Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Construction of human single-chain variable fragment antibodies of medullary thyroid carcinoma and single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography imaging in tumor-bearing nude mice.

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare tumor of the endocrine system with poor prognosis as it exhibits high resistance against conventional therapy. Recent studies have shown that monoclonal antibodies labeled with radionuclide have become important agents for diagnosing tumors. To elucidate whether single-chain fragment of variable (scFv) antibody labeled with 131I isotope is a potential imaging agent for diagnosing MTC. A human scFv antibody library of MTC using phage display technique was constructed with a capacity of 3x10(5). The library was panned with thyroid epithelial cell lines and MTC cell lines (TT). Western blotting and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used to identify the biological characteristics of the panned scFv. Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay was also used to explore the optimal concentration of the TT cell proliferation inhibition rate. They were categorized into TT, SW480 and control groups using phosphate-buffered saline. Western blotting showed that molecular weight of scFv was 28 kDa, cell ELISA showed that the absorbance of TT cell group was significantly increased (P=0.000? ) vs. the other three groups, and MTT assay showed that the inhibition rate between the two cell lines was statistically significantly different (P<0.05) when the concentration of scFv was 0.1, 1 and 10 µmol/l. The tumor uptake of 131I-scFv was visible at 12 h and clear image was obtained at 48 h using the single photon emission computed tomography. scFv rapidly and specifically target MTC cells, suggesting the potential of this antibody as an imaging agent for diagnosing MTC.
Postnatal Growth of the Clavicle: Birth to 18 Years of Age

Background The purpose of our study was to perform a large cross-sectional study aimed at determining the postnatal growth pattern of the clavicle from birth to 18 years of age. Methods We analyzed the digital chest radiographs of a convenience sample of 961 individuals between birth and 18 years of age. Malrotated radiographs were excluded. Right and left clavicle lengths were measured in millimeters from the most lateral ossified border to the most medial ossified border of each clavicle. Study patients were divided into 19 subgroups with the first group being labeled as “birth to 11 months of age” followed by 1-year-olds, 2-year olds, etc. Patients were also grouped by sex. There was a minimum of 25 patients in each group. Results At 18 years of age the mean±SD clavicle length for females was 149±12 mm and for males it was 161±11 mm. Although a statistically significant difference (P=0.049) was noted between the length of right and left clavicles it was not clinically significant (0.036 mm). A steady growth rate was noted for both genders from birth to the age of 12 years (8.4 mm/y). Above the age of 12 years there were significant differences in the growth of the clavicles of girls (2.6 mm/y) versus boys (5.4 mm/y) (P<0.001). Our data suggest that females achieve 80% of their clavicle length by 9 years of age and boys by 12 years of age. Conclusion This cross-sectional study establishes that relatively little clavicle growth (20%) remains for girls beyond age 9 years and for boys beyond 12 years. The length of one clavicle may be properly judged by comparing it with the contralateral clavicle. Clinical Relevance Remodeling of the clavicle shaft fractures is currently believed to be proportional to remaining growth. Our study questions the capacity of the clavicle to re-establish normal length beyond the age thresholds we have identified.
On the Mechanism of Current Pulse Propagation Along Conical Structures: Application to Tall Towers Struck by Lightning

We discuss in this paper the propagation of lightning current pulses along conical tall structures. Although the dominant mode of an infinitely long conical transmission line is transverse electric and magnetic (TEM), such a structure can also support higher order TE and TM modes which display a gradual cutoff frequency variation with height. Recently, Baba and Rakov's finite-difference time domain numerical analysis revealed that for a perfectly conducting conical structure, while the current pulses suffer no attenuation as they travel from the cone's apex to its base, the attenuation is significant when pulses propagate from the base to the apex. Adopting an analysis method using 1) the COMSOL Multiphysics simulation environment based on the finite element method and 2) the partial equivalent element circuit method, we study the same reduced-scale structure analyzed by Baba and Rakov. The obtained results confirm the conclusions drawn by Baba and Rakov. We also perform simulations for the case of a 100-m tall tower considering different tower-base radii. It is shown that the upward current pulses are affected by a strong attenuation resulting from the field scattering near the discontinuity at the tower base, followed by a weaker attenuation resulting from the propagation along the cone from its base to the apex. A simple way to modify the engineering lightning return stroke models to account for the attenuation of the upward current pulses is suggested. Finally, we report on experiments to study the current pulse propagation along a 1/582 reduced scale model of the Toronto, CN, tower. The obtained experimental data support the numerical simulations.
Cointegration of Economic growth and External balance in Colombia: 1963-2016

In this paper is analyzed the relation between GDP growth and External balance in Colombia for the study period (1963-2016) by using a VECM. Supposing everything else unchanged, we conclude that Colombian external balance granger caused GDP growth and there was indeed a long run relation between both variables. This outcome helps to explain the Colombian GDP growth dynamics over the last fifty years and the impact of trade policy on economic growth.
Using Personal Behavior Change to Teach the Therapeutic Recreation Process

The purpose of this article is to illustrate how the therapeutic recreation process can be taught through an assignment that fosters change in personal behaviors. Examples of how students assess the target behavior, develop an individual treatment plan, implement the plan, document progress over time, conduct transition planning, and evaluate results via a reflection paper are presented. Lessons derived from implementing the assignment during the past 6 years will also be highlighted.
Cytological characterization of a thermo-sensitive cytoplasmic male-sterile wheat line having K-type cytoplasm of Aegilops kotschyi

Male sterility is an important tool for obtaining crop heterosis. A thermo-sensitive cytoplasmic male-sterile (TCMS) line was developed recently using a new method based on tiller regeneration. In the present study, we explored the critical growth stages required to maintain thermo-sensitive male sterility in TCMS lines and found that fertility is associated with abnormal tapetal and microspore development. We investigated the fertility and cytology of temperature-treated plant anthers at various developmental stages. TCMS line KTM3315A exhibited thermo-sensitive male sterility in Zadoks growth stages 41–49 and 58–59. Morphologically, the line exhibited thermo-sensitive male sterility at 3–9 days before heading and at 3–6 days before flowering, and it was partially restored in three locations during spring and summer. TCMS line KTM3315A plants exhibited premature tapetal programmed cell death (PCD) from the early uninucleate stage of microspore development until the tapetal cells degraded completely. Microspore development was then blocked and the pollen abortion type was stainable abortion. Thus, male fertility in the line KTM3315A is sensitive to temperature and premature tapetal PCD is the main cause of pollen abortion, where it determines the starting period and affects male fertility conversion in K-type TCMS lines at certain temperatures.
The local governance of European social citizenship

This thesis is a study of EU migrant citizens' substantive social rights. Much research has concerned itself with the expansion of freedom of movement and cross-border social rights in the EU. However, most of this research has analysed only formal rights, overlooking substantive rights. In the multilevel setting that is the EU, social rights are being adjudicated at a supra-national level, but realised at the national and sub-national level. Numerous different regulations, actors and practices thus shape the substantive social rights of EU migrant citizens, making their rights especially prone to distortion in the process of practical implementation. Examining how formal rights translate into substantive ones is important to understand how and where the lines of exclusion and inclusion of European social citizenship are drawn. Specifically, the thesis looks as how formal social rights translate into substantive rights with a focus on the local level. This is where any pressures from internal EU-migration on social provision are felt, where gaps in the social protection of EU migrant citizens make themselves evident, and where many social rights are exercised. The central research question of the thesis is thus: how are EU migrant citizens’ social rights governed at the local level? The thesis adopts a qualitative and explorative method. More specifically, it examines barriers that EU migrant citizens face when trying to access social benefits and services. The study also takes a comparative approach, and contrasts localities across two member states that can be seen as critical cases: Germany and Sweden. In two cities in each country (Berlin and Hamburg, Gothenburg and Stockholm), interviews were conducted with local public administrators, welfare providers and advocacy organisations. The interviews were later related to relevant policy documents in a thematic analysis guided by the overarching research question. The main contribution of the thesis lies in identifying certain direct and indirect factors that shape EU migrant citizens’ access to social benefits and services – and thus their substantive social rights. Specifically, the thesis argues that (1) certain structures of welfare systems (which become evident through a bottom-up study of supra-national social rights), and (2) the entrepreneurship of local actors, are crucial to understanding how formal rights of EU migrant citizens translate into substantive ones.
The regional heterogeneity of wellbeing ‘expenditure’ preferences: evidence from a simulated allocation choice on the BES indicators

With an online survey on major Italian newspapers we ask respondents to simulate the typical policymaker decision, that is, the dilemma of allocating scarce financial resources among alternative competing goals using the domains of the newly defined Italian BES (sustainable and equitable wellbeing) indicators. Our main finding is that homogeneity of choices is rejected since preferred allocations are strongly affected by socio-demographic factors and mainly by political orientation, age, education and gender. An important related result is that education and political orientation significantly affect preferences toward sustainable development. We as well find that respondents’ expenditure preferences on a given BES domain are mainly affected by the relative scarcity/abundance of wellbeing on that given domain at the regional level.
A Novel Activating Chicken IgY FcR Is Related to Leukocyte Receptor Complex (LRC) Genes but Is Located on a Chromosomal Region Distinct from the LRC and FcR Gene Clusters1

FcRs have multifaceted roles in the immune system. Chicken FcRs were demonstrated on macrophages decades ago; however, only recently the chicken Ig-like receptor AB1, encoded in the leukocyte receptor complex, was molecularly identified as a high-affinity FcR. The present study was initiated to identify additional receptors with the capability to bind chicken immunoglobulins. Based on database searches, we cloned a novel chicken FcR, designated gallus gallus FcR (ggFcR), which was shown to bind selectively chicken IgY. The receptor consists of four extracellular C2-set Ig domains, followed by a transmembrane region containing arginine as a positively charged amino acid and a short cytoplasmic tail. ggFcR associates with the common γ-chain, indicative for an activating receptor, and real-time RT-PCR revealed high expression on PBMC, thrombocytes, and macrophages. The genomic organization is similar to most Ig-like receptor genes, where each Ig domain is encoded by a separate exon. Additionally, the ggFcR signal peptide is encoded by two exons, the second of which is 36 bp, a hallmark for genes encoded in the leukocyte receptor complex. Phylogenetic analysis also showed a relationship to genes encoded in the leukocyte receptor complex. Surprisingly, ggFcR is not encoded in the leukocyte receptor complex, but it is located as a single isolated gene at the extremity of chicken chromosome 20.
The effects of cooperative learning on social interactions and attitudes toward English class in at-risk students

Catherine A. Mikionis, The Effects of Cooperative Learning on Social Interactions and Attitudes toward English Class in At-Risk Students, 1998, Dr. S. Jay Kuder, Special Education. This research study examined the effects of cooperative learning methods on social interactions and attitudes toward English class in 18 at-risk high school students enrolled in a small alternative education program located on a college campus. The findings suggested cooperative learning methods increased students' positive social interactions, increased students' reported number of friends, and decreased students' cut classes. Although no significant difference in overall mean was found on the attitude toward English class survey, students' dislike for participating in class discussions decreased measurably. The implications for this study are such that cooperative learning methods can be effectively used with at-risk teens to improve social interactions with peers and some attitudes toward English class.
Effects of intrathecal morphine on the ventilatory response to hypoxia.

BACKGROUND Intrathecal administration of morphine produces intense analgesia, but it depresses respiration, an effect that can be life-threatening. Whether intrathecal morphine affects the ventilatory response to hypoxia, however, is not known. METHODS We randomly assigned 30 men to receive one of three study treatments in a double-blind fashion: intravenous morphine (0.14 mg per kilogram of body weight) with intrathecal placebo; intrathecal morphine (0.3 mg) with intravenous placebo; or intravenous and intrathecal placebo. The selected doses of intravenous and intrathecal morphine produce similar degrees of analgesia. The ventilatory response to hypercapnia, the subsequent response to acute hypoxia during hypercapnic breathing (targeted end-tidal partial pressures of expired oxygen and carbon dioxide, 45 mm Hg), and the plasma levels of morphine and morphine metabolites were measured at base line (before drug administration) and 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 hours after drug administration. RESULTS At base line, the mean (+/-SD) values for the ventilatory response to hypoxia (calculated as the difference between the minute ventilation during the second full minute of hypoxia and the fifth minute of hypercapnic ventilation) were similar in the three groups: 38.3+/-23.2 liters per minute in the placebo group, 33.5+/-16.4 liters per minute in the intravenous-morphine group, and 30.2+/-11.6 liters per minute in the intrathecal-morphine group (P=0.61). The overall ventilatory response to hypoxia (the area under the curve) was significantly lower after either intravenous morphine (20.2+/-10.8 liters per minute) or intrathecal morphine (14.5+/-6.4 liters per minute) than after placebo (36.8+/-19.2 liters per minute) (P=O.003). Twelve hours after treatment, the ventilatory response to hypoxia in the intrathecal-morphine group (19.9+/-8.9 liters per minute), but not in the intravenous-morphine group (30+/-15.8 liters per minute), remained significantly depressed as compared with the response in the placebo group (40.9+/-19.0 liters per minute) (P= 0.02 for intrathecal morphine vs. placebo). Plasma concentrations of morphine and morphine metabolites either were not detectable after intrathecal morphine or were much lower after intrathecal morphine than after intravenous morphine. CONCLUSIONS Depression of the ventilatory response to hypoxia after the administration of intrathecal morphine is similar in magnitude to, but longer-lasting than, that after the administration of an equianalgesic dose of intravenous morphine.
Controlling the morphology and material characteristics of electrospray generated calcium alginate microhydrogels

Abstract Electrospraying nano- and micro-particle fabrication is a one-step, non-invasive process, which has application in encapsulating of thermosensitive functional, bioactive materials and cells and making microhydrogels. This study investigates the effect of various electrospraying process parameters on the characteristics of calcium alginate microhydrogel particles. The alginate solution concentration, CaCl2 coagulation bath concentration, voltage, nozzle diameter, distance between nozzle and collecting bath (D), alginate delivery pressure (∼H) were examined. The best droplet formation rate, in non-disperse dripping mode, was obtained at 8 kV using a 500 μm inner diameter nozzle tip, D = 8 cm, H = 20 cm. Morphology, swelling behaviour and texture analysis of the particles which were followed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) confirmed that 1.5–2% (w/v) CaCl2 was the desirable concentration for hydrogels formation. Particle size range between 267 and 1500 μm could be obtained by the drip feed mode compared with 2.3–6 μm by the pressure-assisted electrospray through a coaxial head.
Bacterial Diversity and Community Structure in Korean Ginseng Field Soil Are Shifted by Cultivation Time

Traditional molecular methods have been used to examine bacterial communities in ginseng-cultivated soil samples in a time-dependent manner. Despite these efforts, our understanding of the bacterial community is still inadequate. Therefore, in this study, a high-throughput sequencing approach was employed to investigate bacterial diversity in various ginseng field soil samples over cultivation times of 2, 4, and 6 years in the first and second rounds of cultivation. We used non-cultivated soil samples to perform a comparative study. Moreover, this study assessed changes in the bacterial community associated with soil depth and the health state of the ginseng. Bacterial richness decreased through years of cultivation. This study detected differences in relative abundance of bacterial populations between the first and second rounds of cultivation, years of cultivation, and health states of ginseng. These bacterial populations were mainly distributed in the classes Acidobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Sphingobacteria. In addition, we found that pH, available phosphorus, and exchangeable Ca+ seemed to have high correlations with bacterial class in ginseng cultivated soil.
Error Sources in Remote Sensing of Microwave Land Surface Emissivity

The retrieval of land surface emissivity from satellite passive microwave measurements often requires the knowledge of various radiative components (e.g., atmospheric upwelling and downwelling radiation) contributed to the measurements. Under a cloud-free condition, atmospheric and surface radiative components can be derived from atmospheric temperature and water vapor, and surface temperature data. Thus, the quality of these auxiliary data sets directly affects the emissivity accuracy. From an emission-based radiative transfer equation, a set of relationships is derived to study the sensitivity of surface emissivity to the errors of brightness temperature, atmospheric transmittance, and surface temperature. As an example, the uncertainties in the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System emissivity at 23 and 89 GHz may be much larger than the uncertainties of emissivity at lower frequencies due to the higher uncertainties in computing the water vapor absorption. The error in the land surface temperature is a main source of error in emissivity at the frequencies less than 19 GHz.
The Effects of a Supervised Toothbrushing Programme on the Caries Increment of Primary School Children, Initially Aged 5–6 Years

Children in the London Boroughs of Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster have one of the highest levels of caries in England and Wales. In 1997/98, the mean dmft for 5-year-old children was 2.83 with only 45.9% of the children being caries free. The aim of this study was to determine whether teacher-supervised toothbrushing, once a day, at school, during term time, with commercial toothpaste containing 1,450 ppm fluoride, could reduce dental caries in primary school children when compared with children from the same community who did not receive this intervention. A total of 517 children (mean age 5.63 years) were recruited for the study. Class teachers were trained individually by the same dental hygienist in an appropriate toothbrushing technique for young children. Children in the intervention group brushed once a day at school. All examinations were by visual assessment only. All teeth present were assessed using the BASCD criteria. For children in the intervention group, the overall caries increment (2.60) was significantly less (10.9%; p < 0.001) than for children in the non-intervention group (2.92). Among different tooth surfaces, the difference in caries increment between the intervention group (0.78) and the non-intervention group (1.03) was greatest for the proximal surfaces (21.4%; p < 0.01). In conclusion, this study suggests that a programme of daily teacher-supervised toothbrushing with fluoride toothpaste can be effectively targeted into socially deprived communities and a significant reduction in dental caries can thereby be achieved especially among caries-susceptible children.
Power allocation with max-min fairness for multicast in heterogeneous network

In this paper, we formulate the problem to guarantee a max-min fairness for multicast in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based heterogeneous network (Het-Net) by managing the power allocation at base stations (BSs) of coexisting macrocell and picocells, where different common messages are, respectively, transmitted from BSs to their served user equipments (UEs) in the same frequency. Due to non-linear and non-posynomial constraint in the problem, it is difficult to solve the problem in a closed form. However, in the case of high operating signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) region, we simplify the problem to a corresponding GP problem, which brings forth a suboptimal power allocation algorithm to guarantee a max-min fairness for multicast among the cells in the Het-Net. Simulation results demonstrate the minimum transmission rate for multicast among the cells in Het-Net can be improved efficiently by the proposed algorithm.