Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical Clues, Developmental Milestones, and Early Identification/Assessment of Children With Disabilities: Practical Applications and Conceptual Considerations

The New York State Department of Health initiated the development of 6 clinical practice guidelines for children under 3 years of age with those developmental conditions most often seen in the state's Early Intervention Program. Separate guidelines were developed for autism/pervasive developmental disorders, communication disorders, Down syndrome, hearing impairment, motor disorders, and vision impairment. Professionals providing early intervention services are confronted with complex issues regarding service provision. This article focuses upon identification and assessment methods recommended by these 6 guidelines. The guidelines specifically emphasize the importance of routine developmental surveillance where primary healthcare providers use both clinical clues and developmental milestones, as signals for further focused screening and in-depth assessment to detect possible developmental conditions. Given the wide variation in timing for reaching specific milestones seen among typically developing children, the use of developmental milestone tables alone may miss opportunities for early identification, which may result in unnecessary “wait and see” recommendations to parents. The use of disorder-specific clinical clues may offer a more efficient and accurate method of developmental surveillance that facilitates earlier identification of infants and young children with developmental disabilities who may benefit from early intervention services.
The pyruvate kinase of Stigmatella aurantiaca is an indole binding protein and essential for development

Myxospore formation of the myxobacterium Stigmatella aurantiaca can be uncoupled from the cooperative development i.e. fruiting body formation, by low concentrations of indole. Two putative indole receptor proteins were isolated by their capacity to bind indole and identified as pyruvate kinase (PK) and aldehyde dehydrogenase. The PK activity of Stigmatella crude extracts was stimulated by indole. Cloning of the PK gene (pykA) and the construction of a pykA disruption mutant strikingly revealed that PK is essential for multicellular development: Fruiting body formation was abolished in the mutant strain and indole‐induced spore formation was delayed. The developmental defects could be complemented by insertion of the pykA gene at the mtaB locus of the Stigmatella genome excluding any polar effects of the pykA disruption.
Levels of Bacterial Community Diversity in Four Arid Soils Compared by Cultivation and 16S rRNA Gene Cloning

ABSTRACT Techniques based on amplification of 16S rRNA genes for comparing bacterial communities are now widely used in microbial ecology, but calibration of these techniques with traditional tools, such as cultivation, has been conspicuously absent. In this study, we compared levels of bacterial community diversity in two pinyon rhizosphere soil samples and two between-tree (interspace) soil samples by analyzing 179 cultivated bacterial isolates and 801 16S rRNA genes amplified from extracted soil DNA. Phylotypes were defined by performing a restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences with the enzymes RsaI and BstUI. The average level of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of members of a phylotype was 86.6% based on an analysis of partial sequences. A total of 498 phylotypes were identified among the 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) clones, while 34 phylotypes occurred among the cultivated isolates. Analysis of sequences from a subset of the phylotypes showed that at least seven bacterial divisions were represented in the clone libraries, whereas the isolates represented only three. The phylotype richness, frequency distribution (evenness), and composition of the four culture collections and the four clone libraries were investigated by using a variety of diversity indices. Although cultivation and 16S rRNA cloning analyses gave contradictory descriptions of the relative phylotype richness for one of the four environments, the two methods identified qualitatively consistent relationships when levels of evenness were compared. The levels of phylotype similarity between communities were uniformly low (15 to 31%). Both methods consistently indicated that one environment was distinct from the other three. Our data illustrate that while 16S rDNA cloning and cultivation generally describe similar relationships between soil microbial communities, significant discrepancies can occur.
How Do Credit Rating Agencies Affect Relationship Lending?

Small businesses have long relied upon banks to produce sufficient information to be able to profitably lend to them. In recent years information production has also taken place among information service bureaus, such as Dun and Bradstreet (D&B). There has been some evidence to suggest that these information brokers have allowed small firms to break away from their lending relationships.In this paper, we present a model of how small business loans are analyzed, focusing on the information that is necessary to produce. Based on the insight from that model, we build a multinomial logistical regression model to estimate joint probabilities that a firm with at least one line of credit will fall into certain categories of D&B credit rating and secured/unsecured line of credit. From this multinomial logistic regression model, we derived conditional logistic regression, where the probability the line of credit is secured is conditioned upon the credit rating category.We find that the length of a relationship with the line of credit lender is only a significant predictor of collateral for firms with lower credit ratings, consistent with the theory that relationships are needed to overcome informational opacity. In fact, it appears from the set of logistic regressions run, that the significance of the length of the lending relationship to the granting of unsecured lines of credit reported in earlier research is driven solely by firms with lower credit ratings. The length of the relationship was not significant in assessing the probability of secured lines of credit for those with the highest credit rating.
Ibuprofen and acetaminophen: effect on muscle inflammation after eccentric exercise.

PURPOSE We examined the influence of ibuprofen and acetaminophen on muscle neutrophil and macrophage concentrations after novel eccentric contractions. METHODS Twenty-four males (25 +/- 3 yr) were divided into three groups that received the maximal over-the-counter dose of either ibuprofen (1200 mg x d-1), acetaminophen (4000 mg x d-1), or a placebo after eccentric contractions of the knee extensors. Biopsies from the vastus lateralis were taken before and 24 h after exercise. Inflammatory cells were quantified in muscle cross-sections using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS Macrophage concentrations were elevated by 1.5- to 2.5-fold (P < 0.05) at 24 h postexercise relative to preexercise concentrations, whereas neutrophil concentrations were not significantly elevated. Muscle inflammatory cell concentrations were unaffected by treatment with ibuprofen or acetaminophen when compared with placebo. CONCLUSIONS Maximal over-the-counter doses of ibuprofen or acetaminophen, when administered therapeutically, do not affect muscle concentrations of neutrophils or macrophages 24 h after a novel bout of eccentric contractions.
The Specificity of the Changes in the Lithuanian Health Tourism Services Industry

Purpose of the article: Even if the health tourism is one of the niche tourisms, it demonstrates successful growth comparing to the general tourism, other niches sectors, such as eco, medical, sport, adventure and other forms of tourism. The purpose is to disclose the specificity of the changes in the Lithuanian health tourism services industry comparing to the changes of the general tourism, what includes all kinds of tourism, including the health. Methodology/methods: Scientific literature analysis in order to disclose the coverage, specifics of the health tourism industry, and comparative statistical data analysis on the general and health tourism are done. Scientific aim: The article deals with the specificity of the health tourism services industry, its participators, value for the customer, distinguishing similar tourism subsectors, forms, trends in the development of health tourism in Lithuania. Findings: The results of the survey show the idiosyncrasy in the changings in the health tourism services industry in the Lithuanian market comparing to the general tourism. The amount of the health tourism services establishments is decreasing, as opposite to the number of general tourism. It is not bad trend for the health tourism, as the size of the establishment is growing. Incomes per health tourist are larger comparing to the general tourists, as health tourists stay shorter, but pay more. There are some changes also in the profile of the health tourism services customer. The evaluation of the health tourism services quality is also better than the general tourism at all. Conclusions: Findings show that here are some differences in the dynamics of analysed tourism forms. The health tourism becomes to be more concentrated; services centres are growing. The duration of the stay of the health tourist is shorter, but more profitable, and the quality is evaluated better comparing to the health tourism services used by Lithuanian tourists abroad. The positive future could be for attracting foreigners, who are looking for health services cheaper, quicker, as well as for better quality of the treatments and health procedures.
The Effects of "Me-model" Body-size Discrepancy on Young Korean Consumer's Shopping Mood, Store Satisfaction, and Intention to Revisit Online Apparel Stores

This study examined the effects of “me-model” body-size discrepancy on consumer's shopping mood, store satisfaction, and intention to revisit two types of online apparel stores (one featuring thin models and one featuring average-sized models). A convenience sample of women (n = 528) participated. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Participants who were thinner or similar to the models indicated positive shopping moods, a high level of online store satisfaction, and intended to revisit the stores when compared to participants who were larger than the models. Participants preferred the ‘average-sized’ model. This preference was attributed to the familiarity of the model and ability to effectively evaluate merchandise. The results revealed how models can influence apparel consumers in an online context.
Time-Resolved Broadband Cavity-Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy for Chemical Kinetics

Experimental measurements of elementary reaction rate coefficients and product branching ratios are essential to our understanding of many fundamentally important processes in Combustion Chemistry. However, such measurements are often impossible because of a lack of adequate detection techniques. Some of the largest gaps in our knowledge concern some of the most important radical species, because their short lifetimes and low steady-state concentrations make them particularly difficult to detect. To address this challenge, we propose a novel general detection method for gas-phase chemical kinetics: time-resolved broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (TR-BB-CEAS). This all-optical, non-intrusive, multiplexed method enables sensitive direct probing of transient reaction intermediates in a simple, inexpensive, and robust experimental package.
LTL Semantic Tableaux and Alternating ω-automata via Linear Factors

Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) is a widely used specification framework for linear time properties of systems. The standard approach for verifying such properties is by transforming LTL formulae to suitable $\omega$-automata and then applying model checking. We revisit Vardi's transformation of an LTL formula to an alternating $\omega$-automaton and Wolper's LTL tableau method for satisfiability checking. We observe that both constructions effectively rely on a decomposition of formulae into linear factors. Linear factors have been introduced previously by Antimirov in the context of regular expressions. We establish the notion of linear factors for LTL and verify essential properties such as expansion and finiteness. Our results shed new insights on the connection between the construction of alternating $\omega$-automata and semantic tableaux.
Activities of two dissimilar thioredoxins from the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120

Thioredoxin is a small redox protein that functions as a reducing agent and modulator of enzyme activity. A gene for an unusual thioredoxin was previously isolated from the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 and cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. However, the protein could not be detected in Anabaena cells (J. Alam, S. Curtis, F. K. Gleason, M. Gerami-Nejad, and J. A. Fuchs, J. Bacteriol. 171:162-171, 1989). Polyclonal antibodies to the atypical thioredoxin were prepared, and the protein was detected by Western immunoblotting. It occurs at very low levels in extracts of Anabaena sp. and other cyanobacteria. No antibody cross-reaction was observed in extracts of eukaryotic algae, plants, or eubacteria. The anti-Anabaena thioredoxin antibodies did react with another unusual thioredoxin-glutaredoxin produced by bacteriophage T4. Like the T4 protein and other glutaredoxins, the unusual cyanobacterial thioredoxin can be reduced by glutathione. The Anabaena protein can also activate enzymes of carbon metabolism and has some functional similarity to spinach chloroplast thioredoxin f. However, it shows only 23% amino acid sequence identity to the spinach chloroplast protein and appears to be distantly related to other thioredoxins. The data indicate that cyanobacteria, like plant chloroplasts, have two dissimilar thioredoxins. One is related to the more common protein found in other prokaryotes, and the other is an unusual thioredoxin that can be reduced by glutathione and may function in glucose catabolism.
Complex Ownership Structures and Accounting Conservatism

This study examines the use of accounting conservatism in firms with multiple controlling owners. In particular, we investigate the association between dispersion of cash-flow rights among controlling shareholders and accounting conservatism as well as how ownership type differences among controlling shareholders, family ownership, and legal institutions influence this association. Using a comprehensive, firm-level ownership dataset for thirteen Western European countries to conduct the empirical analysis, we find that: (1) dispersion of cash-flow rights across multiple large owners is positively associated with accounting conservatism; (2) the positive association between dispersion of cash-flow rights and accounting conservatism is more pronounced when controlling shareholders are of different types; (3) family ownership strengthens the positive association between dispersion of cash-flow rights and accounting conservatism; (4) the positive association between dispersion of cash-flow rights and accounting conservatism is more pronounced in countries with stronger legal institutions. This study contributes to the literature in a number of ways. First, this study highlights the importance of the second largest controlling shareholder in affecting the level of accounting conservatism. Second, this paper reinforces the important role played by ownership type differences among controlling shareholders in influencing the association between dispersion of cash-flow rights and accounting conservatism. Third, this paper strengthens the importance of family ownership in affecting agency problems between majority and minority shareholders. Fourth, this paper stresses the importance of legal institutions in influencing the installation of firm-level corporate governance mechanisms. Finally, the findings of this study have important implications for accounting standard setters attempting to eliminate conservatism in financial reports.
Signaling mechanism underlying α2A‐adrenergic suppression of excitatory synaptic transmission in the medial prefrontal cortex of rats

Stimulation of α2A‐adrenoceptors (ARs) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) produces a beneficial effect on cognitive functions such as working memory. A previous study in our laboratory showed that α2A‐AR stimulation suppresses excitatory synaptic transmission in layer V‐VI pyramidal cells of the rat medial PFC (mPFC). However, the intracellular mechanism underlying the α2A‐AR suppression remains unclear. In the present study, we recorded evoked excitatory postsynaptic current (eEPSC) in layer V‐VI pyramidal cells of the mPFC, using whole‐cell patch‐clamp recording. We found that the α2A‐AR agonist guanfacine significantly suppresses eEPSC in mPFC pyramidal cells. The α2A‐AR inhibition is mediated by the Gi‐cAMP‐PKA‐PP1‐CaMKII‐AMPAR signaling pathway, as such inhibition no longer exists when each step of this pathway is blocked with NF023, Rp‐cAMP, PKI5–24 or H89, tautomycin, and KN‐62 or KN‐93, respectively.
Susceptibility of Prostate Epithelial Cells to Chlamydia muridarum Infection and Their Role in Innate Immunity by Recruitment of Intracellular Toll-Like Receptors 4 and 2 and MyD88 to the Inclusion

ABSTRACT Although Chlamydia infections are widespread throughout the world, data about immunopathogenesis of genitourinary tract infections in males are very limited. In the present work we present an in vitro model of male genital tract-derived epithelial cells, more precisely prostate epithelial cells (PEC), to analyze if they are susceptible and able to respond to Chlamydia muridarum infection. Our results demonstrate that rat PEC are susceptible to C. muridarum infection and respond to this pathogen by up-regulating different proinflammatory cytokine and chemokine genes that could participate in the recruitment and local activation of immune cells, therefore influencing innate and adaptive immune responses during Chlamydia infection. Moreover, we analyzed the expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), TLR2, and related molecules on PEC and the effect of C. muridarum infection on their expression. Our results demonstrate that PEC express significant levels of TLR4, CD14, TLR2, and the adaptor molecule MyD88 and up-regulate these proteins in response to C. muridarum infection. Indeed, TLR4, CD14, TLR2, and the adaptor MyD88 are specifically recruited to the vicinity of the bacterial inclusion, suggesting that these TLRs are actively engaged in signaling from this intracellular location in these cells. This is, to our knowledge, the first time that an in vitro model of infection with Chlamydia of male tract-derived epithelial cells has been achieved, and it provides the opportunity to determine how these cells respond and participate in modulating innate and adaptive immune response during Chlamydia infections.
A monolithic 0.77W/mm2 power dense capacitive DC-DC step-down converter in 90nm Bulk CMOS

A fully integrated capacitive DC-DC converter reporting an output power of 1.65W in a standard 90nm Bulk CMOS process is realized. This converter implements a 2:1 voltage step-down conversion from twice the nominal technology supply voltage. Peak power conversion efficiency was measured to be 69%. The chip measures 2.14mm2 including 12nF implemented in standard available MOS capacitors. These baseline MOS capacitors, along with the introduced Flying Well approach and the Intrinsic Charge Recycling approach, result in a maximum power density of 0.77W/mm2. The converter is controllable through an on-chip voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) generating the clock signals for each of the 21 interleaved converter cores of this multiphase implementation. The implemented core interleaving allows for an output voltage ripple smaller than 8% of Vo without any dedicated output smoothing capacitor, saving die area and thus boosting the power density.
Foreign Ownership and Export Orientation: Evidence from Turkey

The aim of this study is to examine whether and how foreign ownership affects export orientation of large Turkish companies in alliance with the increasing internationalization trends. Empirical analysis is based on the annual data of industrial companies listed in the Istanbul Chamber of Industry for the period of 2003-2010. This study intends to contribute to the literature by i) presenting the static effects of foreign ownership on export orientation and by ii) introducing the dynamic nature of export orientation. Empirical results reveal significant positive effect of foreign ownership on export orientation. Findings prove the dynamic nature of the export orientation. Moreover, dynamic analyses confirm the findings of static analysis that foreign ownership has an effect on export orientation with a positive sign. Large Turkish companies seem to organize their ownership structures in favor of foreign ownership to strengthen their export oriented position. We believe that this finding will contribute to the improvement of corporate governance system and macro-economic dynamics of the country in the long-run.
Generating Czech Iambic Verse

In the paper, we describe an algorithm for generating Czech iambic verse and its implementation on a computer. It is a continuation of the work first done in 1972 [6], in which a program generating Czech iambic verse had been developed, written in the programming language Algol-Genius and run on the mainframe SAAB D21 with interesting results. Here, we present a new experiment which is a follow-up of the previous one and includes some new techniques as e.g. using a complete Czech automatic morphology (Majka) plus small DC grammar of Czech. The poetic rules built before 1972 by Jiˇri Levý are used with only slight modifications. SWI Prolog has been selected as a programming language. Also the resources are different, as a base for the poetic vocabulary we have decided to use the literary texts from Czech Wikisources.