Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flow cytometric investigation of peri‐anaesthetic anaphylaxis using CD63 and CD203c

The investigation of anaphylactic reactions in the peri‐operative period is difficult. Elevation of serum tryptase levels is a good indicator of an anaphylactic event but the ability of subsequent investigations to identify the drug(s) responsible for the reaction is still potentially unreliable. The aim of this study was to examine basophil activation as an investigative tool. We performed flow cytometric analysis of the expression on the cell surface of the basophil activation markers CD63 and CD203c and measured histamine release in 21 patients who were referred with possible peri‐operative anaphylaxis. The sensitivity of CD63, CD203c, basophil histamine release and skin prick for the muscle relaxants was found to be 79%, 36%, 36% and 64%, respectively; the specificity was found to be 100%. These results demonstrate the difficulty in investigating the cause of an unexpected clinical event following drug administration, but the higher sensitivity of neo‐expression on the cell surface of CD63 suggests that flow cytometric analysis of its neo‐expression on basophils in vitro may be a diagnostic aid.
Being gifted in Turkey: Educational and social experiences of high-ability students

This phenomenological study explored the educational and social experiences of eight gifted middle school students from Turkey. Data were collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that boredom and teacher ineffectiveness were among the most common problems that the participant students faced at school. The students also complained about the high-stakes tests that they believed were more anxiety-provoking than their worth. The students reported experiencing high levels of stress and burnout. The findings revealed that having high ability was not a handicap for developing good social relationships, but being labeled as gifted may lead to some negative outcomes based solely on the stigmatization. The overall findings suggested that the parents of these students were aware of their child’s unique needs. However, not all parents knew how to effectively respond to these needs.
ENDOTOXIN TOLERANCE ENHANCES INTERLEUKIN-10 RENAL EXPRESSION AND DECREASES ISCHEMIA-REPERFUSION RENAL INJURY IN RATS

ABSTRACT The potential implication of interleukin (IL) 6, tumor necrosis factor &agr; (TNF-&agr;), and IL-10 in the protective effect of low-dose lipopolysaccharide (LPS) administration against renal ischemia-reperfusion injury was evaluated in a rat model. Eighteen male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected intravenously with either 0.5 mg/kg of LPS (tolerant group) or saline (control group) 2 days before surgery. Ischemic renal injury was induced by clamping the left renal artery for 60 min on rats immediately after right-side nephrectomy. Reperfusion was obtained by clamp removal and was studied at R0 (no reperfusion), 2H (R2), and 24H (R24) by renal tubular disorder characterization and by plasma creatinine as well as renal cytokine (IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-&agr;) studies. No differences were observed between the two groups as concerns the period immediately after renal ischemia (R0). The endotoxin-tolerant group was associated with a significantly lower creatinine level at R24 (231 ± 28 vs 315 ± 36 &mgr;mol/L; P = 0.007). Pretreatment with LPS significantly reduced the degree of proximal tubule necrosis and outer medulla congestion. In such tolerant animals, renal IL-6 production was decreased, whereas IL-10 production was significantly increased at R2 and R24. There were no differences in TNF-&agr; renal production. In this study, we demonstrated that administration of low doses of LPS to rats had a protective effect from renal reperfusion injury, and our data suggest that IL-10 might play a role in this phenomenon.
Evidence that peroxiredoxins are novel members of the thioredoxin fold superfamily

Peroxiredoxins catalyze reduction of hydrogen peroxide or alkyl peroxide, to water or the corresponding alcohol. Detailed analysis of their sequences indicates that these enzymes possess a thioredoxin (Trx)‐like fold and consequently are homologues of both thioredoxin and glutathione peroxidase (GPx). Sequence‐ and structure‐based multiple sequence alignments indicate that the peroxiredoxin active site cysteine and GPx active site selenocysteine are structurally equivalent. Homologous peroxiredoxin and GPx enzymes are predicted to catalyze equivalent reactions via similar reaction intermediates.
Evolution of an acylase active on cephalosporin C

Semisynthetic cephalosporins are synthesized from 7‐amino cephalosporanic acid, which is produced by chemical deacylation or by a two‐step enzymatic process of the natural antibiotic cephalosporin C. The known acylases take glutaryl‐7‐amino cephalosporanic acid as a primary substrate, and their specificity and activity are too low for cephalosporin C. Starting from a known glutaryl‐7‐amino cephalosporanic acid acylase as the protein scaffold, an acylase gene optimized for expression in Escherichia coli and for molecular biology manipulations was designed. Subsequently we used error‐prone PCR mutagenesis, a molecular modeling approach combined with site‐saturation mutagenesis, and site‐directed mutagenesis to produce enzymes with a cephalosporin C/glutaryl‐7‐amino cephalosporanic acid catalytic efficiency that was increased up to 100‐fold, and with a significant and higher maximal activity on cephalosporin C as compared to glutaryl‐7‐amino cephalosporanic acid (e.g., 3.8 vs. 2.7 U/mg protein, respectively, for the A215Y‐H296S‐H309S mutant). Our data in a bioreactor indicate an ∼90% conversion of cephalosporin C to 7‐amino‐cephalosporanic acid in a single deacylation step. The evolved acylase variants we produced are enzymes with a new substrate specificity, not found in nature, and represent a hallmark for industrial production of 7‐amino cephalosporanic acid.
Wireless optical data transfer in underwater systems

We present wireless optical communication system for data transfer in the underwater networks. We use the optical channel to facilitate the communication link in free space and under water. This work bypasses the limitations involved in the use of electromagnetic waves and acoustics for free space and underwater communication. The system shows that optical communication using light can be a viable solution for underwater data transmission applications that requires high data rate at the moderate distances. We have designed, implemented and tested our system in real time and provide the evaluations results.
National Household Survey on Drug Abuse to Include Mental Health Data

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), the primary source of statistical information on Americans' use of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs, will be expanded in upcoming years to include substantial information on mental illness and state-level data on drug abuse, according to Nelba Chavez, Ph.D., administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Indoor Mold, Toxigenic Fungi, and Stachybotrys chartarum: Infectious Disease Perspective

SUMMARY Damp buildings often have a moldy smell or obvious mold growth; some molds are human pathogens. This has caused concern regarding health effects of moldy indoor environments and has resulted in many studies of moisture- and mold-damaged buildings. Recently, there have been reports of severe illness as a result of indoor mold exposure, particularly due to Stachybotrys chartarum. While many authors describe a direct relationship between fungal contamination and illness, close examination of the literature reveals a confusing picture. Here, we review the evidence regarding indoor mold exposure and mycotoxicosis, with an emphasis on S. chartarum. We also examine possible end-organ effects, including pulmonary, immunologic, neurologic, and oncologic disorders. We discuss the Cleveland infant idiopathic pulmonary hemorrhage reports in detail, since they provided important impetus for concerns about Stachybotrys. Some valid concerns exist regarding the relationship between indoor mold exposure and human disease. Review of the literature reveals certain fungus-disease associations in humans, including ergotism (Claviceps species), alimentary toxic aleukia (Fusarium), and liver disease (Aspergillys). While many papers suggest a similar relationship between Stachybotrys and human disease, the studies nearly uniformly suffer from significant methodological flaws, making their findings inconclusive. As a result, we have not found well-substantiated supportive evidence of serious illness due to Stachybotrys exposure in the contemporary environment. To address issues of indoor mold-related illness, there is an urgent need for studies using objective markers of illness, relevant animal models, proper epidemiologic techniques, and examination of confounding factors.
Design of Data Center Environmental Monitoring System Based On Lower Hardware Cost

Environmental downtime produces a significant cost to organizations and makes them unable to do business because what happens in the data center affects everyone. In addition, the amount of electrical energy consumed by data centers increases with the amount of computing power installed. Installation of physical Information Technology and facilities related to environmental concerns, such as monitoring temperature, humidity, power, flood, smoke, air flow, and room entry, is the most proactive way to reduce the unnecessary costs of expensive hardware replacement or unplanned downtime and decrease energy consumed by servers. In this paper, we present remote system for monitoring datacenter implementing using open-source hardware platforms; Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and the Gobetwino. The sensed data displayed through Arduino are transferred using Gobetwino to the nearest host server such as temperature, humidity and distance every time an object hitting another object or a person coming in entrance. The raspberry Pi records the sensed data at the remote location. The objective of collecting temperature and humidity data allows monitoring of the server’s health and getting alerts if things start to go wrong. When the temperature hits 50 o C, the supervisor at remote headquarters would get a SMS, and then they would take appropriate actions to reduce electrical costs and preserve functionality of servers in data centers.
Theories of Regulation: Incorporating the Administrative Process

Several important theories of regulation, perhaps especially those developed by economists and political scientists, fail to incorporate any well developed vision of the administrative process -- that is, of administrative law and practice. Instead, scholars writing on the political economy of regulation routinely generalize on a plane of abstraction far above the administrative process, typically taking regulatory outcomes to be explicable by reference to legislative behavior. Yet of course particularized regulatory decisions are almost always made by agencies, not legislators, in view of which fact any serious theory of regulation at least implies some theory of administration. This article takes one step toward bridging a gap between theoretical work on regulation, on the one hand, and legal-doctrinal work on the administrative process, on the other. It first shows that no existing theory of regulation provides either a satisfying explanation of regulatory decisionmaking or a reliable means of predicting regulatory outcomes; treating the administrative state as a black box yields little. It furthermore paves the way for future refinement of existing theories by generating a set of administrative-process expectations for each theory under consideration, and then 'testing' the theories against what is currently known about legal-process rules and participation in agency-level regulatory decisionmaking.
A wide band tuning system for fully integrated satellite receivers

The building blocks for a low power tuning system that reduces the phase noise of integrated VCO's are described. The multi-modulus prescaler, the phase frequency detector and the wide band charge pump were integrated in a standard bipolar technology with 9 GHz npn-transistors and 200 MHz pnp-transistors. The maximum input frequency of the multi-modulus prescaler is 3 GHz, the maximum reference frequency of the phase frequency detector is 380 MHz and the -3 dB bandwidth of the charge pump is 41 MHz at a reference frequency of 300 MHz. The achieved performance enables use of noisy integrated VCO's for reception of satellite digital signals.
Studies on Majoon Aarad Khurma and its Granules Prepared with Stevia, with Reference to the Standardization and Toxicity Evaluation

There is a huge treasure of Compound drugs described in various pharmacopoeias that have developed as a result of painstaking and cumulative efforts of elite scholars of Unani medicine. However, there has always been scope for inclusion of new compound drugs whose safety and efficacy has been proved scientifically. Majoon Aarad Khurma which is widely used as an effective aphrodisiac is prepared with sugar as base. It is contraindicated in diabetic patients who are suffering from sexual dysfunctions. Preparation of medicines which are sugar free should be innovated or designed to meet the demand of the diabetic patients. Therefore the present study is aimed to develop granules of Majoon Aarad Khurma with natural sweetening agent Stevia rebaudiana. Granules are more convenient and comfortable in usage and dispensing. Granules uphold the same principles and maintain the same characteristics as traditional dosage forms, granules are safe, light, efficacious, stable and quality controlled.
Effects of aflatoxin B1 on oxidative stress markers and apoptosis of spleens in broilers

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the oxidative damage and apoptosis induced by aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in spleen of broilers. A total of 200 one-day-old avian male broilers were randomly divided into 4 equal groups of 50 each and were fed for 21 days as follows: a control diet and three AFB1 diets containing 0.15, 0.3, and 0.6 mg AFB1/kg diet. Consumption of AFB1 diets induced oxidative stress in the spleen of chicken as evidenced by reduced glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and catalase activities, decreased glutathione contents, and increased malondialdehyde contents in explaining the pathogenesis. Flow cytometer method and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end-labeling assay revealed that the apoptotic splenocytes were increased in AFB1 groups. The results suggest that AFB1 induced excessive apoptosis of splenic lymphocytes, which is correlated with increased oxidative stress. The present results may be helpful for explaining the pathogenesis of AFB1-induced immunosuppression.
Artifact suppression in imaging of myocardial infarction using B1‐weighted phased‐array combined phase‐sensitive inversion recovery †

Regions of the body with long T1, such as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), may create ghost artifacts on gadolinium‐hyperenhanced images of myocardial infarction when inversion recovery (IR) sequences are used with a segmented acquisition. Oscillations in the transient approach to steady state for regions with long T1 may cause ghosts, with the number of ghosts being equal to the number of segments. B1‐weighted phased‐array combining provides an inherent degree of ghost artifact suppression because the ghost artifact is weighted less than the desired signal intensity by the coil sensitivity profiles. Example images are shown that illustrate the suppression of CSF ghost artifacts by the use of B1‐weighted phased‐array combining of multiple receiver coils. Magn Reson Med 51:408–412, 2004. Published 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Platelet‐rich plasma enhances the initial mobilization of circulation‐derived cells for tendon healing

Circulation‐derived cells play a crucial role in the healing processes of tissue. In early phases of tendon healing processes, circulation‐derived cells temporarily exist in the wounded area to initiate the healing process and decrease in number with time. We assumed that a delay of time‐dependent decrease in circulation‐derived cells could improve the healing of tendons. In this study, we injected platelet‐rich plasma (PRP) containing various kinds of growth factors into the wounded area of the patellar tendon, and compared the effects on activation of circulation‐derived cells and enhancement of tendon healing with a control group (no PRP injection). To follow the circulation‐derived cells, we used a green fluorescent protein (GFP) chimeric rat expressing GFP in the circulating cells and bone marrow cells. In the PRP group, the numbers of GFP‐positive cells and heat‐shock protein (HSP47; collagen‐specific molecular chaperone)‐positive cells were significantly higher than in the control group at 3 and 7 days after injury. At the same time, the immunoreactivity for types I and III collagen was higher in the PRP group than in the control group at early phase of tendon healing. These findings suggest that locally injected PRP is useful as an activator of circulation‐derived cells for enhancement of the initial tendon healing process. J. Cell. Physiol. 215: 837–845, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Uterine Histotroph and Conceptus Development. I. Cooperative Effects of Arginine and Secreted Phosphoprotein 1 on Proliferation of Ovine Trophectoderm Cells via Activation of the PDK1-Akt/PKB-TSC2-MTORC1 Signaling Cascade1

ABSTRACT The greatest limitation to reproductive performance in most mammals, including humans, is embryonic mortality, which, in general, claims 20%–40% of the embryos during the peri-implantation period of pregnancy. Both arginine and secreted phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1) are multifunctional molecules that increase significantly in ovine uterine histotroph during early pregnancy. However, little is known about the relationship and underlying mechanisms for synergistic effects of arginine and SPP1, if any, on conceptus (embryo/fetus and associated extraembryonic membranes) development. Therefore, we conducted in vitro experiments using our established ovine trophectoderm cell line (oTr1) isolated from Day 15 ovine conceptuses to determine their proliferative response to individual and synergistic effects of arginine and recombinant SPP1 (rSPP1) that contains an RGD binding sequence. At physiological concentrations, arginine (0.2 mM) stimulated oTr1 cell proliferation 1.7-fold (P < 0.05) at 48 h, whereas rSPP1 (10 ng/ml) had no such effect. However, an additive effect on oTr1 cell proliferation was induced by combination of arginine and SPP1 as compared to the control (2.1-fold increase; P < 0.01), arginine alone (1.3-fold increase; P < 0.05), and rSPP1 alone (1.5-fold increase; P < 0.01). This additive effect was mediated through cooperative activation of the PDK1-Akt/PKB-TSC2-MTORC1 cell signaling cascade. Collectively, results suggest that arginine and SPP1 in histotroph act cooperatively to enhance survival, growth, and development of ovine conceptuses.
Automatic registration method for distant ship infrared and visible image

Because the poor photography conditions and the far distance to target ship, the target information and features which could be extracted from the infrared and visible images were so weak that the conventional image registration methods were difficult to take effect on the registration for distant ship infrared and visible image. To solve the problem, this paper presents a sensors' parameters based infrared and visible image registration method. Firstly, the infrared and visible images are registered in spatial resolution on the basis of sensors' parameters. Secondly, a rough shift registration is performed by taking the ship target's contour centre point in infrared and visible image as the matching points. Lastly, on the basis of rough registration, an accurate shift registration is performed by using the maximization of mutual information (MMI) technique. The experimental results proved that the proposed method is feasible and effective. It can be used in the actual registration for distant ship infrared and visible image.
Depth and image focus enhancement for digital cameras

Mostly, Shape From Focus (SFF) algorithms use local averaging using a fixed rectangle window to enhance the initial focus volume. In this linear filtering, the window size largely affects the accuracy of the depth map. A small window is unable to suppress the noise properly while a large window over smoothes the object shape. Moreover, the use of any window size smoothes focus values uniformly. Consequently, an erroneous depth map is obtained. In this paper, we suggest the use of iterative 3D Anisotropic Nonlinear Diffusion (AND) to enhance the image focus volume. In contrast to the linear filtering, AND utilizes the local structure of the focus values to suppress the noise while preserving edges. The proposed scheme is tested using image sequences of synthetic and real objects and results have demonstrated its effectiveness.
Family Shocks and Academic Achievement

Disruptions in family life can take many forms, but all have the potential to impact student learning. With school administrative data matched to birth records, I estimate the effect of unexpected changes in the home environment, or family shocks, on achievement. Identification comes from siblings observed in the same year. I find that family shocks are at least as important as teacher assignment for student learning. Furthermore, they have a relatively larger impact on students from affluent families; time use evidence indicates that this is likely because affluent parents are more involved in their children's learning.
Design and implementation of a test bed for building controls

Advanced controls play an essential role toward the improvement of building operational efficiency and the integration of responsive loads in buildings for grid services. Ideally, control algorithms must be sufficiently tested and validated before they are applied on real systems. This paper presents the development and current state of such an evolving test bed to support and enable experiments on advanced controls for buildings. The test bed presented in this paper consists of nine operating buildings—which possess various types of equipment and systems having different control systems and communication mechanisms (e.g., media and protocols) used in building automation systems—on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory campus. The test bed architecture is developed in such a way that (1) it supports interactions among the buildings and heterogeneous building components and systems, including both virtual and physical devices, e.g., heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning and lighting systems; (2) it can be easily reconfigured for different control topologies and methodologies, e.g., centralized and distributed; (3) it allows selection of communication protocols, communication media, and computation resources; and (4) it is part of a larger cyber-physical test bed that includes both physical and virtual assets on distributed renewable generation, energy storage, and power system assets. Practical application : The test bed presented in this paper can be used by industry to develop and evaluate the performance of advanced control algorithms on real systems for buildings and buildings-to-grid applications. This provides practitioners an opportunity to test the applications and modify them accordingly based on their use cases and selection criteria, e.g., a controller modulating the temperature in a hospital will have different criterion as compared to an office building.