Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structural and functional studies of mannose binding lectin (MBL) and the lectin pathway of complement in children with cancer.

Infection remains a major cause of morbidity and hospitalisation in children receiving chemotherapy treatment for cancer. Among patients with the same diagnosis and treatment regimen, not all suffer equally from infectious complications. This suggests that as yet unidentified host factors may contribute to increased susceptibility to infection. Deficiency of mannose binding lectin (MBL), a pattern recognition receptor of the innate immune system, has been proposed as one such factor but clinical studies have been inconclusive. MBL works in concert with MBL associated serine proteases (MASPs) to activate the lectin pathway of complement. Functional activity of the pathway has not been investigated in children with cancer to date. Children undergoing chemotherapy were recruited to cross sectional observational and longitudinal studies with details of febrile neutropenia (FN) episodes recorded prospectively. MBL gene polymorphisms were characterized by heteroduplexing and reverse hybridization. MBL protein and MASP levels were measured and functional activity of the lectin pathway was quantified. High oligomer structure of MBL was analysed by Western blotting. Transcriptional regulation of MBL in response to infection and inflammation was studied. The MBL promoter was cloned and its activity investigated using luciferase assays. A major finding is that individuals in possession of MBL variant alleles suffered from more frequent and longer episodes of FN over the study period compared to wildtype individuals. Functional analysis enabled identification of specific deficiencies within the pathway in patients deemed MBL sufficient by their genotype and protein level. Changes in MASP levels were noted in response to chemotherapy and complement function was observed to increase during FN episodes. Structural analysis revealed variability in MBL higher order oligomer structure during the acute phase of FN and promoter studies further highlighted the complexity of MBL regulation. The results presented in this thesis provide further evidence that MBL deficiency increases the frequency and the duration of FN in the largest paediatric cancer cohort studied to date. The complex interplay between other pathway components appears crucial to MBL function but their influence on clinical outcome is not yet fully understood.
Synthetic biology in yeast: Reconstructing the galactose network to probe the role of feedback induction in response to metabolic stimuli

Author(s): Ferry, Michael Stephen | Abstract: With the expanding interest in cellular responses to dynamic environments, microfluidic devices have become important experimental platforms for biological research. Microfluidic "microchemostat" devices enable precise environmental control while capturing high quality, single cell gene expression data. For studies of population heterogeneity and gene expression noise, these abilities are crucial. I have developed a microchemostat device optimized for capturing data from thousands of cells in multiple sub-experiments. The device is robust, easy to use and capable of generating precisely controlled dynamic environments. The device uses an integrated fluidic junction, coupled to linear actuators, to modulate the external port pressures as a function of time. In this way the concentration of an inducer compound can be tightly controlled without the use of mechanical mixing devices. To analyze the large amounts of data generated, I have developed a method for automated cell tracking, focusing on the special problems presented by Saccharomyces cerveisiae cells. I have used these tools to probe the response of a natural genetic circuit, the Gal system of S. cerevisiae. I have altered the regulation of the native Gal system, replacing the transcriptional positive and negative feedback loops with artificial promoters. Looking at these modified strains, I have determined that induced negative feedback is essential for tuning the cell's genetic response to the external galactose concentration. Moreover, without induced negative feedback, the system exhibits bistability, with subpopulations of responding and non-responding cells. When observing these cells in a dynamic environment, I have found that the Gal network is optimized to respond sharply to changes in the inducer concentration, regardless of the network's original induction state
Expression of laminin-332 in pancreatic islet and its effect on activation of macrophage secretory function

La laminine-332 joue un role important dans la biologie des ilots pancreatiques et des cellules β, in vitro. Cependant, son expression et son mode de regulation dans les ilots ainsi que son eventuel impact sur les macrophages n'ont jamais ete etudies. Dans la premiere partie de ce travail, nous avons montre que la laminine-332 etait exprimee par les cellules endocrines des ilots humains et que l'interleukine 1 augmentait sa production, par un mecanisme intracellulaire impliquant la phospho-inositide-3-kinase. Dans la deuxieme partie, nous avons demontre que la laminine-332 activait la production de plusieurs mediateurs de l'inflammation par les macrophages de rats et que les macrophages ainsi actives affectaient l'activite insulino-secretrice des cellules β de rat. Ce travail montre que la laminine-332 est produite de maniere regulee par les ilots pancreatiques et qu'en plus de ses effets benefiques sur les cellules β, elle est capable de moduler le comportement des macrophages.
Principles and applications of domestic animal behavior: an introductory text.

1. Introduction 2. Interaction of Heredity and Environment 3. Behavior Genetics 4. Early Experience 5. Learning 6. Biological Rhythms 7. Mating Systems and Reproduction 8. Male Sexual Behavior 9. Female Sexual Behavior 10. Maternal Behavior 11. Communication 12. Agonistic Behavior 13. Social Organization 14. Personal Space and Social Dynamics 15. Human-Animal Interactions 16. Animal Handling and Movement 17. Atypical Behavior and Behavioral Therapy.
Diagnosis of nutrient deficiencies in eucalypts

Mineral deficiencies in eucalypts are common in nursery-grown seedlings and during the early establishment phase in plantations. Five categories of deficiency symptoms have been observed: leaf chlorosis, leaf necrosis, leaf reddening due to accumulation of anthocyanins, leaf deformation and dieback of shoot tips. A key to deficiency symptoms based on symptoms which have been verified in pot or field trials is presented. Symptoms of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, boron and molybdenum deficiencies are described and illustrated in colour. Factors such as nutrient toxicity, air pollutants and fungicides which can result in damage to eucalypt foliage are discussed, and selected examples illustrated in colour. Understanding the behaviour and function of nutrients in the tree should facilitate diagnosis of nutrient deficiencies from the development of symptoms. Alternative procedures should be used in parallel with the documentation of symptoms to ensure a correct diagnosis. Diagnosis by biochemical and anatomical tests, by plant analysis and by tissue testing are briefly reviewed.
Comparative Study of Vaginal Candidiasis in Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Women Attending Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida Specialist Hospital and General Hospital, Minna Niger State, Nigeria

Candidiasis is a fungal infection due to any type of Candida (a type of yeast). Vaginal candidiasis is common during pregnancy and may impact negatively on the health of the woman. The aim of this study is to determine and compare the prevalence of vaginal candidiasis among pregnant and nonpregnant women attending Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) Specialist Hospital and General Hospital in Minna, Niger state, Nigeria were screened for vaginal candidiasis. High vaginal swab (HVS) were each collected from 20 pregnant and 20 non-pregnant women attending General Hospital, Minna also 20 pregnant women and 20 non pregnant women at IBB (Ibrahim Badamosi Original Research Article Mumuney and Abalaka; JAMB, 14(2): 1-7, 2019; Article no.JAMB. 45762 2 Babangida) Specialist Hospital, Minna, Niger state, Nigeria and screened for vaginal candidiasis. Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA) incorporated with chloramphenicol was used to isolate the Candida species in the HVS samples. Candida isolates were identified and characterized using standard methods including: colonial morphology (macroscopic characteristics), microscopy (Sugar fermentation) tests. Confirmation of Candida albicans was done with the Germ Tube Test. (Gram staining and Lactophenol cotton blue staining) and biochemical (Sugar fermentation) tests. Thirteen samples tested showed positive for candida species. The species identified were Candida albicans (Nine), Candida krusei (two), Candida tropicalis (One), and Candida pseudotropicalis (one) for pregnant women in General Hospital. Ten samples taken from pregnant women in Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida Specialist Hospital were positive reactions for Candida species. Nine out of twenty samples collected from non-pregnant women in General Hospital were Candida species while three out of twenty samples from non-pregnant women from Ibrahim Babangida Specialist Hospital tested positive to Candida species. Within the samples space 45% and 25% of the pregnant women considered in the study in General Hospital and IBB Specialist Hospital respectively had Candida albicans, while amongst the non-pregnant sample space, the infection rate was 10% for both study locations. This result showed vaginal candidiasis is more prevalent in pregnant women than non-pregnant women which may lead to pregnancy complications like abortions, premature birth, low birth weight and other morbidities. Screening protocol incorporated with routine ante-natal checkup for early diagnosis of Candidiasis and its treatment is hereby recommended.
Pharmacological Modulation of Autophagy for Neuroprotection in Ischaemic Stroke

Autophagy is a highly regulated, catabolic process, through which macromolecules such as damaged organelles and proteins are degraded and recycled to maintain cellular homeostasis. Various studies have shown the role of autophagy activation in the brain cells such as astrocytes, microglia, neurons and capillary endothelial cells upon an ischaemic insult. The underlying mechanism and the role of autophagy in ischaemic stroke, however, are yet to be fully elucidated. Recent studies have suggested that insufficient or excessive autophagy results in nerve damage and cell death whereas mild/moderate autophagy has a neuroprotective effect. It has been proposed that autophagy may be a therapeutic target in stroke treatment; however, there is a lot of debate as to whether induction or diminution of autophagy plays a role in neuronal survival after cerebral ischaemia and indicate that it has a dual role depending on the time of induction of autophagy. This review has summarized the role of autophagy in ischaemic stroke and explored effects of pharmacological autophagy modulators in ischaemic stroke treatment. Further studies are needed for translating the potential therapeutic approach in stroke treatment aiming at characterizing the timing, amount and specificity of the autophagy modulation.
Thwarting Sybil Attackers in Reputation-based Scheme in Mobile Ad hoc Networks

Routing in mobile ad hoc networks is performed in a distributed fashion where each node acts as host and router, such that it forwards incoming packets for others without relying on a dedicated router. Nodes are mostly resource constraint and the users are usually inclined to conserve their resources and exhibit selfish behaviour by not contributing in the routing process. The trust and reputation models have been proposed to motivate selfish nodes for cooperation in the packet forwarding process. Nodes having bad trust or reputation are detected and secluded from the network, eventually. However, due to the lack of proper identity management and use of non-persistent identities in ad hoc networks, malicious nodes can pose various threats to these methods. For example, a malicious node can discard the bad reputed identity and enter into the system with another identity afresh, called whitewashing. Similarly, a malicious node may create more than one identity, called Sybil attack, for self-promotion, defame other nodes, and broadcast fake recommendations in the network. These identity-based attacks disrupt the overall detection of the reputation systems. In this paper, we propose a reputation-based scheme that detects selfish nodes and deters identity attacks. We address the issue in such a way that, for normal selfish nodes, it will become no longer advantageous to carry out a whitewash. Sybil
Description Of Coping On Tuberculosis Patient In CommunityHealth Center (Puskesmas) In Jember

Introduction: Coping is a direct effort in stress management. This coping is an important point in the main prevention of stress. The purpose of this research is describe coping of Tuberculosis patients at Puskesmas Jember. Method: the sample in this research is selected 100 respondents from 250 population by simple random sampling. Results: the age range are 21-26 (16%), 27-32 (9%), 33-38 (15%), 39-44 (12%), 45-50 (15%), 51-56 (7 %), 57-60 (26%), gender women (45%), men (55%), education of respondents are no education (3%), elementary school (28%), middle school (35%), high school (29%), university (5%). Coping of Tuberculosis patients In Puskesmas Jember that obtained the result are low coping mechanism (31%), moderate (69%). Conclusion: Coping in patients Tuberculosis is one effort in the success of treatment from the psychological aspect.
Analysis of the thoracic and abdominal mobility in elderly through computer photogrammetry

Background: Computerized photogrammetry has become a promising aspect for respiratory analysis, being a technology of low cost, good reproducibility and accuracy, compatible with the Brazilian public health situation. Objectives: To verify the applicability of the computerized photogrammetry method for analysis of thoracoabdominal mobility in the elderly. Methods: This is a methodological study, performed with 16 elderly women from Santa Cruz, RN, Brazil. Morphofunctional evaluation of body mass, stature, body mass index and thoracoabdominal mobility were performed through the computerized photogrammetry, whose technique was based on the capture of images at the maximum ventilation moments (maximal inspiration and expiration followed by apnea) of the elderly. For the delimitation of the thoracic wall were used 20mm diameter markers positioned at specific anatomical points, and the images were treated through the irregular quadrilaterals system in the AutoCAD 2007 Software. Results: Using computerized photogrammetry was possible to identify areas of compartments and sub-compartments of the thoracic wall with higher values at the inspiratory moment when compared to the expiratory moment, and with a greater contribution of the thoracic compartment in the pulmonary ventilation process of the elderly at the inspiratory moment. In addition, in the studied sample there was a higher prevalence of overweight elderly women (56%). Computerized photogrammetry was sensitive to the nutritional status of these elderly women, presenting areas of the abdominal compartment and sub-compartments with values higher than those presented by the elderly women with low weight. Conclusions: Computerized photogrammetry proved to be an effective and reliable technique for the thoracoabdominal mobility analysis of elderly women.v
A contribution to the comparative osteology and phylogenetic systematics of fossil and living bony -tongue fishes (Actinopterygii, Teleostei, Osteoglossomorpha)

Several recent studies using analyses of morphological characters have addressed the interrelationships of Osteoglossomorpha, a group that sometimes is considered the living sister group of all other living teleosts. Many characters used in these studies were found to be poorly defined, to be coded incorrectly or illogically, or to display more variation than was described. The goal of this study is to address these concerns and contribute generally to knowledge of the morphology and systematic relationships of osteoglossomorphs. Analysis of 72 characters (65 informative) scored for 20 genera resulted in two most parsimonious cladograms (171 steps, CI = 0.6433, CI = 0.6139 excluding uninformative characters, HI = 0.3977, HI = 0.3861 excluding uninformative characters; RI = 0.7782; RC = 0.5006). Osteoglossomorpha is supported by both synapomorphies and homoplasies, although its monophyly was not truly tested in this analysis (only a single outgroup, Elops , was included in the analysis). The only difference in the topologies of these cladograms is in the position of †Lycoptera (recovered as either the sister group of all other osteoglossomorphs sampled or of †Eohiodon +Hiodon ). †Ostariostoma is recovered as the sister group of all non-hiodontiform osteoglossomorphs. Mormyrids are the sister group of notopterids + osteoglossids. This clade has not been found in other recent analyses. Mormyrids and notopterids usually are considered more closely related to each other than to any other group; characters not included here support this relationship and future consideration of these characters must be made. Although almost completely dichotomous, many nodes of the resulting trees lack rigorous support. For example, †Palaeonotopterus is interpreted as the sister group of all mormyrids sampled, although for this taxon only 22% of characters could be scored. © 2003 The Linnean Society of London. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2003, 137, 1−100.
Association of socio-culture factors with disordered eating behavior: An empirical study on urban young girls of West Bengal, India

Abstract A shift towards the concept of thin body image is occurring among the urban girls, as an outcome of mass media exposure. A large section of the girls are involved in attaining thin body image which at times develops dissatisfaction over body weight. Body weight dissatisfaction gives rise to the development of body weight concern and disordered eating behavior. The present research aimed to find out the association of socio-cultural factors with disordered eating behavior among a group of urban girls. The study group included 400 girls aged between 14 and 21 years, residing in the city of Howrah, West Bengal, eastern state of India. Information on socio-demographic characteristics, body weight concern, media habits, and family-peer environments was collected using standard pretested questionnaires. A cross-culturally tested questionnaire developed by Srinivasan and colleagues in 1998, was used to measure disordered eating behavior. Bivariate analyses found significant associations between eating behavior and several socio-cultural factors. Multivariate analysis revealed that education level of fathers and birth order of the participants, body weight concern and peers’ influence were the significant predictors of disordered eating behavior of the study participants. Socio-cultural factors have significant associations with the disordered eating behavior of the study participants.
Survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella spp. in Acidic Condiments.

This study examined the effects of adaptation to acid and storage temperature on the survival of a nonpathogenic Escherichia coli strain, three strains of E. coli O157:H7, and three strains of Salmonella spp. in ketchup, mustard, and sweet pickle relish. Stationary-phase cells were adapted to acidic conditions in pH 5.0 Trypticase soy broth for 4 h at 37°C. Samples inoculated with individual strains (105 CFU/g for E. coli and 106 CFU/g for Salmonella spp.) were stored at 5 and 23°C. Numbers of surviving cells were determined by plating on Trypticase soy agar. Acid adaptation enhanced the survival of all three Salmonella strains (ATCC 6962, 13311, and 25957) and all three E. coli O157:H7 strains (ATCC 43889, 43894, and 43895), with the magnitude of the effect depending on the strain and storage temperature. Acid adaptation enhanced survival of the nonpathogenic E. coli strain at 5°C, but not at 23°C. Cells of all tested strains survived longer at 5°C than at 23°C. In general, the E. coli O157:H7 strains survived longer than the Salmonella and nonpathogenic E. coli strains. Nonadapted E. coli O157:H7 cells were recovered from ketchup stored for I to 7 days at 5°C, whereas only low numbers of nonadapted Salmonella strain ATCC 25957 were recovered after 1 day at 5°C and no nonadapted Salmonella strains survived 2 days at 5°C. All of the E. coli and Salmonella strains died within 1 h in mustard and sweet pickle relish stored at 5 and 23°C. This study showed that adaptation to acid and low temperature enhanced the survival of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella strains in ketchup but not in mustard or sweet pickle relish.
Effects of Extended Grape Ripening With or Without Must and Wine Alcohol Manipulations on Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Sensory Characteristics

This study attempts to clarify the consequences for wine flavour that result from harvesting fruit at different maturities. The grapes were harvested from a single vineyard in Paso Robles, and the samples spanned maturity levels from what would be considered early harvest (about 21 °Brix) to late harvest (about 30 °Brix). The wines made from these grapes were analysed using descriptive analysis to investigate the relationships between fruit maturity and wine sensory attributes. In addition, musts and/or wines were chaptalised and/or fortified or watered back to determine the effect of these manipulations on wine sensory properties. This research showed that the sensory attributes of wines made from grapes at different stages of maturation, from about 20 to 30 °Brix, varied in a systematic fashion. Specifically, the wines made from the grapes with a lower Brix were more sour and had more fresh vegetative flavours, while the wines made from the fruit with a high Brix were more hot and bitter and in some cases had more dark fruit flavours and sweetness. Fortifying wines made from lower Brix musts changed the perceptions of the wine sensory profiles more than chaptalising the musts. On the other hand, adding water to higher °Brix musts to mimic 24 °Brix musts resulted in wines with similar sensory profiles to wines made from grapes picked at a sugar content of close to 24 °Brix. This study shows that wine sensory attributes differ more when grapes are picked early in ripening rather than after 24 °Brix.