniaturized dual-mode bandpass filter using inductively loaded cross-slotted patch resonator

An inductively loaded cross-slotted patch resonator is presented to build up a miniaturized dual-mode bandpass filter. By terminating the cross-slot on the square patch with the T-shape slot stubs, the resonant frequency is exhibited to be largely lowered due to an additional inductive loading, implying a capacity in size-miniaturization. In parallel, the rectangular slit is introduced at the four sides of the cross-slotted patch to facilitate the tightened parallel coupling between the feeders and resonator. A dual-mode filter with the patch size of /spl lambda//4 squared is then designed and predicted results are evidently supported by measurement.