Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accessing osteocyte lacunar geometrical properties in human jaw bone on the submicron length scale using synchrotron radiation μCT

The architectural properties of the osteocyte cell network provide a valuable basis for understanding the mechanisms of bone remodelling, mineral homeostasis, ageing and pathologies. Recent advances in synchrotron microtomography enable unprecedented three‐dimensional imaging of both the bone lacunar network and the extracellular matrix. Here, we investigate the three‐dimensional morphological properties of osteocyte lacunae in human healthy and bisphosphonate‐related osteonecrotic jaw bone based on synchrotron X‐ray computed tomography images, with a spatial isotropic voxel size of 300 nm. Bisphosphonate‐related osteonecrosis of the jaw is a relatively new disease with increasing incidence, which remains poorly understood. A step forward in elucidating this malady is to assess whether, and how, the morphology of the osteocyte lacunar network is modified in the affected jaw tissue. We evaluate thousands of cell lacunae from five specimens of which three originate from patients diagnosed with bisphosphonate‐associated osteonecrosis. In this exploratory study, we report three‐dimensional quantitative results on lacunar volumes (296–502 μm3), shape (approximated by an ellipsoidal shape with principal axes a > b > c, such that a = 2.2b and a = 4c) and spatial distribution (i.e., 50% of the mineralized matrix volume is located within 12 μm to the closest lacunar boundary) at submicron resolution on such specimens. We observe that the average lacunar volumes of the bisphosphonate‐related osteonecrotic jaw specimens were within the range of volumes found in the two specimens originating from healthy donors and conclude that lacunar volumes are not the key element in the course of bisphosphonate‐related osteonecrotic jaw. In three out of five specimens we observe lacunar volume sizes in segmented osteons to be significantly different compared to lacunar volumes in the adjacent tissue regions. Furthermore, we quantify the number of lacunae containing small dense objects (on average 9%). In contrast to lacunar morphology we report the lacunar density (16 000–50 000 per mm3) to be different in jaw bone tissue compared to what has been reported in femoral sites.
Ion-Energy Plume Diagnostics on the BHT-600 Hall Thruster Cluster

E LECTRIC propulsion (EP) offers power-efficient, high specific impulse (Isp) options for deep-space missions as well as stationkeeping, orbital transfer, and attitude control requirements for nearEarth spacecraft. Hall thrusters are a type of EP system that uses electric and magnetic fields to produce thrust. Currently, midpower Hall thrusters achieve specific impulses between 1500–2500 s and electrical power efficiencies between 50–60% [1]. For high-powered engines being developed in the near future, plume characterization is imperative for determining their effect on spacecraft systems. Plasma transport properties, ionic charge state, and ion energy distributions are also important for understanding howHall thrusters work and for improving their performance [2]. One technique for determining the energy-to-charge distribution of plasma is to use an electrostatic analyzer [3]. A specific geometry for the electrostatic analyzer, which allows for a wide field of view, is the top-hat analyzer [4]. This electrostatic analyzer consists of a sphere and a concentric shell with an aperture at the apex of the outer shell. The inner sphere is set to a specific voltage to allow for a narrow energy band of particles to pass through the aperture. By virtue of its geometry, the top-hat analyzer is capable of having a wide azimuthal field of view. Steering electric fields above the aperture allow for a field of view in the vertical direction as well. The damaging effect of high-energy plasma exhaust particles on spacecraft surfaces has driven efforts in Hall thruster plume characterization. Electrostatic analyzers are capable of measuring ion energy-to-charge distributions and angular trajectories of plasma exhaust particles, therefore, they are particularly well suited for Hall thruster plume diagnostics. Unlike a retarding potential analyzer (RPA), the current profile does not require differentiation [5], which induces increased inaccuracies, and the energy-per-charge distribution is directly measured. The true charge state of the measured ions remains unknown; however, previous measurements on anode layer type Hall thruster plumes reveal a majority of plume ions are singularly charged [2].
Individual and network interventions with injection drug users in 5 Ukraine cities.

OBJECTIVES We evaluated the effects of an individual intervention versus a network intervention on HIV-related injection and sexual risk behaviors among street-recruited opiate injection drug users in 5 Ukraine cities. METHODS Between 2004 and 2006, 722 opiate injection drug users were recruited to participate in interventions that were either individually based or based on a social network model in which peer educators intervened with their network members. Audio computer-assisted self-interview techniques were used to interview participants at baseline and follow-up. RESULTS Multiple logistic analyses controlling for baseline injection and sexual risks revealed that both peer educators and network members in the network intervention reduced injection-related risk behaviors significantly more than did those in the individually based intervention and that peer educators increased condom use significantly more than did those in the individual intervention. Individual intervention participants, however, showed significantly greater improvements than did network members with respect to reductions in sexual risk behaviors. CONCLUSIONS Social network interventions may be more effective than individually based interventions in changing injection risk behaviors among both peer educators and network members. The effectiveness of network interventions in changing sexual risk behaviors is less clear, probably owing to network composition and inhibitions regarding discussing sexual risk behaviors.
Pure Operation-Based Replicated Data Types

Distributed systems designed to serve clients across the world often make use of geo-replication to attain low latency and high availability. Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) allow the design of predictable multi-master replication and support eventual consistency of replicas that are allowed to transiently diverge. CRDTs come in two flavors: state-based, where a state is changed locally and shipped and merged into other replicas; operation-based, where operations are issued locally and reliably causal broadcast to all other replicas. However, the standard definition of op-based CRDTs is very encompassing, allowing even sending the full-state, and thus imposing storage and dissemination overheads as well as blurring the distinction from state-based CRDTs. We introduce pure op-based CRDTs, that can only send operations to other replicas, drawing a clear distinction from state-based ones. Data types with commutative operations can be trivially implemented as pure op-based CRDTs using standard reliable causal delivery; whereas data types having non-commutative operations are implemented using a PO-Log, a partially ordered log of operations, and making use of an extended API, i.e., a Tagged Causal Stable Broadcast (TCSB), that provides extra causality information upon delivery and later informs when delivered messages become causally stable, allowing further PO-Log compaction. The framework is illustrated by a catalog of pure op-based specifications for classic CRDTs, including counters, multi-value registers, add-wins and remove-wins sets.
Promoting Gateway Course Success: Scaling Corequisite Academic Support.

New research revealing the underlying causes of low success rates for remedial education students has led to promising new models that have resulted in dramatic increases in student success. At the heart of the new research and improved practice is the realization that placing students into multi-­‐semester, non-­‐credit remedial course sequences as a pre-­‐requisite to enrollment in college-­‐level gateway courses results in most students leaking out of the system and never making it to a college gateway course. In addition, research has also revealed that assessment and placement practices at many colleges result in many college-­‐ready students being placed into remedial courses. Consequently, innovators have found great success with models that place significantly more students directly into college-­‐level courses and provide them additional academic support as a corequisite.
Characterization of the heme and pyridoxal phosphate cofactors of human cystathionine beta-synthase reveals nonequivalent active sites

Cystathionine β-synthase is an unusual enzyme that requires the cofactors heme and pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) to catalyze the condensation of homocysteine and serine to generate cystathionine. This transsulfuration reaction represents one of two major cellular routes for detoxification of homocysteine, which is a risk factor for atherosclerosis. While the β-replacement reaction catalyzed by this enzyme suggests a role for the pyridoxal phosphate, the role of the heme is uncertain. In this study we have examined the effect of changing one of the ligands to the heme on the activity of the enzyme. Binding of carbon monooxide results in the displacement of a thiolate ligand to the ferrous heme, and is accompanied by complete loss of cystathionine β-synthase activity. Furthermore, inhibition by CO is competitive with respect to homocysteine, providing the first indication that the homocysteine binding site is in the proximity of heme. Binding of both CO and cyanide to ferrous cystathionine β-synthase occurs in .
Battle Rope Conditioning

This column provides an analysis of the proper technique for battle rope conditioning. Specific musculature involvement, benefits of battle rope training, exercise technique, as well as advanced and beginning progressions are discussed. This dynamic movement is designed to improve cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, endurance, and power. Specific variations for battle rope conditioning can provide various benefits to athletes such as enhancing sport-specific movements, increasing grip strength, and addressing unilateral deficits. Thus, the implementation of battle rope conditioning for an exercise regimen should be considered.
Acquired hypernatraemia is an independent predictor of mortality in critically ill patients

This study reports the incidence and associated mortality of acquired hypernatraemia (Na > 150 mmol.l−1) in a general medical/surgical intensive care unit. Patients admitted over a 5‐year period with normal sodium values were eligible for inclusion; exclusions were made for burn/neurosurgical diagnoses and for hypertonic saline therapy. From 3475 admissions (3317 patients), 266 (7.7%) episodes of hypernatraemia were observed. Hospital mortality was 33.5% in the hypernatraemic group and 7.7% in the normonatraemic group (p < 0.001). Acquired hypernatraemia was an independent risk factor for in‐hospital mortality (OR 1.97, 95% CI 1.37–2.82, p < 0.001). Intermediate sodium levels (145–150 mmol.l−1) were associated with increased mortality (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.02–1.98). Uncorrected sodium at discharge (p = 0.001) and peak sodium (p = 0.001) were better predictors of mortality than time to onset (p = 0.71) and duration of hypernatraemia (p = 1.0). Hypernatraemia avoidance is justified, but determinants of hypernatraemia and benefits of targeted treatment strategies require further elucidation.
Changes in the Protein Composition of the Shoot Apical Bud of Sinapis alba in Transition to Flowering

Vegetative plants of Sinapis alba L. grown in short days were induced to flower by expsoure to one or continuous long days. In both inductive conditions, the first flowers were initiated about 60 h after the start of the treatment. Soluble protein extracts were prepared from apical buds and just-expanded leaves of both vegetative and induced plants. Rabbit antisera were prepared using extracts from vegetative and reproductive buds. Immunodiffusion tests were performed. Analysis of the precipitin bands indicated that: (1) one antigenic protein was present in the vegetative buds and disappeared from the buds of induced plants between 96 and 240 h after the start of the inductive treatment; (2) the concentration of a another antigenic protein increased in buds of induced plants 30 h after the start of the inductive treatment; (3) the concentration of a third antigenic protein increased in buds of induced plants at 96 h.
Human antibody response to outer membrane proteins of Campylobacter jejuni during infection

Two techniques were used to isolate outer membrane proteins from Campylobacter jejuni, EDTA-lysozyme extraction and sodium-N-lauroylsarcosinate (Sarkosyl) solubilization. The protein profiles of the two preparations were similar, with a few additional bands in the EDTA-lysozyme preparations. The major outer membrane protein was 43,000 (43K) daltons, and there were 8 to 10 minor bands ranging from 92K to 14K daltons. There was no difference in the protein profile of a strain causing an infection (strain 17) and the resulting stool isolate (strain 17J). Sera collected before the infection and during the acute and convalescent stages were used with Western blotting and immunoautoradiographic techniques to determine the antigenicity of outer membrane proteins. A number of antigenic proteins were detected before the infection by their reaction with preinfection serum (61K, 51K, 43K, 40K, 34K, and 31K daltons), and three additional bands appeared during the infection when acute and convalescent sera were used (92K, 56K, and 19K daltons). Furthermore, an area of the gel at less than 14.4K daltons that did not stain with Coomassie brilliant blue became visible in the immune blots when the convalescent serum was used.
One Theoretical Framework for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Women

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality for women in the United States. Vulnerable and underserved women are even less likely to participate in healthy lifestyle behaviors to prevent CVD than the general US population. Many women are not aware that they are at risk for CVD and do not modify unhealthy lifestyle behaviors to reduce their risks for CVD. Healthcare providers may not promote awareness of CVD or consistently counsel female patients concerning lifestyle behavior modifications to reduce their risks for CVD. “The Evidence-Based Guidelines for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Women 2011 Update: A Guideline From the American Heart Association” provides a guide for healthcare providers to help women lower their risk for heart disease. By using a theoretical approach, nurses can facilitate implementation of these evidence-based guidelines to help women reduce their risks for CVD. Commonly used intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational- and community-level health behavior change theories that can be used to effectively promote CVD risk reduction in women will be discussed. The theoretical basis for changing CVD risk behaviors in women can be applied by using the PRECEDE-PROCEED Model to guide planning, implementing, and evaluating health behavior programs. The purpose of this article was to help nurses improve healthcare delivery by using the PRECEDE-PROCEED Model as a theoretical framework to guide CVD risk reduction efforts for women.
Use of pollution‐induced community tolerance of the bacterial community to detect phenol toxicity in soil

Pollution‐induced community tolerance (PICT) was used to study effects of phenol on soil bacteria. Phenol was added to an agricultural soil in a microcosm experiment. The effects were studied for up to four months. Bacterial growth rates were estimated with the leucine incorporation technique. This technique was also used as detection method for PICT. Changes in community structure were studied using the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) pattern. Increased phenol PICT of the bacterial community was found at phenol concentrations above 1 μmol/g wet weight soil. Direct inhibiting effect on bacterial growth rates 1 d after adding phenol was correlated to PICT. Phenol toxicity was reflected by changes in the structure of the bacterial community, although PICT appeared more sensitive than the PLFA method. In soil amended with 1 to 10 μmol phenol/g soil, bacterial growth recovered within one week. In the soil amended with the highest phenol concentration (30 μmol/g soil), bacterial growth rate recovered from total inhibition after 27 d, eventually reaching values six times higher than in the control. However, PICT did not change during the four months the experiment was performed. The specificity of PICT was also studied by examining cotolerance to 2‐chlorophenol, 2,4‐dichlorophenol, 2,3,6‐trichlorophenol, Cu, and Zn. Adding phenol induced cotolerance of the bacterial community to the other phenols, although always at a lover level than to phenol. No cotolerance was found to metals in phenol‐polluted soil. We conclude that the PICT concept is a valuable tool in determining phenol toxicity to bacterial communities, especially in situations where bacterial growth has recovered. Cotolerance between different phenols can, however, make interpretations of PICT more complicated.
A Markov chain model-based method for cancer classification

In this paper, we propose a Markov chain model (MCM)-based method for cancer classification. By viewing a gene chain extracted from a gene pathway map as a gene Markov chain (GMC), the method can construct a MCM for different cancer classes. The resulted MCM captures the co-activity pattern of genes in terms of an initial state distribution and a state transition probability matrix. When used for cancer classification, the method first calculates the respective probabilities of a test sample belonging to different cancer classes according to the corresponding MCM, and then predicts the class of the sample as the one with the highest probability. We evaluate the proposed method on the publicly available leukemia dataset and compare it with several conventional methods.
Complete Genome Sequence of Streptococcus thermophilus SMQ-301, a Model Strain for Phage-Host Interactions

ABSTRACT Streptococcus thermophilus is used by the dairy industry to manufacture yogurt and several cheeses. Using PacBio and Illumina platforms, we sequenced the genome of S. thermophilus SMQ-301, the host of several virulent phages. The genome is composed of 1,861,792 bp and contains 2,037 genes, 67 tRNAs, and 18 rRNAs.
Household food waste to wastewater or to solid waste? That is the question

Decision makers need sound analyses of economic and environmental impacts of options for managing household food waste. Food waste impacts public health (it rots, smells, and attracts rodents) and costs (it drives collection frequency). A life cycle inventory is used to quantify total materials, energy, costs and environmental flows for three municipal solid waste systems (collection followed by compost, waste-to-energy or landfill) and two wastewater systems (kitchen food waste disposer followed by rural on-site or municipal wastewater treatment) for food waste management. Inventory parameters are expressed per 100 kg of food waste (wet weight) to place data on a normalised basis for comparison. System boundaries include acquisition, use and decommissioning. Parameters include inputs (land, materials, water) and output emissions to air, water and land. Parameters are ranked simply from high to low. Ranking highest overall was the rural wastewater system, which has a high amount of food waste and carrier water relative to the total throughput over its design life. Waste-to-energy was second; burning food waste yields little exportable energy and is costly. Next, municipal wastewater tied with landfill. Municipal wastewater is low for land, material, energy and cost, but is highest for food waste by-product (sludge). Landfill ranks low for air emissions and cost. Compost ranks lowest; it has the lowest material and water inputs and generates the least waste-water and waterborne waste.
The Volatile Anesthetic Isoflurane Prevents Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury via Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase/Akt Signaling in Mice

BACKGROUND: Mechanical ventilation leads to ventilator-induced lung injury in animals, and can contribute to acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome in humans. Acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome currently causes an unacceptably high rate of morbidity and mortality among critically ill patients. Volatile anesthetics have been shown to exert anti-inflammatory and organ-protective effects in vivo. We investigated the effects of the volatile anesthetic isoflurane on lung injury during mechanical ventilation. METHODS: C57BL/6N mice were ventilated with a tidal volume of 12 mL/kg body weight for 6 hours in the absence or presence of isoflurane, and, in a second series, with or without the specific phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt inhibitor LY294002. Lung injury was determined by comparative histology, and by the isolation of bronchoalveolar lavage for differential cell counting and analysis of cytokine levels using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Lung homogenates were analyzed for protein expression by Western blotting. RESULTS: Mechanical ventilation caused increases in alveolar wall thickening, cellular infiltration, and an elevated ventilator-induced lung injury score. Neutrophil influx and cytokine (i.e., interleukin-1&bgr;, and macrophage inflammatory protein-2) release were enhanced in the bronchoalveolar lavage of ventilated mice. The expression levels of the stress proteins hemeoxygenase-1 and heat shock protein-70 were elevated in lung tissue homogenates. Isoflurane ventilation significantly reduced lung damage, inflammation, and stress protein expression. In contrast, phosphorylation of Akt protein was substantially increased during mechanical ventilation with isoflurane. Inhibition of phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt signaling before mechanical ventilation completely reversed the lung-protective effects of isoflurane treatment in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: Inhalation of isoflurane during mechanical ventilation protects against lung injury by preventing proinflammatory responses. This protection is mediated via phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt signaling.
Monetary Policy, Data Uncertainty and the Supply Side: Living with the Statistical Fog

Economic statistics are often only an approximation of the underlying reality they are attempting to measure. Official statistics, especially in timely first releases, can be subject to significant uncertainty and revision. In this speech, Marian Bell, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, looks at the various ways in which data uncertainty might arise and discusses how policymakers should respond. A particular difficulty for statisticians can be the allocation of movements in nominal variables to changes in prices and volumes. Such uncertainty is high when the structure of the economy and relative prices change significantly. In such circumstances, looking at a money value measure of activity may be informative. Moreover, estimated levels of real activity appear more prone to revision than growth rates, so we should be wary of conventional, mechanical estimates of the output gap, which rely heavily on information on the level of activity. Ms Bell concludes that revisions to data stemming either from more information or methodological improvements will inevitably lead us to reassess our view of the underlying truth. Improvements to statistics are to be welcomed, and understanding the nature of data uncertainty and revisions should inform our judgements about the state of the world.