Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamical Aspects of in vitro Conditioning in Hermissenda Type B Photoreceptor

Abstract Dynamics of changes in physiology and morphology were studied in Hermissenda photoreceptors after in vitro conditioning with paired light and vibration. An increase in input resistance of the type B photoreceptor was observed following 5 paired presentations of light and vibration. It peaked at 10 min after in vitro conditioning, then decreased to a level twice the pre-conditioning level for more than 60 min. Contraction of the terminal branches along centro-lateral direction was initiated 5 min after conditioning and reached its final state at 10 min after conditioning. The pairing specific contraction of the axon terminal was not observed in ASW containing anisomycin. The dynamics in physiology and morphology were completely parallel 30 min after conditioning. These findings suggested that in vitro conditioning induced contraction was dependent on protein synthesis dependent process initiated within 5 min after training trials and that the change of cell morphology is a form of short-term synaptic plasticity that involves changes in macromolecular synthesis. Present findings that functional remodeling at the terminal branch of the type B photoreceptor occurred within 10 min after conditioning was the fastest modification process reported so far.
THE TREATMENT OF CONGENITAL IDIOPATHIC NYSTAGMUS BY INTERMITTENT PHOTIC STIMULATION *

Abstract An analysis is presented of the results obtained by treating 54 patients with congenital nystagmus using intermittent photic stimulation. The major beneficial effect has been to improve the visual acuity, though the nystagmus itself is sometimes reduced in amplitude or even eliminated; an unexpected bonus, in certain cases, is the improvement in stereoscopic acuity.
Fishing agreements in the lower Amazon: for gain and restraint

Co-management agreements, whereby community rules for the management of local floodplain lake fisheries are legalised and enforced by the government, have become common in the lower Amazon. Agreements are intended to limit exploitation, in particular by commercial boats, to raise stock abundance and fisheries productivity for the benefit of local subsistence-oriented fishers and for conservation. A spatially replicated observational study was carried out to evaluate the performance of fishing agreements in terms of perceived rule compliance and actual impacts on fishing activities, catch and catch per unit of effort (CPUE, a measure of fisheries productivity and proxy for stock abundance). Perceived rule compliance was high, and this was cor- roborated by observed changes in fishing practices. Catch per unit of effort was significantly higher (by 48% on average) in areas subject to fishing agreements than in control areas without. Most likely this effect was attrib- utable to the effective exclusion of mobile commercial fishing boats. Household fishing effort and catch in local communities were not significantly affected by the agreements, although a tendency towards slightly higher catches at lower effort was noticeable. In conclusion, the co-management agreements have led to greater local control over resources and brought significant productivity and conservation benefits.
Genetic differentiation of urban populations of Euglossa cordata from the state of São Paulo, Brazil

Males and females of Euglossa cordata collected inside flowers of Thevetia peruviana in urban areas of eleven cities of the state of São Paulo were analysed using allozymes and nine microsatellite loci. The analyses revealed that these populations have a high genetic diversity and are under genetic equilibrium, showing low population structuring and rare diploid males; consequently, high gene flow and effective population size (Ne) are inferred. These findings corroborate previous biological observations and phylogeographic evidence that report dispersion over long distances of Euglossini species in South America.
Une approche terminologique pour catégoriser les concepts d'une ontologie

Une ontologie est composee de concepts qui decrivent des objets concrets ou abstraits censes modeliser une partie de l'univers. Le travail presente repose sur l'observation que la plupart des objets utilises pour modeliser un domaine sont denotes par des termes et sont accessibles a travers les textes portant sur le domaine. Une approche linguistique est donc possible pour elaborer des ontologies, et cette approche induit une categorisation des concepts d'une ontologie. Cette categorisation constitue le point central de l'etude. Cet article debute par la presentation d'une approche terminologique pour identifier les termes d'un domaine et les decrire informellement. Puis, les problemes poses par le passage de descriptions informelles a des descriptions formelles structurees en ontologie sont rapidement evoques. La categorisation des concepts d'une ontologie reposant sur une approche terminologique est ensuite detaillee. Quelques elements methodologiques pour elaborer une ontologie formelle a partir de textes decrivant le domaine d'une application sont finalement donnes.
The role of COMT inhibition in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease

Several prospective double-blind, placebo-controlled trials have demonstrated that combining levodopa with the COMT inhibitor entacapone is efficacious in reducing motor fluctuations. Compared with levodopa alone, mean daily “on” time was increased by 1–1.7 hours, with a corresponding decrease in daily “off” time. In addition, some studies have shown that these benefits are associated with significant improvements in both UPDRS motor and ADL scores. These benefits have been shown to persist in long-term clinical trials with follow-up for up to 3 years. Recent studies have also examined the value of combining levodopa with entacapone in stable patients who do not experience motor response fluctuations. Here, too, benefits have been reported, especially in health-related quality of life measures. Studies to determine if administering levodopa in combination with entacapone will delay the development of dyskinesia and motor fluctuations are eagerly awaited.
DICOM in the XML Schema Design Language ( XSDL )

Content: In 1998, I proposed that the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry should replace their present Flow Cytometry Standard with an implementation in DICOM and work with the DICOM developers. After this suggestion was rejected, I suggested an XML implementation based upon DICOM to the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry Data Standards Task Force. Technology: XML Schema Design Language is the basis for the development of a new standard (CytometryML) for cytometry metadata. The schemas have been validated with XMLSpy and Stylus Studio. The relevance of the composition of the major schemas has been tested by the automated creation of XML pages and the manual entry of data into them. Design: Since only data-types including data structures and objects are described in schemas, object oriented design principles were followed in their design, which, wherever possible, was based on DICOM. Strong typing, minimization of the coupling of independent higher-level schemas, and maximization of the cohesion of individual schemas were design principles. Container files for multiple XML pages that included a table of contents were employed instead of mimicking a DICOM directory structure. Results: XML schemas that describe the metadata XML documents for two related types of container files have been created. The series container includes the metadata files that are constant for a set of measurements, such as the instrument description. The instance container includes the metadata and binary data that is specific to an individual or small closely related group of measurements, such as the instrument settings and staining protocols. Schemas for digital microscopes and flow cytometers, as well as image and list-mode (waveform) data have been created. Conclusion: It is possible to translate DICOM data-types into conventional, readable, modular XML
Experimental Evaluation of Oxygen Free Radical Scavengers in the Prevention of Reperfusion Injury to Skeletal Muscle

A prolonged preoperative ischemic interval decreases the chances for successful replantation of an amputated limb. Skeletal muscle is especially sensitive to periods of prolonged ischemia. It is now hypothesized that significant tissue injury occurs during reperfusion, when oxygen-rich blood contacts anaerobic metabolites forming toxic oxygen free radicals. A replantation model, using the rabbit hind limb tibialis anterior muscle, was developed to assess muscle function and histological appearance following ischemic intervals of five and eight hours. Muscle strength five weeks after injury was used as a functional measurement of tissue damage. The effects of the superoxide free radical scavenger superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the hydroxyl radical scavenger dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), administered systemically just before reperfusion, were studied. Muscle treated with SOD following five hours of ischemia had essentially normal strength and histological appearance; however, there was no protective effect after eight hours. DMSO treatment had no beneficial effects after five hours of ischemia, but after eight hours DMSO-treated muscle had significantly better function than untreated muscle. Histological examination confirmed the functional results. Clinical treatment of ischemic limbs with free radical scavengers before revascularization may aid in avoiding reperfusion injury and may improve survival and later muscle function.
Modeling U‐Shaped Exposure‐Response Relationships for Agents that Demonstrate Toxicity Due to Both Excess and Deficiency

Essential elements such as copper and manganese may demonstrate U‐shaped exposure‐response relationships due to toxic responses occurring as a result of both excess and deficiency. Previous work on a copper toxicity database employed CatReg, a software program for categorical regression developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to model copper excess and deficiency exposure‐response relationships separately. This analysis involved the use of a severity scoring system to place diverse toxic responses on a common severity scale, thereby allowing their inclusion in the same CatReg model. In this article, we present methods for simultaneously fitting excess and deficiency data in the form of a single U‐shaped exposure‐response curve, the minimum of which occurs at the exposure level that minimizes the probability of an adverse outcome due to either excess or deficiency (or both). We also present a closed‐form expression for the point at which the exposure‐response curves for excess and deficiency cross, corresponding to the exposure level at which the risk of an adverse outcome due to excess is equal to that for deficiency. The application of these methods is illustrated using the same copper toxicity database noted above. The use of these methods permits the analysis of all available exposure‐response data from multiple studies expressing multiple endpoints due to both excess and deficiency. The exposure level corresponding to the minimum of this U‐shaped curve, and the confidence limits around this exposure level, may be useful in establishing an acceptable range of exposures that minimize the overall risk associated with the agent of interest.
Reduced Fidelity of Neural Representation Underlies Episodic Memory Decline in Normal Aging

Emerging studies have emphasized the importance of the fidelity of cortical representation in forming enduring episodic memory. No study, however, has examined whether there are age-related reductions in representation fidelity that can explain memory declines in normal aging. Using functional MRI and multivariate pattern analysis, we found that older adults showed reduced representation fidelity in the visual cortex, which accounted for their decreased memory performance even after controlling for the contribution of reduced activation level. This reduced fidelity was specifically due to older adults' poorer item-specific representation, not due to their lower activation level and variance, greater variability in neuro-vascular coupling, or decreased selectivity of categorical representation (i.e., dedifferentiation). Older adults also showed an enhanced subsequent memory effect in the prefrontal cortex based on activation level, and their prefrontal activation was associated with greater fidelity of representation in the visual cortex and better memory performance. The fidelity of cortical representation thus may serve as a promising neural index for better mechanistic understanding of the memory declines and its compensation in normal aging.
Microsomal prediction of in vivo clearance of CYP2C9 substrates in humans.

AIMS To assess the utility of human hepatic microsomes for predicting in vivo intrinsic clearance (CLint ) via the use of four cytochrome P450 2C9 substrates: phenytoin, tolbutamide (S)-ibuprofen (two pathways) and diclofenac, and to examine the role of exogenous albumin within the microsomal incubation. METHODS V max, Km and CLint (defined as V max/Km ratio) were estimated under initial rate conditions for five pathways of metabolism in a bank of 15 human hepatic microsomal samples and were scaled to in vivo units using the microsomal protein index. Non-metabolic related binding in microsomes was measured for phenytoin and tolbutamide in the presence and absence of albumin. RESULTS Microsomal CLint values differed by over two orders of magnitude, with the means ranging from 0.18 (phenytoin) to 40.70 (diclofenac) microl min-1 mg-1 microsomal protein. When these data were scaled and compared with published in vivo studies a similar rank order was obtained, however, the actual CLint tended to be underpredicted. While the in vivo unbound Km for phenytoin, 1-5 micron is substantially lower than the value determined in microsomes based on total concentrations (56 micron), correction for the in vitro binding reduces this value to 20 micron and 6 micron in the absence and presence of albumin, respectively. Similar trends were seen with tolbutamide Km. CONCLUSIONS An appreciation of the utility of in vitro prediction can be best achieved when the range of CLint values predicted from the individual hepatic microsomal samples are compared with the range of individual in vivo CLint values reported in the literature. The degree of underprediction is less evident using the range than the mean data and no consistent advantage in adding albumin to the incubation media is apparent.
THE DETERMINANTS OF STUDENT SATISFACTION WITH ONLINE VIDEO PRESENTATIONS

The integration of online learning methods in blended learning environments has reached widespread acceptance and use. In this paper, we develop and test a model of the determinants of student satisfaction with a blended learning method, namely, online video presentations. In our model, we focus on both the social and utilitarian benefits that can be attained, and describe their role in enhancing student satisfaction with the online method. The results from a survey of 386 students confirm that the ability of an online learning method to affect social dynamics, such as reducing social comparison bias and enhance group participation, increases satisfaction. Furthermore, and consistent with prior research, the results revealed that properly employed online methods can enhance utilitarian benefits, such as increasing product originality and demonstrability, which subsequently increase satisfaction with the method.
Aplicação de redes neurais artificiais na indústria de fios de algodão

A competitividade no setor de producao de fios fez as empresas buscarem solucoes para a obtencao de um fio com qualidade e baixo custo. Hoje, o diferencial entre elas e, desta forma, o do setor, esta na materia-prima, ou seja, o algodao processado e suas caracteristicas. Existem diversos tipos de algodao, com caracteristicas diferenciadas, fato que se deve a regiao de producao, a safra, ao armazenamento e ao transporte. As industrias de fios trabalham com misturas de fibras de algodao, o que dificulta a determinacao da qualidade do fio produzido a partir das caracteristicas das fibras processadas. Neste trabalho, utilizam-se dados de um processo de fiacao convencional, sendo alimentado com materia-prima de composicao 100% de algodao, e apresenta-se uma solucao com redes neurais artificiais que determina as informacoes da qualidade do fio, utilizando os valores das caracteristicas das fibras e definicoes de alguns ajustes do processo. Nessa solucao utiliza-se uma rede neural artificial do tipo MultiLayer Perceptron com 11 neuronios na entrada (8 caracteristicas da fibra e 3 ajustes do processo), 7 neuronios na saida (qualidades do fio) e dois tipos de treinamento, o Back propagation e o Conjugate gradiente descent . Descreve-se a selecao e organizacao dos dados de producao da industria de fios da empresa cocamar® industria de fios , para aplicar as redes neurais artificiais desenvolvidas. Na aplicacao de redes neurais para determinar a qualidade do fio, conclui-se que, apesar de nao possuir precisao ideal quanto aos valores absolutos, a solucao apresentada representa uma excelente ferramenta para definir as variacoes das qualidades do fio quando se altera a composicao da materia-prima. O sistema desenvolvido permite realizar simulacoes para definir o percentual de mistura na materia-prima a ser processada na fabrica com a utilizacao de informacoes dos fardos de algodao em estoque, desta forma pode-se obter uma mistura que mantenha a estabilidade de todo o processo produtivo.
Human Resources or Information Technology: What is More Important for Companies in the Digital Era?

Abstract Background: Companies can improve their business performance, increase revenues and reduce costs by enhancing their information technology (IT) capability. On the other side, there is an increasing importance of human resource management (HRM) practices related to IT utilization, which are important for the business performance of a company in the rapidly changing knowledge-based economy. Objectives: The objective of this paper is to analyze the relations among IT capability, HRM capability and the firm’s performance outcomes. Methods/Approach: The paper uses survey data and Structural Equation Modeling to analyze the relationships among IT capability, HRM capability and firms’ performance. Results: This paper reveals that IT capability to some extent determines firms’ business performance but it plays more important role in enhancing HRM capability. In addition, HRM capability significantly impacts business performance. Conclusions: The findings indicate that managers should not focus on allocating resources only for IT investments. In order to achieve better business performances, these technologies need to be used to support all business processes including HRM activities.
Pain scores of odontogenic orofacial lesions in a tertiary Hospital in sub Saharan West Africa.

Aim & objective To determine the correlation of three main pain measuring scales used as diagnostic aid to orofacial lesion of odontogenic origin. Methodology A six month cross sectional survey utilizing interviewer administered questionnaire targeted at attendees of Dental outpatient clinic of University College Hospital, Nigeria (UCH), a tertiary hospital. Results Mean age for odontogenic pain was 35.68 ± 16.44; male to female ratio was 1: 1.24. Pain was more severe but statistically insignificant among females (p = 0.85), however, there was significant difference in the mean pain intensity between diagnostic categories of odontogenic lesion (p = 0.00). The commonest odontogenic lesion category was caries related (54.3% of all orofacial and 58.9% of odontogenic lesions respectively). There was positive correlation between the three pain measuring scales (Visual Analogue Scale (VAS),Number of verbs chosen(NWC) M r = 0.838 & r = 0.599 respectively). However the three diagnostic scales failed to distinguish between specific odontogenic lesions when the mean pain scores were very close. Conclusion Pain measuring scales should only be used as aid to diagnosis and not for definitive diagnosis.
Effects of 17-α ethynyl estradiol on proliferation, differentiation & mineralization of osteoprecursor cells

Background & objectives: The steroidal estrogen 17α-ethynyl estradiol (EE) is an orally bio-active estrogen used in almost all modern formulations of estrogen-progestin combination preparations of oral contraceptives. Contrasting effects of treatment with combined oral contraceptives on bone mineral density of pre-, peri-, and post-menopausal women have been reported, and it has been suggested that the estrogen dose and the type of progestogen may be the main contributing factors for these contrasting results. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of EE on osteoprecursor cells. Methods: The effects of single component of oral contraceptive, EE, were tested to see the relationship between EE and osteoblast proliferation, differentiation and mineralization. Tests used included a cell viability test, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) test, alizarin red-S staining, and a Western blot analysis. The effect on cell viability was determined by MTT assay. Differentiation and mineralization were examined using an ALP test and alizarin red-S staining. Protein expressions related to bone formation, such as estrogen receptor-alpha (ER-α), estrogen receptor-beta (ER-β), bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2), osteocalcin (OCN), and osteopontin (OPN) were evaluated by using a Western blot analysis. Results: Cultures growing in the absence of EE presented the lowest value for the MTT value. However, there were no significant changes in viability/proliferation when EE was added in the medium. Cultures growing in the absence of EE presented the highest value for the ALP activity, and the additional presence of EE resulted in dose-dependent decrease concerning ALP activity. Interpretation & conclusions: Our finding showed that EE in tested dosage within MC3T3-E1 cells seem to affect the proliferation and differentiation; however, significant differences are achieved in ALP activity in early differentiation phase and further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms of EE on bone.
Fat intake of women during normal pregnancy: relationship with maternal and neonatal essential fatty acid status.

OBJECTIVE To study the relationships between the essential fatty acid (EFA) composition of maternal diet, maternal EFA status and the EFA status of healthy newborn infants. METHODS A prospective longitudinal study was performed in which 176 pregnant women completed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) before 13, at 22, and at 32 weeks of gestation, so that changes in nutrient intake throughout pregnancy could be recorded. Around 22 weeks, a dietary history was performed and a maternal blood sample was collected. Immediately after delivery, a blood sample from the umbilical vein and a piece of the umbilical cord were collected. Fatty acid compositions were determined for phospholipids (PLs) isolated from maternal and umbilical plasma and from umbilical vein and artery vessel walls. RESULTS No significant differences in the mean daily intake of total fat, saturated fat, mono-unsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat and linoleic acid (18:2(n-6), LA) were observed between the three trimesters. Maternal LA intake was positively associated with LA levels in maternal and umbilical plasma and negatively associated with 20:3(n-9), 18:3(n-3), 20:4(n-3) and 22:5(n-3) levels in maternal plasma, with 20:5(n-3) levels in umbilical plasma and with 22:6(n-3) levels in umbilical vein vessel walls. Significant positive correlations for almost all (n-6) and (n-3) fatty acids were observed between maternal and umbilical plasma levels. CONCLUSIONS The maternal dietary fat composition appears to be consistent during pregnancy. A high maternal LA intake may have a lowering effect on the maternal as well as on the neonatal (n-3) fatty acid status. Finally, neonatal EFA status is strongly related to maternal EFA status.