Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Embryo oxygenation in pipefish brood pouches: novel insights

ABSTRACT The pipefish brood pouch presents a unique mode of parental care that enables males to protect, osmoregulate, nourish and oxygenate the developing young. Using a very fine O2 probe, we assessed the extent to which males of the broad-nosed pipefish (Syngnathus typhle) oxygenate the developing embryos and are able to maintain pouch fluid O2 levels when brooding in normoxia (100% O2 saturation) and hypoxia (40% O2 saturation) for 24 days. In both treatments, pouch fluid O2 saturation levels were lower compared with the surrounding water and decreased throughout the brooding period, reflecting greater offspring demand for O2 during development and/or decreasing paternal ability to provide O2 to the embryos. Male condition (hepatosomatic index) was negatively affected by hypoxia. Larger males had higher pouch fluid O2 saturation levels compared with smaller males, and levels were higher in the bottom section of the pouch compared with other sections. Embryo size was positively correlated with O2 availability, irrespective of their position in the pouch. Two important conclusions can be drawn from our findings. First, our results highlight a potential limitation to brooding within the pouch and dismiss the notion of closed brood pouches as well-oxygenated structures promoting the evolution of larger eggs in syngnathids. Second, we provide direct evidence that paternal care improves with male size in this species. This finding offers an explanation for the documented strong female preference for larger partners because, in terms of oxygenation, the brood pouch can restrict embryo growth. Highlighted Article: paternal embryo oxygenation improves with male size in pipefish but the notion of syngnathid closed brood pouches as well-oxygenated structures promoting the evolution of larger eggs is rejected.
The Power of Language: Practice in a Shared Site

This paper presents the importance of the use of inclusive, nonstigmatizing language in a Generations of Hope Community. A Generations of Hope Community is an intentional intergenerational neighborhood developed to support three generations: vulnerable children and youth, families, and older adults. Through the transformative power of language, people of all ages create stories of caring relationships, of purposeful engagement, of continuity and commitment, of belonging. As these stories emerge, they become the foundation on which family and community integration is built. These stories are at the heart of what makes these shared sites work.
Terapia comunitária: prática relatada pelos profissionais da rede SUS de Santa Catarina, Brasil

O objetivo deste estudo, de natureza exploratoria e descritiva, foi descrever as praticas de Terapia Comunitaria relatadas por 27 profissionais de saude da rede do Sistema Unico de Saude (SUS) de Santa Catarina, sul do Brasil. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas individuais semidirigidas, empregando-se a Analise de Conteudo como tematica categorial. Os resultados foram agrupados em cinco categorias: praticas de terapia comunitaria; estrategias de implantacao; dificuldades; elementos facilitadores; e beneficios. Conclui-se que a Terapia Comunitaria pode contribuir para a construcao de uma clinica ampliada e para a valorizacao dos recursos do territorio. No entanto, e necessario que a atuacao do terapeuta comunitario seja estendida a uma equipe multidisciplinar, dialogue com outros dispositivos, receba o apoio das gestoes dos servicos e se alie a outras politicas publicas, ampliando seu campo de acao da saude para outros setores.
Comparing Faith-Based and Secular Community Service Corporations in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Much of the national dialogue regarding the role of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in social service delivery has focused on congregations that provide various types of services to their communities. Comparatively little attention has been given to FBOs that have incorporated independently as 501(c)3 tax-exempt organizations. This survey of 237 community service organizations in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, finds that a substantial amount of service is provided by agencies that consider themselves to be FBOs, which are comparable to their secular counterparts in many respects, such as size, funding, program capacity, and management sophistication. FBOs appear to be substantially different from secular agencies with respect to their extensive use of volunteers, their relatively low reliance on government funding, and their relatively low engagement in policy advocacy and lobbying.
Audio content analysis based on density of peaks in amplitude envelope

This paper presents an approach to audio parameterization using properties of the peaks detected in the amplitude envelope. The proposed solution based on observation that abrupt changes in the envelope of signal are connected with type of audio signal. For this purpose we used the density properties of peaks to calculate the feature vectors. The extraction process exploits an amplitude envelope estimation of signals obtained at the output of the filter bank. At the evaluation stage, three types of popular filter banks like mel-scale, linear-scale and gammatone were used and compared. As an example, we have performed popular speech/music classification task to determine the quality of proposed features. The influence of specified filter bank on the accuracy depends on the number of filters that covers different bands. The experimental results show that proposed descriptors have discrimination ability, very low computational complexity and can be exploited in audio classification tasks.
Application of deep eutectic solvents in biomass valorization

High reliance on crude oil for energy consumption results in an urgent need to explore and develop alternative renewable sources. One of the most promising routes is the transformation of biomass into biofuels and valueadded chemicals. The introduction of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) in 2004 has received considerable amount of attention across different research fields particularly in biomass processing. The effectiveness of DESs in breaking down the recalcitrant structure of lignin in biomass highlights its impact on transformation of biomass into various value-added products. In comparison with some common solvents used in biomass valorization, DESs are able to produce highly concentrated solutions of carbohydrates, sometimes liquid at approximately room temperature. Besides, DESs are widely regarded as a promising green solvent due to its low cost, low toxicity and biodegradable properties. In this paper, firstly some background information on lignocellulosic biomass and DESs were given. Then, the mechanism and role of DES in pretreating biomass were discussed such as the impacts of DESs on the selectivity of chemical processes and dissolution of biomass by DESs. This review also highlighted the advantages and limitations of DESs associated with its usage on biomass pretreatment.
Conditions under which velocity-weakening friction allows a self-healing versus a cracklike mode of rupture

Slip rupture processes on velocity-weakening faults have been found in simulations to occur by two basic modes, the expanding crack and self-healing modes. In the expanding crack mode, as the rupture zone on a fault keeps expanding, slip continues growing everywhere within the rupture. In the self-healing mode, rupture occurs as a slip pulse propagating along the fault, with cessation of slip behind the pulse, so that the slipping region occupies only a small width at the front of the expanding rupture zone. We discuss the determination of rupture mode for dynamic slip between elastic half-spaces that are uniformly prestressed at background loading level τb0 outside a perturbed zone where rupture is nucleated. The interface follows a rate and state law such that strength τstrength approaches a velocity-dependent steady-state value τss(V) for sustained slip at velocity V, where dτss(V)/dV ≦ 0 (velocity weakening). By proving a theorem on when a certain type of cracklike solution cannot exist, and by analyzing the results of 2D antiplane simulations of rupture propagation for different classes of constitutive laws, and for a wide range of parameters within each, we develop explanations of when one or the other mode of rupture will result. The explanation is given in terms of a critical stress level τpulse and a dimensionless velocity-weakening parameter T that is defined when τb0 ≥ τpulse. Here τpulse is the largest value of τb0 satisfying τb0 − (μ/2c)V ≤ τss(V) for all V > 0, where μ is the shear modulus and c is the shear wave speed. Also, T = [−dτss(V)/dV]/(μ/2c) evaluated at V = Vdyna, which is the largest root of τb0 − (μ/2c)V = τss(V); T = 1 at τb0 = τpulse, and T diminishes toward 0 as τb0 is increased above τpulse. We thus show that the rupture mode is of the self-healing pulse type in the low-stress range, when τb0 < τpulse or when τb0 is only slightly greater than τpulse, such that T is near unity (e.g., T > 0.6). The amplitude of slip in the pulse diminishes with propagation distance at the lowest stress levels, whereas the amplitude increases for τb0 above a certain threshold τarrest, with τarrest < τpulse in the cases examined. When τb0 is sufficiently higher than τpulse that T is near zero (e.g., T < 0.4 in our 2D antiplane simulations), the rupture mode is that of an enlarging shear crack. Thus rupture under low stress is in the self-healing mode and under high stress in the cracklike mode, where our present work shows how to quantify low and high. The results therefore suggest the possibility that the self-healing mode is common for large natural ruptures because the stresses on faults are simply too low to allow the cracklike mode.
Whole-Body Cryotherapy in Athletes: From Therapy to Stimulation. An Updated Review of the Literature

Nowadays, whole-body cryotherapy is a medical physical treatment widely used in sports medicine. Recovery from injuries (e.g., trauma, overuse) and after-season recovery are the main purposes for application. However, the most recent studies confirmed the anti-inflammatory, anti-analgesic, and anti-oxidant effects of this therapy by highlighting the underlying physiological responses. In addition to its therapeutic effects, whole-body cryotherapy has been demonstrated to be a preventive strategy against the deleterious effects of exercise-induced inflammation and soreness. Novel findings have stressed the importance of fat mass on cooling effectiveness and of the starting fitness level on the final result. Exposure to the cryotherapy somehow mimics exercise, since it affects myokines expression in an exercise-like fashion, thus opening another possible window on the therapeutic strategies for metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. From a biochemical point of view, whole-body cryotherapy not always induces appreciable modifications, but the final clinical output (in terms of pain, soreness, stress, and post-exercise recovery) is very often improved compared to either the starting condition or the untreated matched group. Also, the number and the frequency of sessions that should be applied in order to obtain the best therapeutic results have been deeply investigated in the last years. In this article, we reviewed the most recent literature, from 2010 until present, in order to give the most updated insight into this therapeutic strategy, whose rapidly increasing use is not always based on scientific assumptions and safety standards.
Using a Key Informant Focus Group, Formative User Testing, and Theory to Guide Design of a Sleep Health BCSS

Designing effective applications is an important goal for software development researchers as well as practitioners. Researchers in the field of Persuasive Technologies have contributed significant theories intended to guide software developers. Yet due to the comprehensive nature of these theories as well as their recency, many aspects have not been studied— especially aspects that require integration of multiple theoretical perspectives. This paper applies a design science research approach to develop a sleep health app for use by college students. We use this setting to demonstrate how requirements gathered via a key informant focus group and formative user testing can be mapped to both persuasive system design and behavior change support system theories with the result of producing clear guidance for subsequent app design and assessment.
Arterial Stiffness Estimation in Hypertension

Arterial stiffness can be estimated noninvasively with various methods. Pulse pressure (PP), pulse wave velocity (PWV), stiffness index (SI), stroke volume (SV)/PP, proximal compliance (C1) and distal compliance (C2) are reported to be associated with arterial stiffness and can be used as predictors of cardiovascular events. 452 subjects were involved in the present study, mentioned six indices were obtained and compared to verify if they are suitable for the arterial stiffness estimation and which one is the most sensitive marker of arterial stiffness in hypertension. It is found that PWV has a good correlation with PP, SI and C2, and it is an effective index to distinguish hypertensive from normotensive. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis also evidenced the good performance of PWV in the diagnosis of hypertension. It is concluded that PWV is superior to other indices in reliably predicting arterial stiffness in hypertensive
Line managers and human resource development

Focuses on the line manager as a key stakeholder in the human resource development process. Considers the general trend towards devolvement of human resource activities to line specialists. Examines issues involved in devolving training and development to the line, with specific emphasis on the potential difficulties. Recent empirical evidence is represented. Concludes that the shape of things to come, at least for the foreseeable future, will be a sharing of responsibilities between the specialist and the line.
Unique Abnormalities in Right Ventricular Longitudinal Strain in Systemic Sclerosis Patients

Background—Cardiac involvement in systemic sclerosis (scleroderma [SSc]) adversely affects long-term prognosis, often remaining undetectable despite close clinical examination and 2-dimensional echocardiographic monitoring. Speckle-derived strain of the right ventricle (RV) was utilized to detect occult abnormalities in regional and global contractility in SSc patients. Methods and Results—A total of 138 SSc patients with technically adequate echocardiograms was studied and compared with 40 age- and sex-matched healthy non-SSc controls. Standard assessment of RV chamber function included tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion and fractional area change. RV longitudinal systolic speckle-derived strain was assessed in the basal, mid, and apical free wall. Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion was not different between groups (P=0.307). Although fractional area change was lower in SSc patients than in controls (mean, 48.9 versus 55; P=0.002), the mean fractional area change was still within the normal range (>35). In contrast, RV longitudinal systolic speckle-derived strain measures were significantly different between groups, both globally (−20.4% versus −17.7%; P=0.005) and regionally: they were decreased in the apex (−8.5% versus −17.1%; P<0.0001) and mid segments (−12.4% versus -20.9%; P<0.0001), and increased in the base (−32.2% versus −23.3%; P=0.0001) for the SSc group. The regional difference in the base compared with the apex was significantly greater for SSc than for controls (P<0.0001 for interaction). The differences observed in regional strain between SSc and control were unchanged after adjusting for RV systolic pressure. Conclusions—Speckle-derived strain reveals a heterogenous pattern of regional heart strain in SSc that is not detected by conventional measures of function, suggestive of occult RV myocardial disease.
Distributed under Creative Commons Cc-by 4.0 Relocate2: a High Resolution Transposable Element Insertion Site Mapping Tool for Population Resequencing

Background. Transposable element (TE) polymorphisms are important components of population genetic variation. The functional impacts of TEs in gene regulation and generating genetic diversity have been observed in multiple species, but the frequency and magnitude of TE variation is under appreciated. Inexpensive and deep sequencing technology has made it affordable to apply population genetic methods to whole genomes with methods that identify single nucleotide and insertion/deletion polymorphisms. However, identifying TE polymorphisms, particularly transposition events or non-reference insertion sites can be challenging due to the repetitive nature of these sequences, which hamper both the sensitivity and specificity of analysis tools. Methods. We have developed the tool RelocaTE2 for identification of TE insertion sites at high sensitivity and specificity. RelocaTE2 searches for known TE sequences in whole genome sequencing reads from second generation sequencing platforms such as Illumina. These sequence reads are used as seeds to pinpoint chromosome locations where TEs have transposed. RelocaTE2 detects target site duplication (TSD) of TE insertions allowing it to report TE polymorphism loci with single base pair precision. Results and Discussion. The performance of RelocaTE2 is evaluated using both simulated and real sequence data. RelocaTE2 demonstrate high level of sensitivity and specificity, particularly when the sequence coverage is not shallow. In comparison to other tools tested, RelocaTE2 achieves the best balance between sensitivity and specificity. In particular, RelocaTE2 performs best in prediction of TSDs for TE insertions. Even in highly repetitive regions, such as those tested on rice chromosome 4, RelocaTE2 is able to report up to 95% of simulated TE insertions with less than 0.1% false positive rate using 10-fold genome coverage resequencing data. RelocaTE2 provides a robust solution to identify TE insertion sites and can be incorporated into analysis workflows in support of describing the complete genotype from light coverage genome sequencing.
A P2P-based Three-Dimensional Virtual Environment Management and Collaborative Streaming System

Because of the growth of network and device capability, to realize interactive 3D virtual environment over Internet have become a popular and challenging research area. In recent development on practical 3D virtual environment, most of them focus on client-server architecture that deploys a central server or proxy to process 3D content rendering, storage, delivery and management. Therefore, the heavy computation and processing will be the bottleneck of the central server so that the overall performance might be worse. On the other hand, 3D scenes always have large volume so that 3D scenes which are transmitted from server may gain worse transmission performance and user’s device will not have enough storage space as well as server machine. Therefore, in this paper we propose a collaborative 3D scene management and streaming system to reduce the load of server-based architecture, and we use peer-to-peer technology to realize distributed virtual environment.
Cardiomyocytes Derived From Pluripotent Stem Cells Recapitulate Electrophysiological Characteristics of an Overlap Syndrome of Cardiac Sodium Channel Disease

Background— Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) offer a new paradigm for modeling genetic cardiac diseases, but it is unclear whether mouse and human PSCs can truly model both gain- and loss-of-function genetic disorders affecting the Na+ current (INa) because of the immaturity of the PSC-derived cardiomyocytes. To address this issue, we generated multiple PSC lines containing a Na+ channel mutation causing a cardiac Na+ channel overlap syndrome. Method and Results— Induced PSC (iPSC) lines were generated from mice carrying the Scn5a1798insD/+ (Scn5a-het) mutation. These mouse iPSCs, along with wild-type mouse iPSCs, were compared with the targeted mouse embryonic stem cell line used to generate the mutant mice and with the wild-type mouse embryonic stem cell line. Patch-clamp experiments showed that the Scn5a-het cardiomyocytes had a significant decrease in INa density and a larger persistent INa compared with Scn5a-wt cardiomyocytes. Action potential measurements showed a reduced upstroke velocity and longer action potential duration in Scn5a-het myocytes. These characteristics recapitulated findings from primary cardiomyocytes isolated directly from adult Scn5a-het mice. Finally, iPSCs were generated from a patient with the equivalent SCN5A1795insD/+ mutation. Patch-clamp measurements on the derivative cardiomyocytes revealed changes similar to those in the mouse PSC-derived cardiomyocytes. Conclusion— Here, we demonstrate that both embryonic stem cell- and iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes can recapitulate the characteristics of a combined gain- and loss-of-function Na+ channel mutation and that the electrophysiological immaturity of PSC-derived cardiomyocytes does not preclude their use as an accurate model for cardiac Na+ channel disease.
2+ Tyrosine Kinase for Nicotine-Induced Ca TCR and Leukocyte-Specific Protein Functional Receptor Subunits That Require a 7-Nicotinic Acetylcholine a T Cells Express

Acute and chronic effects of nicotine on the immune system are usually opposite; acute treatment stimulates while chronic nicotine suppresses immune and inﬂammatory responses. Nicotine acutely raises intracellular calcium ([Ca 2 (cid:2) ] i ) in T cells, but the mechanism of this response is unclear. Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are present on neuronal and non-neuronal cells, but while in neurons, nAChRs are cation channels that participate in neurotransmission; their structure and function in nonexcitable cells are not well-deﬁned. In this communication, we present evidence that T cells express (cid:1) 7-nAChRs that are critical in increasing [Ca 2 (cid:2) ] i in response to nicotine. Cloning and sequencing of the receptor from human T cells showed a full-length transcript essentially identical to the neuronal (cid:1) 7-nAChR subunit ( > 99.6% homology). These receptors are up-regulated and tyrosine phosphorylated by treatment with nicotine, anti-TCR Abs, or Con A. Furthermore, knockdown of the (cid:1) 7-nAChR subunit mRNA by RNA interference reduced the nicotine-induced Ca 2 (cid:2) response, but unlike the neuronal receptor, (cid:1) -bungarotoxin and methyllycaconitine not only failed to block, but also actually raised [Ca 2 (cid:2) ] i in T cells. The nicotine-induced release of Ca 2 (cid:2) from intracellular stores in T cells did not require extracellular Ca 2 (cid:2) , but, similar to the TCR-mediated Ca 2 (cid:2) response, required activation of protein tyrosine kinases, a functional TCR/CD3 complex, and leukocyte-speciﬁc tyrosine kinase. Moreover, CD3 (cid:3) and (cid:1) 7-nAChR coimmunoprecipitated with anti-CD3 (cid:3) or anti- (cid:1) 7-nAChR Abs. These results suggest that in T cells, (cid:1) 7-nAChR, despite its close sequence homology with neuronal (cid:1) 7-nAChR , fails to form a ligand-gated Ca 2 (cid:2) channel, and that the nicotine-induced rise in [Ca 2 (cid:2) ] i in T cells requires functional TCR/CD3 and leukocyte-speciﬁc tyrosine kinase. The Journal of Immunology, 2007, 179: 2889–2898.
Corrected state-space averaged-value modeling of second-order flyback converter including conduction losses

Average-value modeling (AVM) plays an important role in design and analysis of power-electronic based systems such as flyback converters. The existing AVM techniques such as state-space and circuit averaging have been developed by many researchers. In this paper, a new AVM of the second order flyback converter is introduced using the state space averaged value modeling approach. Here, the accuracy of the proposed AVM is enhanced by considering system basic parasitic losses. The proposed AVM is compared against the detailed simulation and previously-developed state-space model in large signal time-domain studies, and it is demonstrated to be accurate in predicting the original switching behavior.