Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Time‐ and media‐dependent secondary carotenoid accumulation in Haematococcus pluvialis

The green microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis synthesizes secondary carotenoids after exposure to environmental stress, a process that is used for the biotechnological production of astaxanthin (Ax). This study reports, for the first time, the medium‐dependent changes in the carotenoid pattern throughout the cultivation process as well as the exact composition of carotenoids and their fatty acid mono‐ and diesters using LC‐MS. Secondary carotenoid formation started immediately upon exposure to nutrient depletion and high light conditions. Ax and its corresponding monoand diesters were detected simultaneously. After 15 days of cultivation, no significant changes were detected in carotenoid composition; however, the ratio between carotenoid mono‐ and diesters still varied. Main carotenoids were identified as Ax linolenate and Ax oleate, but also five adonirubin and one lutein monoester were detected. The influence of three different autotroph media was studied on carotenoid content, which reached a maximum 16.1 mg/g dry weight. The results indicate that media composition has an influence on the ratio of Ax mono‐ to diester but not on the qualitative composition of secondary carotenoids in H. pluvialis. Beside the pathway via echinenone, canthaxanthin and adonirubin the results indicate that Ax biosynthesis takes place via another route: from β‐carotene via β‐cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin and adonixanthin.
Prevalence of stress urinary incontinence in both sexes at or after age 15 years: a cross-sectional study.

PURPOSE We determine the prevalence of stress urinary incontinence among males and females at or after age 15 years in an education and research health district. MATERIALS AND METHODS During a personal interview questionnaires were given to a total of 2,053 people at or after age 15 years in an education and research health district near Ankara, Turkey. In addition to the particular questions about stress incontinence, the medical history, including congenital or acquired diseases of clinical significance, operations and details relevant to positive findings were obtained. Groups with or without stress incontinence were compared in regard to age and sex, and parity in women. Subgroups that emerged as to the presence of nocturia and/or urgency incontinence were examined in regard to systemic diseases, operations, congenital anomalies and regular medications. RESULTS A total of 229 people (11.1%) had stress incontinence, with a female predominance of 20.8% versus 1.0% (p <0.05). People 65 years old or older experienced stress incontinence 6.24 times more than those in the 15 to 24-year age group. In contrast, females had increasing stress incontinence prevalence by age as noted by relevant odds ratios. Stress incontinence prevalences among women in the 35 to 44 and 45 to 54-year age groups were about 39 and 35 times higher than those of men in the corresponding age groups. As expected the incontinence prevalences increased with the number of births in women. Nocturia was absent in 50.2% of all subjects, whereas 26.7% reported nocturia at all times and 23.0% had nocturia sometimes. Persistent nocturia was present in 21.1% of males and 32.1% of females. Persistent nocturia and urgency were apparently greater in patients with systemic diseases and/or those who had undergone surgery. Urgency incontinence was present in 9.7% of the entire population with a distinct female predominance of 16.3% versus 2.7%. CONCLUSIONS Stress incontinence occurred in both sexes at or after age 15 years with a female predominance. The prevalence of stress incontinence increases with age and parity in women. Urgency and nocturia are more prevalent in people with systemic diseases and those who have undergone previous pelvic or neurosurgical operations.
In Direct Breach of Managerial Edicts: A Practice Approach to Creative Deviance in Professional Service Firms

© 2018 RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd Drawing on practice as a meta-theoretical lens, we explore creative deviance (CD): wilful violation of managerial orders by employee(s) to pursue creative ideas. Data for our inquiry comes from in-depth interviews with middle managers and employees in two professional service firms (PSFs). We argue that two distinct organising processes are necessary for the emergence of CD in practice: organising configuration and formalisation of R&D processes. We develop these dimensions to produce a typology of interrelated ideal types of outcomes when employees are explicitly instructed to stop pursuing an idea. We found three salient organising practices (technical concerns for efficiency and metrics, suppression of metistic knowledge and disjointed managerial responses to violations of sanctioned organising procedures), which may operate in combination or serially, to foster CD in practice. We conclude with some key implications for the theory and practice of creativity in PSFs.
Negative Feedback Regulation of Met-Dependent Invasive Growth by Notch

ABSTRACT The hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) receptor encoded by the Met oncogene controls a genetic program—known as “invasive growth”—responsible for several developmental processes and involved in cancer invasion and metastasis. This program functions through several regulatory gene products, as yet largely unknown, both upstream and downstream of Met. Here we show that activation of the Notch receptor results in transcriptional down-regulation of Met, suppression of HGF-dependent Ras signaling, and impairment of HGF-dependent cellular responses. In turn, Met activation leads to transcriptional induction of the Notch ligand Delta and the Notch effector HES-1, indicating that Met is able to self-tune its own protein levels and the ensuing biochemical and biological outputs through stimulation of the Notch pathway. By using branching morphogenesis of the tracheal system in Drosophila as a readout of invasive growth, we also show that exogenous expression of a constitutively active form of human Met induces enhanced sprouting of the tracheal tree, a phenotype that is further increased in embryos lacking Notch function. These results unravel an in-built mechanism of negative feedback regulation in which Met activation leads to transcriptional induction of Notch function, which in turn limits HGF activity through repression of the Met oncogene.
The Effects of Asymmetric Hearing on Bilateral Brainstem Function: Findings in Children with Bimodal (Electric and Acoustic) Hearing

As implantation criteria are broadening to include children with asymmetric hearing loss, it is important to determine the degree of residual hearing needed to protect the bilateral auditory pathways for binaural hearing and whether there is a sensitive period in development for implantation in these children. We have been studying these questions in a growing cohort of children. In the present study, auditory brainstem responses were recorded in 21 children who had 2.2 ± 2.2 years of bimodal hearing. Responses were evoked by 11-Hz acoustic clicks presented to the non-implanted ear and with biphasic electric pulses presented to the implanted ear. Twelve of these children also completed a behavioural task in which they were asked to which side of their heads bilaterally presented clicks/pulses that varied in interaural level or timing lateralized. All children experienced a delay in the non-implanted ear that resulted in 2.0 ± 0.35 ms longer peak latencies. These were further prolonged in 7 children as measured by longer interwave latencies from this ear than from the implanted ear. Despite large asymmetries in timing of brainstem activity between the two ears, all children perceived changes in interaural level differences. They were unable to detect differences in interaural timing cues. Symmetric brainstem function suggests bilateral development was preserved in some children. Future work will explore whether these children have better potential for developing binaural hearing using bimodal input.
Determinants of Commercial Banks’ Efficiency in Bangladesh: Does Crisis Matter?

Banks play a crucial role in bringing stability and economic development through their expected contribution in proper financial resource mobilisation across the economy. Despite the importance, there is little focus in recent literature which provided the empirical evidence how the global financial crisis affect the bank efficiency in Bangladesh. Thus, this paper aims to examine the effect of the global financial crisis and other factors on the efficiency of Bangladesh commercial banks. By employing the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method, we computed the technical efficiency of individual banks operating in the Bangladesh banking sector during 2000 to 2013. The empirical findings indicate that the Bangladesh banking sector has exhibited the highest efficiency level during 2001, while efficiency seems to be at the lowest level during 2010. The study finds that crisis along with bank size, capital adequacy ratio, return on average equity and real interest rate have a significant effect on bank efficiency in Bangladesh. In order to keep the sound financial development of Bangladesh, banks operating in the Bangladesh banking sector have to consider all the potential technologies which could improve their profit efficiency levels, since the main motive of banks is to maximise shareholders’ value or wealth through profit maximisation.
Cybermatics: A Holistic Field for Systematic Study of Cyber-Enabled New Worlds

Following the two trends of computerization and informatization, another emerging trend is cyberization in which numerous and various cyber entities in cyberspace will exist in cyber-enabled worlds, including the cyber world and cyber-conjugated physical, social, and mental worlds. Computer science and information science, as holistic fields, have, respectively, played important roles in computerization and informatization. Similarly, it is necessary for there to be a corresponding field for cyberization. Cybermatics is proposed as such a holistic field for the systematic study of cyber entities in cyberspace and cyber world, and their properties, functions, and conjugations with entities in conventional spaces/worlds. This paper sets out to explain the necessity and rationale for, and significance of, the proposed field of Cybermatics, what it is and what it encompasses, and how it is related to other fields and areas.
IDIOSYNCRATIC RISK AND SPILLOVER EFFECT IN REIT RETURNS

Nowadays, idiosyncratic risk has substantial impacts on the risk control of portfolio construction. However, little research has been done on the spillover effect of idiosyncratic risk from global markets in REIT returns. A risk-return model is developed to examine the effects of idiosyncratic risk and its spillover on the short-run dynamics of REIT returns in 10 major REIT markets between 2001 and 2014. Variance decomposition provides evidence that idiosyncratic risk exceeds market risk most of the time. The risk-return models demonstrate that the spillover effect of idiosyncratic risk globally played a more significant role than idiosyncratic risk in the return dynamics during the subprime mortgage crisis. Furthermore, we analyse the asymmetric responses of volatility in REIT returns. The results show that the Netherlands is the most strongly preferred market in terms of earning excess returns, while the US market is unique in that the idiosyncratic risk and spillover effect tend to enlarge the fluctuations in REIT returns.
Treatment and diagnosis of a dog with fulminant neurological deterioration due to anatoxin--a intoxication.

OBJECTIVE To describe the clinical features, treatment, diagnostic work-up, and outcome of a dog with acute neurologic signs subsequent to algal toxin exposure. CASE SUMMARY A Golden Retriever was presented for evaluation of acute onset of paraparesis after swimming in a man-made pond in early June and ingesting algae from a nearby bucket. The dog was anxious, had mild ptyalism, and when excited, developed generalized self-limiting tremors that progressed to generalized fasciculations and lateral recumbency. The dog was treated with activated charcoal and crystalloid fluids. Two hours after the presentation, the dog acutely decompensated and was ultimately euthanized. Gastric contents, bucket contents, pond water, bile, and urine were positive for anatoxin-a. NEW OR UNIQUE INFORMATION PROVIDED Anatoxin-a intoxication is rarely confirmed in dogs but should be considered as a differential diagnosis in any dog with acute neurologic signs. We report the first successful detection of anatoxin-a in urine and bile of a dog exposed to blue green algae. This new test provides an enhanced diagnostic tool in suspect cases and has possible therapeutic implications in dogs.
Impact of Urbanization on the Proteome of Birch Pollen and Its Chemotactic Activity on Human Granulocytes

Background: Epidemiologic studies reveal a dramatic increase in allergies in the last decades. Air pollution is considered to be one of the factors responsible for this augmentation. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of urbanization on birch pollen. The birch pollen proteome was investigated in order to identify differences in protein abundance between pollen from rural and urban areas. The allergenicity of birch pollen from both areas was evaluated by assessing its chemotactic potency as well as its protein and allergen contents. Methods: Difference gel electrophoresis (DIGE) was used to analyze the pollen proteome. The chemotactic activity of aqueous pollen extracts was determined by migration assays of human neutrophils. Results: DIGE revealed 26 differences in protein spot intensity between pollen from urban and rural areas. One of these proteins was identified by de novo sequencing as the 14-3-3 protein, which resembles a stress-induced factor in other plant species. Furthermore, extracts from pollen collected in urban areas had higher chemotactic activity on human neutrophils compared to pollen from rural sites. Conclusions: The present study points to an impact of air pollution on allergen carrier proteome and release of chemotactic substances. The increment in proinflammatory substances such as pollen-associated lipid mediators might contribute to the described urban-rural gradient of allergy prevalence. Furthermore, our study suggests that allergenicity is determined by more than the sole allergen content.
Shouting at the Wall: Does Negativity Drive Ideological Cross-posting in Brexit Facebook Comments?

Using a novel methodological approach to measure emotions in Facebook comments, this Work in Progress (WIP) paper explores the relationship between negative feelings and ideological cross-posting behavior. Using the VoxPopuli data harvester, we collect over 770,000 public Facebook comments1 from the three major political campaign pages active during the Brexit referendum. After sorting users into ideological camps based on their reactions to campaign posts, we then examine their commenting patterns across ideological lines. Using three different methods of sentiment analysis, we identify negative and positive emotions and their fine-grained sub-categories in comments. The analysis reveals one quarter of all comments are cross-ideological posts, with Leave supporters overwhelmingly active in commenting on Remain posts. A comparison across the campaigns shows that Brexiteers are much more likely to express anger than Remainers.
Midterm Results of Endoluminal Stent Grafting of the Thoracic Aorta

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the overall outcome of repair of thoracic aortic lesions with endoluminal grafts. Patients were studied prospectively following the implantation of a thoracic endovascular device. Preoperative imaging was performed by helical computed tomography (CT), angiography, transesophageal ultrasonography, or magnetic resonance imaging. Procedures were performed in an endovascular surgical suite under general anesthesia. All patients were evaluated with CT and chest radiography at discharge and at 1, 6, and 12 months. From December 1999 to November 2001, thirty-two patients were enrolled in the study (mean age 62 years; 20 male and 12 female patients). Seventeen patients had dissections, five patients had ruptured aortic ulcer, five patients had traumatic ruptures, three patients had atherosclerotic aneurysms, and two patients had pseudoaneurysms. An American Society of Anesthesiology score of III or IV was evaluated in 22 (69%) patients. The procedure was performed under emergency conditions in 11 cases. All prostheses were implanted successfully. There were no conversions. Three patients (9%) presented with a neurologic event following the implantation procedure, which was lethal in one case (hemorrhagic stroke). Two other patients died during early follow-up of myocardial infarction and multiorgan failure. The early death rate was 9%. The mean follow-up was 13.5 months. During follow-up, the maximal diameter of the aorta shrunk (≥ 5 mm) in 9 (28%) patients, remained stable in 17 (53%) patients, and increased (≥ 5 mm) in 6 (19%) patients. All patients presenting with an increased diameter were initially treated for dissections. A type 1 endoleak was diagnosed on the discharge CT scan in one patient. It sealed spontaneously thereafter. A type 3 endoleak was diagnosed 3 months after the procedure in one patient. A complementary stent graft was implanted in two patients presenting with a dissection with persistent patent false lumen and aortic enlargement. Three patients died during follow-up (two aneurysm-related and one aneurysm-unrelated death). The morbidity and mortality rates reported in our series related to the preoperative morbid conditions of the patients treated. Thoracic aorta endografting is an alternative to open surgery in this subset of patients.
Objective data alignment and chemometric analysis of comprehensive two-dimensional separations with run-to-run peak shifting on both dimensions.

Data from comprehensive two-dimensional (2-D) separation techniques, such as comprehensive 2-D gas chromatography (GC x GC), liquid chromatography/liquid chromatography (LC x LC) and liquid chromatography/ capillary electrophoresis (LC x CE) can be readily analyzed by various chemometric methods to increase chemical analysis capabilities. A retention time alignment, preprocessing method is presented that objectively corrects for run-to-run retention time variations on both separation dimensions of comprehensive 2-D separations prior to application of chemometric data analysis algorithms. The 2-D alignment method corrects for run-to-run shifting of a sample data matrix relative to a standard data matrix on both separation time axes in an independent, stepwise fashion. After 2-D alignment, the generalized rank annihilation method (GRAM) is successfully applied, substantiating the performance of the alignment method. The alignment method should have important implications, because most 2-D separation techniques exhibit, in the context of chemometric data analysis, considerable run-to-run retention time shifting on both dimensions. Even when there are only three to four points/peak, that is, with three to four separations on the second dimension (column 2) per peak width from the first dimension (column 1), the 2-D alignment coupled with GRAM provides dependable analyte peak identification capabilities and adequate quantitative precision for unresolved analyte peaks. Thus, the 2-D alignment algorithm is applicable to lower data density conditions, which broadens the scope of chemometric analysis to high-speed 2-D separations.
Morphology and ultrastructure of differentiating three‐dimensional mammalian skeletal muscle in a collagen gel

Because previous studies of three‐dimensional skeletal muscle cultures have shown limited differentiation, the goal of this study was to establish conditions that would produce mature sarcomeres in a mammalian‐derived skeletal muscle construct. We evaluated the differentiation of bioartificial muscles generated from C2C12 myoblasts in a collagen gel cultured under steady, passive tension for up to 36 days. Staining for alpha‐actinin, myosin, and F‐actin indicated the presence of striated fibers as early as 6 days post‐differentiation. Electron microscopy at 16 days post‐differentiation revealed multinucleated myotubes with ordered, striated myofibers. At 33 days, the cultures contained collagen fibers and showed localization of paxillin at the fiber termini, suggesting that myotendinous junctions were forming. The present study demonstrates mature muscle synthesis in a three‐dimensional system using a pure mammalian myoblast cell line. Our results suggest that this culture model can be used to evaluate the effects of various mechanical and biochemical cues on muscle development under normal and pathological conditions. Muscle Nerve, 2007
On the Borders

“Where am I? ” “Who am I? ” Everywhere, Nowhere.A woman speaks: she is you, she is me, looking for herself, looking for her own identity. With the help of commented examples taken from the cinema (Bob Wilson, Martin Scorcese) and videos (A.T. De Keersmaeker), negotiations between the “vital-identital” (of which self-preservation is a part) and the objectal and narcissistic libidinal drive will be shown. Psychoses and somatoses will thus be considered.
Structural Features Governing the Activity of Lactoferricin-Derived Peptides That Act in Synergy with Antibiotics against Pseudomonas aeruginosa In Vitro and In Vivo

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas aeruginosa is naturally resistant to many antibiotics, and infections caused by this organism are a serious threat, especially to hospitalized patients. The intrinsic low permeability of P. aeruginosa to antibiotics results from the coordinated action of several mechanisms, such as the presence of restrictive porins and the expression of multidrug efflux pump systems. Our goal was to develop antimicrobial peptides with an improved bacterial membrane-permeabilizing ability, so that they enhance the antibacterial activity of antibiotics. We carried out a structure activity relationship analysis to investigate the parameters that govern the permeabilizing activity of short (8- to 12-amino-acid) lactoferricin-derived peptides. We used a new class of constitutional and sequence-dependent descriptors called PEDES (peptide descriptors from sequence) that allowed us to predict (Spearman's ρ = 0.74; P < 0.001) the permeabilizing activity of a new peptide generation. To study if peptide-mediated permeabilization could neutralize antibiotic resistance mechanisms, the most potent peptides were combined with antibiotics, and the antimicrobial activities of the combinations were determined on P. aeruginosa strains whose mechanisms of resistance to those antibiotics had been previously characterized. A subinhibitory concentration of compound P2-15 or P2-27 sensitized P. aeruginosa to most classes of antibiotics tested and counteracted several mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, including loss of the OprD porin and overexpression of several multidrug efflux pump systems. Using a mouse model of lethal infection, we demonstrated that whereas P2-15 and erythromycin were unable to protect mice when administered separately, concomitant administration of the compounds afforded long-lasting protection to one-third of the animals.