Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ventricular cerebrospinal fluid neurofilament protein levels decrease in parallel with white matter pathology after shunt surgery in normal pressure hydrocephalus

Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is characterized by disturbed cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics and white matter lesions (WML). Although the morphology of these lesions is described, little is known about the biochemistry. Our aim was to explore the relationship between ventricular CSF markers, periventricular WML and postoperative clinical outcome in patients with NPH. We analysed lumbar and ventricular concentrations of 10 CSF markers, 12 clinical symptoms and signs, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) periventricular white matter hyperintensities (PVH) and ventricular size before and 3 months after shunt surgery in 35 patients with NPH. Higher ventricular CSF neurofilament protein (NFL), an axonal marker, correlated with more extensive PVH. A larger postoperative reduction in NFL correlated with larger reduction in PVH and a more pronounced overall improvement. Albumin ratio, HMPG, NPY, VIP and GD3 increased postoperatively whereas NFL, tau and HVA decreased. Variations in ventricular size were not associated with CSF concentrations of any marker. We conclude that NPH is characterized by an ongoing periventricular neuronal dysfunction seen on MRI as PVH. Clinical improvement after shunt surgery is associated with CSF changes indicating a restitution of axonal function. Other biochemical effects of shunting may include increased monoaminergic and peptidergic neurotransmission, breakdown of blood brain barrier function, and gliosis.
Retinoic Acid Signaling Restricts the Cardiac Progenitor Pool

Organogenesis begins with specification of a progenitor cell population, the size of which provides a foundation for the organ's final dimensions. Here, we present a new mechanism for regulating the number of progenitor cells by limiting their density within a competent region. We demonstrate that retinoic acid signaling restricts cardiac specification in the zebrafish embryo. Reduction of retinoic acid signaling causes formation of an excess of cardiomyocytes, via fate transformations that increase cardiac progenitor density within a multipotential zone. Thus, retinoic acid signaling creates a balance between cardiac and noncardiac identities, thereby refining the dimensions of the cardiac progenitor pool.
Inward‐rectifying anion channels are expressed in the epithelial cells of choroid plexus isolated from ClC‐2 ‘knock‐out’ mice

Choroid plexus epithelial cells express inward‐rectifying anion channels which have a high HCO3− permeability. These channels are thought to have an important role in the secretion of cerebrospinal fluid. The possible relationship between these channels and the ClC‐2 Cl− channel was investigated in the present study. RT‐PCR, using specific ClC‐2 primers, amplified a 238 bp fragment of mRNA from rat choroid plexus, which was 99 % identical to the 5′ sequence of rat ClC‐2. A 2005 bp clone was isolated from a rat choroid plexus cDNA library using a probe for ClC‐2. The clone showed greater than 99 % identity with the sequence of rat ClC‐2. Inward‐rectifying anion channels were observed in whole‐cell recordings of choroid plexus epithelial cells isolated from ClC‐2 knock‐out mice. The mean inward conductance was 19.6 ± 3.6 nS (n= 8) in controls (3 heterozygote animals), and 22.5 ± 3.1 nS (n= 10) in three knock‐out animals. The relative permeability of the conductances to I− and Cl− (PI : PCl) was determined. I− was more permeant than Cl− in both heterozygotes (PI:PCl= 4.0 ± 0.9, n= 3) and knock‐out animals (PI : PCl= 4.1 ± 1.4, n= 3). These results indicate that rat choroid plexus expresses the ClC‐2 variant that was originally reported in other tissues. ClC‐2 does not contribute significantly to inward‐rectifying anion conductance in mouse choroid plexus, which must therefore express a novel inward‐rectifying anion channel.
District nurse advocacy for choice to live and die at home in rural Australia

Background: Choice to live and die at home is supported by palliative care policy; however, health resources and access disparity impact on this choice in rural Australia. Rural end-of-life home care is provided by district nurses, but little is known about their role in advocacy for choice in care. Objectives: The study was conducted to review the scope of the empirical literature available to answer the research question: What circumstances influence district nurse advocacy for rural client choice to live and die at home? , and identify gaps in the knowledge. Method: Interpretive scoping methodology was used to search online databases, identify suitable studies and select, chart, analyse and describe the findings. Results: 34 international studies revealed themes of ‘the nursing relationship’, ‘environment’, ‘communication’, ‘support’ and ‘the holistic client centred district nursing role. Discussion: Under-resourcing, medicalisation and emotional relational burden could affect advocacy in rural areas. Conclusion: It is not known how district nurses overcome these circumstances to advocate for choice in end-of-life care. Research designed to increase understanding of how rural district nurses advocate successfully for client goals will enable improvements to be made in the quality of end-of-life care offered.
Financial Development and the Patterns of International Capital Flows

We develop a tractable, two-country, overlapping-generations model and show that cross-country differences in financial development can explain three recent empirical patterns of international capital flows: Financial capital flows from relatively poor to relatively rich countries while foreign direct investment flows in the opposite direction; net capital flows go from poor to rich countries; despite its negative net international investment position, the US receives a positive net international investment income. We also explore the welfare and distributional effects of international capital flows and show that the direction of capital flows may change along the convergence process of a developing country. Matsuyama (Econometrica 2004) argues that, in the presence of credit market imperfections, financial market globalization may lead to a steady-state equilibrium in which fundamentally identical countries end up with different levels of per-capita output. We show that this symmetry-breaking property depends crucially on the assumption that investment operates on the extensive rather than the intensive margin.
A novel rotor design of interior permanent magnet synchronous motors to cope with both maximum torque and core loss reduction

A novel rotor design of interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSMs) has been developed in order to cope with both maximum torque and core loss reduction for wide speed range applications. First, the flux barrier and permanent magnet shapes of an IPMSM are determined by using an automatic optimization method. In this optimization, the core loss of the IPMSM under flux weakening control at high speeds is minimized under the constrained condition of maximum torque at low speeds. As a result, a novel rotor, which has inner magnetic pole bodies, is obtained. The effectiveness of this design is discussed from both results of the finite element analysis (FEA) and the measurement of a prototype motor. It is revealed that the core loss of the proposed IPMSM at high speeds is significantly reduced, whereas the maximum torque decreases by only a few percent.
Fruit sizes and the structure of frugivorous communities in a New Guinea lowland rainforest

A community of frugivorous insects was studied by rearing of 25 565 individual insects representing three orders (Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Diptera except Drosophilidae) from 326 woody plant species in a lowland rainforest in Papua New Guinea. Fruits from 19.3% of plant species were not attacked by any insect order, 33.4% of plant species were attacked by a single order, 30% by two orders and 17.2% by all three orders. The likelihood of attack by individual orders was positively correlated so that a higher proportion of plant species than expected suffered either no attack at all or was attacked by all three insect orders. Fruits from most of the plant species exhibited low rates of attack and low densities of insects. One kilogram of fruit was attacked on average by 11 insects, including three to four Coleoptera, six Diptera and one Lepidoptera. Thus, we reared on average one insect from 10 fruits, including one Diptera from 14 fruits, one Coleoptera from 22 fruits and one Lepidoptera from 100 fruits. Only 72 out of the 326 plant species hosted more than one insect per 10 fruits, and only seven species supported a density of greater than one insect per fruit. Our results suggest that specialized insect seed predators are probably too rare to maintain the diversity of vegetation by density-dependent mortality of seeds as suggested by the Janzen–Connell hypothesis. Fruit weight, fruit volume, mesocarp volume, seed volume and fleshiness had no significant effect on the probability that a fruit would be attacked by an insect frugivore. However, fruits attacked by Diptera were significantly larger and had larger volume of both mesocarp and seeds than fruits attacked by Coleoptera and Lepidoptera.
Single-Molecule Detection Technologies in Miniaturized High-Throughput Screening: Fluorescence Intensity Distribution Analysis

Single-molecule detection technologies are becoming a powerful readout format to support ultra-high-throughput screening. These methods are based on the analysis of fluorescence intensity fluctuations detected from a small confocal volume element. The fluctuating signal contains information about the mass and brightness of the different species in a mixture. The authors demonstrate a number of applications of fluorescence intensity distribution analysis (FIDA), which discriminates molecules by their specific brightness. Examples for assays based on brightness changes induced by quenching/dequenching of fluorescence, fluorescence energy transfer, and multiple-binding stoichiometry are given for important drug targets such as kinases and proteases. FIDA also provides a powerful method to extract correct biological data in the presence of compound fluorescence. (Journal of Biomolecular Screening 2003:19-33)
University of Groningen Physical activity and depressive symptoms

Purpose: Physical activity is inversely associated with depression in adolescents but the overall associations are fairly weak, suggesting individual differences in the strength of the associations. The aim of this study was to investigate whether plasticity genes modify the reciprocal prospective associations between physical activity and depressive symptoms found previously. Methods: In a prospective population-based study (N = 1196), physical activity and depressive symptoms were assessed three times, around the ages of 11, 13.5 and 16. Structural Equation Modeling was used to examine reciprocal effects of physical activity and depressive symptoms over time. The plasticity genes examined were 5-HTTLPR, DRD2, DRD4, MAOA, TPH1, 5-HTR2A, COMT, and BDNF. A cumulative gene plasticity index consisting of three groups (low, intermediate and high) according to the number of plasticity alleles carried by the adolescents was created. Using a multi-group approach we examined if the associations between physical activity and depressive symptoms differed between the three cumulative plasticity groups as well as between the individual polymorphisms. Results: We found significant cross-sectional and cross-lagged paths from physical activity to depressive symptoms and vice versa. Neither the cumulative plasticity index nor the individual polymorphisms modified the strengths of these associations. Conclusion: Associations between adolescents’ physical activity and depressive symptoms are not modified by plasticity genes. 59 GENES, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS
Melting of the ribosomal RNA gene reveals bacterial species identity: a step toward a new rapid test in clinical microbiology.

Effective treatment of bacterial infections ideally requires the rapid and accurate detection and identification of the causative organism. Among the procedures currently used in clinical microbiology laboratories, the most precise method of detecting bacteria is growth in a culture. Although at least 8 h of incubation are required, diagnostic culture indicates the presence of living and therefore potentially infectious organisms and provides the material for subsequent antibiotic susceptibility testing. Starting with a pure culture or single colonies of the grown organisms, species identification is usually accomplished by a comprehensive determination of phenotypic profiles including Gram stain results, morphology, growth requirements, biochemical or biophysical properties, and when available, specific antigen or agglutination tests. This method has been automated over the past few years and has become a cost-effective way to identify the majority of bacterial pathogens. Because most of the phenotypic and biochemical properties are determined by the metabolism of actively growing cells, analysis requires a considerable number of pure organisms, and differentiation down to species level may require hours or days of subculture in the presence of various substrates and/or selective media. For slow-growing or nonreactive bacterial species, the results are often delayed. Moreover, accurate identification is compromised when common bacterial species present with uncommon phenotypes, or when unusual species are encountered whose phenotypic profiles are not yet covered by the database. The advent of in vitro nucleic acid amplification and, more recently, the introduction of rapid-cycle real-time PCR technology has led to substantial improvements in the diagnosis of infectious disease (1)(2). By eliminating the need for subculturing the target organisms before their definitive identification, nucleic acid amplification– based procedures can provide highly desired same-day results, and genotypic methods have evolved as objective, rapid, and accurate ways for bacterial species identification in modern clinical microbiology. Driven by a …
Swedish Listed Family Firms and Entrepreneurial Spirit

This paper investigates the entrepreneurial spirit in Swedish listed family firms. We associate family firms with entrepreneurship in the sense that there is an identifiable person that takes the uninsurable risk in the sense of Knight. This paper analysis two questions: Do entrepreneurial family firms have a higher rate of growth and do they invest in a more profit maximizing fashion than other listed firms? The analysis shows that entrepreneurial family firms in general are smaller in terms of market value and investments than non-family firms. Moreover, the entrepreneurial family firms are the ones that makes the most efficient investments.
Recent advances in the development of magnetically recoverable metal nanoparticle catalysts

O objetivo deste Account e fornecer uma visao geral de nossas atividades atuais de pesquisa, as quais envolvem a sintese e modificacao de nanomateriais superparamagneticos para aplicacao na area de separacao magnetica e catalise. Primeiramente, uma introducao ao magnetismo e a separacao magnetica e feita. Em seguida, estrategias sinteticas que tem sido desenvolvidas para gerar nanoparticulas superparamagneticas revestidas esfericamente por silica e outros oxidos, com destaque a sistemas bem caracterizados e preparados por metodologias que geram amostras de elevada qualidade e que, a principio, podem ser produzidas em maior escala, sao discutidas. Uma serie de catalisadores magneticamente recuperaveis preparados em nosso grupo de pesquisa pela combinacao unica de suportes superparamagneticos e nanoparticulas metalicas e destacada. Este Account e concluido com observacoes pessoais e perspectivas neste campo de pesquisa. The aim of this Account is to provide an overview of our current research activities on the design and modification of superparamagnetic nanomaterials for application in the field of magnetic separation and catalysis. First, an introduction of magnetism and magnetic separation is done. Then, the synthetic strategies that have been developed for generating superparamagnetic nanoparticles spherically coated by silica and other oxides, with a focus on well characterized systems prepared by methods that generate samples of high quality and easy to scale-up, are discussed. A set of magnetically recoverable catalysts prepared in our research group by the unique combination of superparamagnetic supports and metal nanoparticles is highlighted. This Account is concluded with personal remarks and perspectives on this research field.
Improving the MAC layer performance of Ad Hoc Networks by congestion control algorithms

Wireless Ad Hoc Networks have experienced great improvement over the past decade. However, IEEE 802.11 DCF, as the standard for Ad Hoc Networks, is still greatly influenced by hidden and exposed node problems. Lots of researches have been performed to solve them, but only a few of them have addressed the tradeoff between the two problems. This paper tries to balance the two problems by distributed terminal coordination. We will present two MAC schemes that import the concept of congestion control algorithms. A model between carrier sensing range and congestion window size is established. According to the simulation results, it is shown that these schemes can achieve good MAC layer performance in terms of one-hop throughput, fairness and speed of throughput convergence.
Comparable outcomes of HLA‐matched unrelated and HLA‐identical sibling donor bone marrow transplantation for childhood acute myeloid leukemia in first remission

Abstract: We retrospectively investigated the outcomes of HLA‐matched unrelated BMT (MU‐BMT, n = 13) and HLA‐identical sibling donor BMT (MS‐BMT, n = 17) for childhood AML in CR1 between June 2002 and August 2005. Engraftment of neutrophil and platelet did not differ between the two transplant groups. The cumulative incidence of grade II–IV acute GVHD and any chronic GVHD at three yr was not different between MS‐BMT and MU‐BMT. Of the 30 patients, four patients experienced relapses (three with MS‐BMT, one with MU‐BMT) and four patients died of transplant‐related complications (two with MS‐BMT, two with MU‐BMT). A total of 23 patients survived with a median follow‐up of 43.2 months. The Kaplan–Meier estimates for EFS rates at three yr were 71% and 77% for MS‐BMT and MU‐BMT, respectively, and the OS rates were 76% and 77% for MS‐BMT and MU‐BMT, respectively. The outcome of HLA‐matched unrelated BMT is comparable to that of HLA‐identical sibling BMT for childhood AML in CR1. HLA‐matched unrelated BMT may be recommended for patients who have AML in CR1 without an HLA‐matched sibling donor.
Investigation of radiation mechanism in THz generation based on laser-induced plasma in air

Terahertz radiation mechanism from laser-induced plasma in air is studied through photo-current model. The effect of intensity and pulse duration of the femtosecond laser field on the spatio-temporal behavior of the photo-current is presented. The radiation pattern of such laser-induced plasma in air is calculated at THz range. It is shown that from radiation viewpoint the plasma is similar to a dipole source for low frequencies whereas for high frequencies, the plasma behaves similar to a traveling-wave current source.
Citizen's preferences regarding principles to guide health-care allocation decisions in Thailand.

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to investigate the extent to which five principles of rationing (lottery, rule of rescue, health maximization, fair innings, and choicism) were preferred by a sample of Thai citizens for selecting patients to receive high-cost therapies. METHODS A self-administered survey was used for collecting data from a sample of 1000 individuals living in Thailand. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and multinomial logistic regression analysis were used for describing and validating the data. Out of the 1000 sample members, 780 (78%) provided usable responses. RESULTS The results showed that within specific situations under budget constraints, Thai people used each of the criteria we studied to ration health care including: 1) lottery principle; 2) rule of rescue; 3) health maximization; 4) fair innings; and 5) choicism. CONCLUSIONS The extent to which the criteria were applied depended on the specific situation placed before the decision-maker. "Choicism" (equalizing opportunity for health) was the most preferred method for rationing when compared to each of the other four principles.
Cybercrime and the impact on banks' frontline service employees : a qualitative study towards the impact of cybercrime on the experiences, concerns and actions taken by Frontline Service Employees within the banking sector.

An increasing number of banks rely on digital networks for their business operations. This increases the risks for banks and their customers of becoming a cybercrime victim. This study focuses specifically on Frontline Service Employees in the banking sector, because they have an important role in providing customers with information about cyber security. Therefore, they must be aware of cybercrime and its consequences. This awareness needs to be increased, so that all employees are able to take appropriate measures to reduce the risk of cyber threats. This study aims to understand more about the conception FSE’s have towards cybercrime, by focusing on the relationship between experiences and concerns over cybercrime and the resulting actions. Using a sample of 25 FSE’s from the banking sector in the Netherlands, the impact of cybercrime is examined by means of interviews. The results show that FSE’s in general have little knowledge about the consequences of cybercrime. However, their experiences ensure that they can provide customers with basic information. To cope with, the threat of, cybercrime, FSE’s use their experiences and problem-focused coping strategies. They try to find out more about the situation and concentrate on the next step in helping the customer as good as possible. Banks should consider special courses to establish more awareness among these employees about the consequences of cybercrime. FSE’s could use this acquired knowledge to provide customers with more specifically information about cybercrime.