Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Separation of rail infrustructure ownership from operation : is it a feasible model for the South African Rail Transport Industry?

The question whether the separation of rail infrastructure ownership and operation is the best model to be used has been a subject of much debate in the transport industry. Rail industry in the United Kingdom is subject to separation of infrastructure ownership and operation. Railtrack Plc and now Network Rail owns and manages infrastructure while operations is done by up to 25 Train Operating Companies (TOCs), who have franchises to operate on certain routes for a predetermined period. Rolling Stock is owned by three Rolling Stock Companies (ROSCOs) who in turn lease them to TOCs (Charlton et al., 1997). Infrastructure maintenance and track renewal is contracted to British Rail Infrastructure Companies (BRISCOs) by Network Rail. However, in South Africa infrastructure ownership and operation remain respectively the sole responsibility of the South African Rail Commuter Corporation (SARCC) and Metrorail. SARCC is an agent of the Department of Transport (DoT) while Metrorail (a division of Transnet) report to the Department of Public Enterprises. Therefore, infrastructure ownership and operation remain the responsibility of two government departments. This paper seeks to interrogate various models of infrastructure ownership and operation employed in the rail industry in various parts of the world. In particular, the paper will review methods used in countries such as the United Kingdom and Argentina. The paper will also evaluate successes and failures of these methods and identify lessons that can be learned for the South African rail industry. This paper hopes to stimulate debate around privatisation of the rail industry and also hope to give policy direction based on experiences learned from other countries.
A randomized clinical trial of three options for N95 respirators and medical masks in health workers.

RATIONALE We compared three policy options for the use of medical masks and N95 respirators in healthcare workers (HCWs). OBJECTIVES A cluster randomized clinical trial of 1,669 hospital-based HCWs in Beijing, China in the winter of 2009-2010. METHODS Participants were randomized to medical masks, N95 respirators, or targeted use of N95 respirators while doing high-risk procedures or barrier nursing. Outcomes included clinical respiratory illness (CRI) and laboratory-confirmed respiratory pathogens in symptomatic subjects. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The rate of CRI was highest in the medical mask arm (98 of 572; 17%), followed by the targeted N95 arm (61 of 516; 11.8%), and the N95 arm (42 of 581; 7.2%) (P < 0.05). Bacterial respiratory tract colonization in subjects with CRI was highest in the medical mask arm (14.7%; 84 of 572), followed by the targeted N95 arm (10.1%; 52 of 516), and lowest in the N95 arm (6.2%; 36 of 581) (P = 0.02). After adjusting for confounders, only continuous use of N95 remained significant against CRI and bacterial colonization, and for just CRI compared with targeted N95 use. Targeted N95 use was not superior to medical masks. CONCLUSIONS Continuous use of N95 respirators was more efficacious against CRI than intermittent use of N95 or medical masks. Most policies for HCWs recommend use of medical masks alone or targeted N95 respirator use. Continuous use of N95s resulted in significantly lower rates of bacterial colonization, a novel finding that points to more research on the clinical significance of bacterial infection in symptomatic HCWs. This study provides further data to inform occupational policy options for HCWs. Clinical trial registered with Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry http://www.anzctr. org.au (ACTRN 12609000778280).
Dynamics of dog and cat populations in a community.

OBJECTIVE To describe dynamics of the pet dog and cat populations in a single community in terms of reproductive patterns and turnover. DESIGN Cross-sectional, random-digit dial telephone survey. SAMPLE POPULATION Information gathered from 1,272 households in St Joseph County, Ind that owned a dog or cat between Dec 1, 1993 and Nov 30, 1994 was compared with data on 9,571 dogs and cats received by the Humane Society of St Joseph County during the same period. RESULTS Prevalence of pet ownership was lower than expected, compared with consumer panel surveys. Eight hundred forty-three of 1,335 (63.1%) dogs were neutered, compared with 816 of 1,023 (79.8%) cats. Cost was cited as a reason that 35 of 441 (7.9%) dogs and 34 of 132 (25.8%) cats were not neutered. Only 33 of 968 (3.4%) dog-owning households reported that their dog had had a litter during the past year, whereas 52 of 662 (7.9%) cat-owning households reported their cat had had a litter of kittens. Most cat litters were unplanned, whereas two thirds of dog litters were planned. Annual turnover in owned pets was 191 of 1,354 (14.1%) dogs and 194 of 1,056 (18.4%) cats. Pet owners underreported relinquishing pets to a shelter in the telephone survey. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS A combination of animal shelter- and human population-based data are needed to describe pet population dynamics in a community. Information about species-specific reproductive patterns is essential in designing population control programs.
Arabidopsis lipid droplet‐associated protein (LDAP) – interacting protein (LDIP) influences lipid droplet size and neutral lipid homeostasis in both leaves and seeds

Cytoplasmic lipid droplets (LDs) are found in all types of plant cells; they are derived from the endoplasmic reticulum and function as a repository for neutral lipids, as well as serving in lipid remodelling and signalling. However, the mechanisms underlying the formation, steady-state maintenance and turnover of plant LDs, particularly in non-seed tissues, are relatively unknown. Previously, we showed that the LD-associated proteins (LDAPs) are a family of plant-specific, LD surface-associated coat proteins that are required for proper biogenesis of LDs and neutral lipid homeostasis in vegetative tissues. Here, we screened a yeast two-hybrid library using the Arabidopsis LDAP3 isoform as 'bait' in an effort to identify other novel LD protein constituents. One of the candidate LDAP3-interacting proteins was Arabidopsis At5g16550, which is a plant-specific protein of unknown function that we termed LDIP (LDAP-interacting protein). Using a combination of biochemical and cellular approaches, we show that LDIP targets specifically to the LD surface, contains a discrete amphipathic α-helical targeting sequence, and participates in both homotypic and heterotypic associations with itself and LDAP3, respectively. Analysis of LDIP T-DNA knockdown and knockout mutants showed a decrease in LD abundance and an increase in variability of LD size in leaves, with concomitant increases in total neutral lipid content. Similar phenotypes were observed in plant seeds, which showed enlarged LDs and increases in total amounts of seed oil. Collectively, these data identify LDIP as a new player in LD biology that modulates both LD size and cellular neutral lipid homeostasis in both leaves and seeds.
Delay-dependent H∞ control for stochastic genetic regulatory networks with interval time-varying delays

This paper is concerned with H∞ control for a new genetic regulatory network (GRN) model with both intrinsic perturbation and extrinsic perturbation. A delay- and range-dependent criterion for a given H∞ performance is established via employing an improved free-weighting matrix approach. At the same time, H∞ feedback controllers are designed to regulate the noise influences. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results, two numerical examples are presented in this paper.
IKKα controls ATG16L1 degradation to prevent ER stress during inflammation

Inhibition of the I&kgr;B kinase complex (IKK) has been implicated in the therapy of several chronic inflammatory diseases including inflammatory bowel diseases. In this study, using mice with an inactivatable IKK&agr; kinase (Ikk&agr;AA/AA), we show that loss of IKK&agr; function markedly impairs epithelial regeneration in a model of acute colitis. Mechanistically, this is caused by compromised secretion of cytoprotective IL-18 from IKK&agr;-mutant intestinal epithelial cells because of elevated caspase 12 activation during an enhanced unfolded protein response (UPR). Induction of the UPR is linked to decreased ATG16L1 stabilization in Ikk&agr;AA/AA mice. We demonstrate that both TNF-R and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain stimulation promote ATG16L1 stabilization via IKK&agr;-dependent phosphorylation of ATG16L1 at Ser278. Thus, we propose IKK&agr; as a central mediator sensing both cytokine and microbial stimulation to suppress endoplasmic reticulum stress, thereby assuring antiinflammatory function during acute intestinal inflammation.
Effect of rosmarinic acid on estrogen, FSH and LH in female diabetic rats

1 Women’s Reproductive Health Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. 2 Department of Anatomical Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, (NPMC), Tabriz, Iran. 3 Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran. 4 Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. 5 Department of Pharmacognosy, Pharmacy College, Hawler, Medical University, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.
Mineral composition of some varieties of beans from Mediterranean and Tropical areas

Abstract In this study has been evaluated the mineral composition (Cd, Pb, As, Hg, Ba, Cr, Co, Ni, Se, Sb, V, Cu, Fe, Zn, Mo, Na, K, Ca, Mg) of some varieties of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris, Vigna unguiculata and V. angularis) from Mediterranean and Tropical areas of the world (Italy, Mexico, India, Japan, Ghana and Ivory Coast); the correlation between beans mineral composition in micro and macroelements and botanical and/or geographical origin; trace elements dietary intake by beans consumption. The results showed a correlation between beans mineral composition and their geographical origin, with higher values in Ivory Coast samples. Moreover, minerals content found confirmed the importance of these legumes in the diet for the significant content of essential micro and macroelements and a safe consumption of beans for the low residual levels of toxic metals.
Self-sitting and reaching in 5- to 8-month-old infants: the impact of posture and its development on early eye-hand coordination.

The relation between progress in the control of posture (i.e., the achievement of self-sitting posture) and the developmental transition from two-handed to one-handed engagement in infant reaching was investigated. Two groups of 5- to 8-month-old infants, who were either able or yet unable to sit on their own, were videotaped while they reached for objects in four different posture conditions that provided varying amounts of body support. Videotapes of infant reaches were microanalyzed to determine the relative engagement of both hands during reaches. Results demonstrate the interaction between postural development and the morphology of infant reaching. Nonsitting infants displayed symmetrical and synergistic engagement of both arms and hands while reaching in all but the seated posture condition. Sitting infants, by contrast, showed asymmetrical and lateralized (one-handed) reaches in all posture conditions. Results also show that, aside from posture, the perceived spatial arrangement of the object display is a determinant of infant reaching. Combined, these results are discussed as evidence for the interaction between postural and perceptual development in the control of early eye-hand coordination.
The relationship of untreated borderline infiltrates by the Banff criteria to acute rejection in renal allograft biopsies.

The relationship of borderline infiltrates to acute rejection by Banff criteria in renal allografts of patients receiving only maintenance immunosuppression is not clear. Renal allograft biopsies with borderline lesions that were not treated with additional anti-rejection therapy were retrospectively studied. Sixty-five such biopsies were identified from 50 patients, and their outcome was determined by serum creatinine and/or histologic findings in subsequent biopsies, up to 40 d after the initial biopsy. In addition to the borderline infiltrates, there was evidence of acute cyclosporine or tacrolimus toxicity (58%), acute tubular necrosis (12%), and urinary obstruction (12%). Forty-day follow-up after 30 (46%) biopsies revealed serum creatinine < 110% of baseline, and repeat biopsies were not indicated. In 17 (26%), the serum creatinine initially decreased, then increased, and follow-up biopsies showed acute rejection in nine. In 18 (28%), the creatinine remained elevated and follow-up biopsies revealed acute rejection in nine. The untreated borderline infiltrates were thus nonprogressive after 47 biopsies (72%) and progressed to histologic acute rejection after 18 (28%). When there was increasing or persistently elevated creatinine after the initial biopsy, 51% of cases (18 of 35) progressed to acute rejection. Infiltrates that progressed to rejection had more frequent glomerulitis (7 of 18 versus 3 of 47, P = 0.003) and Banff acute score indices (i+t+v+g) >2 (16 of 18 versus 29 of 47, P = 0.03). A majority (72%) of borderline infiltrates not given additional anti-rejection therapy did not progress to acute rejection over 40 d of follow-up, suggesting that conservative management of these lesions, at least in the short term, may be more appropriate than routine treatment as acute rejection.
Exotic trees.

We discuss the scaling properties of free branched polymers. The scaling behavior of the model is classified by the Hausdorff dimensions for the internal geometry, d(L) and d(H), and for the external one, D(L) and D(H). The dimensions d(H) and D(H) characterize the behavior for long distances, while d(L) and D(L) for short distances. We show that the internal Hausdorff dimension is d(L)=2 for generic and scale-free trees, contrary to d(H), which is known to be equal to 2 for generic trees and to vary between 2 and infinity for scale-free trees. We show that the external Hausdorff dimension D(H) is directly related to the internal one as D(H)=alphad(H), where alpha is the stability index of the embedding weights for the nearest-vertex interactions. The index is alpha=2 for weights from the Gaussian domain of attraction and 0<alpha<2 for those from the Lévy domain of attraction. If the dimension D of the target space is larger than D(H), one finds D(L)=D(H), or otherwise D(L)=D. The latter result means that the fractal structure cannot develop in a target space that has too low dimension.
Potential impacts on Colorado Rocky Mountain weather due to land use changes on the adjacent Great Plains

Evidence from both meteorological stations and vegetational successional studies suggests that summer temperatures are decreasing in the mountain-plain system in northeast Colorado, particularly since the early 1980s. These trends are coincident with large changes in regional land cover. Trends in global, Northern Hemisphere and continental surface temperatures over the same period are insignificant. These observations suggest that changes in the climate of this mountain-plain system may be, in some part, a result of localized forcing mechanisms. In this study the effects of land use change on the northern Colorado plains, where large regions of grasslands have been transformed into both dry and irrigated agricultural lands, on regional weather is examined in an effort to understand this local deviation from larger-scale trends. We find with high-resolution numerical simulations of a 3-day summer period using a regional atmospheric-land surface model that replacing grasslands with irrigated and dry farmland can have impacts on regional weather and therefore climate which are not limited to regions of direct forcing. Higher elevations remote from regions of land use change are affected as well. Specifically, cases with altered landcover had cooler, moister boundary layers, and diminished low-level upslope winds over portions of the plains. At higher elevations, temperatures also were lower as was low-level convergence. Precipitation and cloud cover were substantially affected in mountain regions. We advance the hypothesis that observed land use changes may have already had a role in explaining part of the observed climate record in the northern Colorado mountain-plain system.
Isolation of Tannin-Degrading Lactobacilli from Humans and Fermented Foods

ABSTRACT Lactobacilli with tannase activity were isolated from human feces and fermented foods. A PCR-based taxonomic assay revealed that the isolates belong to Lactobacillus plantarum, L. paraplantarum, and L. pentosus. Additional studies on a range of Lactobacillus species from established culture collections confirmed that this enzymatic activity is a phenotypic property common to these three species.
Phylogenetic Diversity of Staphylococcus aureus by Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA

The polymerase chain reaction was used to obtain randomly amplified polymorphic DNA profiles for genetic fingerprinting of twelve different isolates of Staphylococcus aureus from Riyadh region, KSA using RAPD-PCR technique eleven out of forty operon primers (10-mer primers) showed polymorphism among the isolates tested generating over 65 bands, approximately 42 of which were polymorphic with sizes ranging between 300 and 3,000 bp. A numerical analysis of the genomic profiles obtained demonstrated that it was possible to differentiate the S. aureus strains. Using this technique. All the isolates were classified completely into three major groups (Sc.A, Sc.B, Sc.C) with five different subgroups. Sc. A group originated from animal host while isolates from plant and animal origins formed the Sc.B and Sc.C group. The five different subgroups of Sc. A suggested adaptation of S. aureus in different host cells. This indicates possible relationships between host origin and genetic variation among S. aureus isolates. The DNA fingerprint defined for each race of S. aureus could be useful in epidermiological studies, medical diagnosis and the identification of new strains and their origins.
The study of logarithmic image processing model and its application to image enhancement

Describes a new implementation of Lee's (1980) image enhancement algorithm. This approach, based on the logarithmic image processing (LIP) model, can simultaneously enhance the overall contrast and the sharpness of an image. A normalized complement transform has been proposed to simplify the analysis and the implementation of the LIP model-based algorithms. This new implementation has been compared with histogram equalization and Lee's original algorithm.
Approximate atomic surfaces from linear combinations of pairwise overlaps (LCPO)

A fast analytical formula was derived for the calculation of approximate atomic and molecular van der Waals (vdWSA), and solvent‐accessible surface areas (SASAs), as well as the first and second derivatives of these quantities with respect to atomic coordinates. This method makes use of linear combinations of terms composed from pairwise overlaps of hard spheres; therefore, we term this the LCPO method for linear combination of pairwise overlaps. For higher performance, neighbor‐list reduction (NLR) was applied as a preprocessing step. Eighteen compounds of different sizes (8–2366 atoms) and classes (organic, proteins, DNA, and various complexes) were chosen as representative test cases. LCPO/NLR computed the SASA and first derivatives of penicillopepsin, a protein with 2366 atoms, in 0.87 s (0.22 s for the creation of the neighbor list, 0.35 s for NLR, and 0.30 s for SASA and first derivatives) on an SGI R10000/194 Mhz processor. This appears comparable to or better than timings reported previously for other algorithms. The vdWSAs were in good agreement with the numerical results: relative errors for total molecular surface areas ranged from 0.1 to 2.0% and average absolute atomic surface area deviations from 0.3 to 0.7 Å2. For SASAs without NLR, the LCPO method exhibited relative errors in the range of 0.4–9.2% for total molecular surface areas and average absolute atomic surface area deviations of 2.0–2.7 Å2; with NLR the relative molecular errors ranged from 0.1 to 7.8% and the average absolute atomic surface area deviation from 1.6 to 3.0 Å2. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 20: 217–230, 1999
Dopamine agonist cabergoline reduces hemoconcentration and ascites in hyperstimulated women undergoing assisted reproduction.

CONTEXT Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) results from increased vascular permeability (VP) caused by ovarian hypersecretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which activates its receptor-2. In animals, the dopamine receptor 2 agonist cabergoline (Cb2) inactivates VEGF receptor-2 and prevents increased VP. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to test whether Cb2 reduces VP and prevents OHSS in humans. DESIGN We conducted a prospective, randomized, double-blind study on oocyte donors at risk of developing OHSS (>20 follicles, >12 mm developed, and >20 oocytes retrieved). INTERVENTIONS Cb2 0.5 mg/d (n = 37) or a placebo (n = 32) was administered from the day of human chorionic gonadotropin (d 0) until d 8. Ascites (a pocket of peritoneal fluid > 9 cm(2) in lithotomy position), hemoconcentration, and serum prolactin were recorded. Pharmacokinetic studies with magnetic resonance employing the transfer constant rate (K(trans), measure of permeability) and the extravascular extracellular space (upsilon(e), marker of cellular leakage) were performed to measure VP objectively. RESULTS Hematocrit (P < 0.01), hemoglobin (P = 0.003), and ascites (P = 0.005) were significantly lower on d 4 and 6 after treatment with Cb2 as compared with placebo. The incidence of moderate OHSS was 20.0 and 43.8%, respectively (P = 0.04). Magnetic resonance studies showed an increase in VP and extravascular leakage of fluid 5 d after human chorionic gonadotropin injection that was significantly prevented with Cb2 (K(trans) P = 0.04 and upsilon(e) P = 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Given that Cb2 is a well-established and safe medication, this study provides proof of concept for the use of dopamine agonists in the prevention of OHSS in women undergoing assisted reproduction.
Identification and Functional Analysis of Tumor-Infiltrating Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells in Head and Neck Cancer 1

The antitumor activity of IFNis well established. However, the role of the plasmacytoid dendritic cell (PDC), the major producer of IFNupon viral infection, in tumor biology is unknown. We sought to study the presence and function of PDC in a human solid tumor. Here, we demonstrate that PDCs infiltrate tumor tissue of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Functional activity of PDC was examined by using CpG motif containing oligonucleotides, a defined microbial stimulus for PDCs (recognized via toll-like receptor 9). We found that HNSCC diminished the ability of PDC to produce IFNin response to CpG motif containing oligonucleotide. Tumor-induced down-regulation of toll-like receptor 9 was identified as one mechanism likely contributing to impaired PDC function within the tumor environment. In tumor-draining lymph nodes, suppression of CpG-induced IFNproduction was less pronounced than in single-cell suspensions of primary tumor tissue. In these lymph nodes, CpG-induced IFNproduction was associated with increased levels of interferon-induced protein 10 and IFNand activation of CD4 and CD8 T cells. These results show for the first time the presence of PDCs in human solid tumor tissue and that tumors suppress the capacity of PDCs to produce IFN. PDCs, which in the absence of appropriate stimulation are reported to promote regulatory CD8 T cells, may contribute to an impaired T-cell-mediated immune response in HNSCC.